Ben Cooke’s elementography

A small patch of moss colours the sandstone around the Loop, Kalbarri National Park.

Because of the very nature of the river, carving its way down through the host rock, there tends to be a lot of material depositied in the river bed.  Running strongly for only a few months of the year, the Murchison river takes on almost a channel like appearance as it snakes its way along the valley floor.

The first stage of the Loop walk trail within Kalbarri National Park can be seen trailing off with markers to the horizon along the main ridge.

Murchison River, Kalbarri National Park.

The first inklings of the Mid West spring were starting to peak out of the ground as I explored the Murchison gorge.  Very infrequently one was lucky enough to come across a tiny beauty like this native orchid.

A broad cross section of Tumblagooda Sandstone can be seen in this image of part of a wall of the Murchison gorge.  The river, responsible for carving the gorge, can be seen in the very bottom of the image.  Over 500 million years old, the sandstone is thought to contain some of the earliest fossilised tracks of terrestrial creatures in the world.

Layers of sandstone form the walls of the Murchison gorge.

The floodplain within the Murchison Gorge stretches out before the eye revealing a broad spectrum of ground colours and cover.

The Murchison River flows for some 650 kilometres before plunging through layers of deposited sandstone to form the Murchison Gorge, part of the Kalbarri National Park.  I’ve just spent the weekend there for the first time and I have to say it’s one of the most impresive natural parts of this country I’ve seen.  I’ll be posting quite a few photos from this region over the next few weeks and intend to return there in a month or two to explore again, in the midst of the wildflower season.

Only for a few brief months of the year do the Yarra Yarra Lakes near Carnamah become inundated with water, but when they do they make for a fantastic sight.  From the viewing are several kilometres away they seem to shimmer and sparkle with water gradually moved from side to side by the wind.  Up close, they take on an ethereal quality; it can be hard to tell where the lake ends and the sky begins.