Karlu Karlu / Devils Marbles Conservation Reserve
Interesting facts
- In 1952 one boulder was taken to Alice Springs to mark the grave of John Flynn, founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
- That boulder turned out to come from an Aboriginal women's sacred site, and after more than 45 years of negotiation it was returned on 4 September 1999.
- Flynn's grave is now marked by a different, non-sacred stone donated by the Arrernte people.
- The Aboriginal name Karlu Karlu is usually translated as 'round boulders'.
- Explorer John Ross reportedly called it the devil's country, joking that he had emptied his bag of marbles here.
- Repeated heating and cooling has split some boulders cleanly in two, as if cut with a knife.
- According to a Dreaming story, the Devil Man Arrange dropped hair strands from his belt that became red boulders, and his spit became granite ones.
- Popular claims that the boulders are Rainbow Serpent eggs are wrong: none of the local Dreaming stories involves serpents.
- The granite cooled from magma deep underground beneath thick layers of sandstone, which later eroded away to expose it.
- The area was first protected in 1961 as the Devils Marbles Reserve and received its dual name in 2011.
Why it is worth it
Karlu Karlu, also known as the Devils Marbles, is a scatter of enormous granite boulders on the plains of the Northern Territory, many of them rounded into near-perfect spheres and eggs, some stacked on top of one another or balanced on narrow footings as if dropped from above. Their colour is the deep orange-red of the Centre, and at sunrise and sunset, when the low light strikes them, they seem to glow against the pale grass and the blue sky.
The boulders are the exposed top of a large body of granite that formed underground and was later lifted and laid bare. Cracks split the granite into rough rectangular blocks, and over immense spans of time those blocks were rounded off by weathering. Desert extremes play a big part: the rock heats strongly by day and cools at night, and thin outer shells flake away like the skin of an onion, a process called exfoliation.
For the Aboriginal peoples of the region, the Alyawarre, Kaytetye, Warumungu and Warlpiri, Karlu Karlu is a place of great significance, crossed by many Dreaming stories, and nearly the whole reserve was registered as a sacred site in 1982. In October 2008 ownership was handed back to the traditional owners, and the reserve is now jointly managed with the Northern Territory's Parks and Wildlife service under a long lease. The English name comes from a remark by the explorer John Ross during the building of the Overland Telegraph Line in 1870.
The reserve covers about 18 square kilometres, but the heart of it is a short walk among the main clusters near the road. Come in the cooler months between May and August, and stay for the evening light, when the shadows of the boulders stretch across the ground.
Getting there
The reserve lies just off the Stuart Highway, the main road through the centre of Australia, about 105 km south of Tennant Creek and about 393 km north of Alice Springs; the roadhouse at Wauchope is about 9 km to the south. Tennant Creek Airport (TCA), roughly 100 km away, has a few regional flights a week; Alice Springs Airport (ASP) is the main gateway for central Australia. Most visitors arrive by car or campervan along the highway.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Karlu Karlu / Devils Marbles Conservation Reserve is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia located in the locality of Warumungu about 105 km (65 mi) south of Tennant Creek, and 393 km (244 mi) north of Alice Springs. The nearest settlement is the small town of Wauchope located 9 km (5.6 mi) to the south. The hamlet of Wycliffe Well is located 25 km (16 mi) to the south.
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