Karijini Western Australia Australia

Stunning Karijini

Karijini National Park protects many different wildlife habitats, landscapes, plants and animals of the Pilbara. Wildflowers vary with the seasons. In the cooler months the land is covered with yellow-flowering cassias and wattles, northern bluebells and purple mulla-mullas.
It is also home to a variety of birds, red kangaroos, rock-wallabies, echidnas and several bat species. Geckos, goannas, dragons, legless lizards, pythons and other snakes are abundant. Huge termite mounds are a feature of the landscape and the rock piles of the rare pebble-mound mouse may be found in spinifex country.
In the north of Karijini National Park, small creeks hidden in the rolling hillsides – dry for most of the year – suddenly plunge into sheer-sided chasms up to 100 metres deep. These are the park’s famous gorges. They are spectacular but can be extremely dangerous. Further downstream, the gorges widen and their sides change from sheer cliffs to steep slopes of loose rock.
The park is the traditional home of the Banyjima, Kurrama and Innawonga Aboriginal people. The Banyjima name for the Hamersley Range is Karijini. Evidence of their early occupation dates back more than 20,000 years. During that period, Aboriginal land management practices such as ‘fire stick farming’, resulting in a diversity of vegetation types and stages of succession, have helped determine the nature of the plants and animals found in the park today.