Chapter 4 – Nature’s Cathedral

Geology defines the character of the Australian Outback. It was the deserts, ranges, and gorges that most enticed me with their collective grandeur, and where I found my greatest connection with the country. In the ranges, in particular, the history of their creation told a fantastic story. In some places, the rocks had been twisted and buckled; their original form faulted and fractured, folded and uplifted. In other places, the sedimentary layers remained just as initially deposited hundreds of millions if not billions of years previously. These rocks provided the means to discover the unique history of the Australian continent. It was gleaned from the small pile of glacial till in a baking desert. It was divined from ripple rock where the waves of ancient oceans once washed over the land. It was garnered from the meteorite and comet craters on an otherwise empty desert plain. Everywhere I travelled, my appreciation for geology, and my love for the land, grew as I discerned a new twist on the old story of the Australian continent’s evolution. Of the many inspiring places visited, however, there was one I came to connect with most of all. It was a gorge carved in the West MacDonnell Ranges; a natural cathedral in the continent’s desert heart whose magnificence inspired from first sight.