A field of wild flowers prepares to erupt in a carpet of colour near Port Gregory.

The mid afternoon glow bathes the Lynton ruins in a very warm light.

The jail at Lynton Hiring Station looks, based on its ruins, to have been a horrible place to be incarcerated.  The peaceful sandstone ruins don’t in anyway paint the picture of what it must have been like, but the tiny, narrow cells certainly let the mind wander.

Lynton Convict Depot was, as the very name suggests, a holding station for convict labour where local farmers or business owners could come to ‘hire’ convict labour.  Open for only four years due to the harsh conditions, it is one of the finest example of convict area Western Australian buildings still in tact in a regional area.

Hutt Lagoon is a naturally occurring pink lake which is coloured by a particular type of bacteria which reside in the lake.  Suffice to say, the almost alien landscape is quite a contrast to the surrounding green hills.

Kalbarri is a coastal anomaly in Western Australia as it’s the only area in the southern half of the state where sandstone meets the ocean.  In general, south to Perth and north to the North West shelf, all of the cliffs are limestone.  This anomaly makes for a fantastic melange of contrasting colours.

Coastal sandstone fringed by low shrubs south of Kalbarri.

The last photo from the gorge for now shows the wonderful layers of sediment and the very clear definition between each.  Tomorrow it’s on to the ocean around Kalbarri!

As mentioned yesterday, the Z Bend is caused by a fault, which is clearly detailed in the left hand side of the image vanishing towards the centre.  The fault also allows for a lot of trees to get a start.

The Z Bend is a geological rarity where a river takes a 90° turn owing to a horizontal fault in the underlying rock.  The fault can be seen trailing off to the left in this image (I’ll post an up close of it tomorrow).  The fault allows water to erode out more easily the rock underneath, causing the water to take the path of least resistance and thus, a right hand turn.

Murchison Gorge, Kalbarri National Park.