Murchison River Gorge is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

ine gorge in

Mid West The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. Carved by the meandering lower reaches of the Murchison River, it is more than long, and up to deep. It begins about north-northwest of

Ajana Ajana is a townsite within the Shire of Northampton in Western Australia. It is located at the junction of Ajana-Kalbarri Road and Ajana Back Road, by road north of Northampton, by road southwest of Kalbarri, and west-northwest of Perth in t ...

, and extends to the mouth of the river at Kalbarri. A site of outstanding natural beauty, it is a major tourist attraction, with points of interest including the Z Bend lookout and The Loop walking trail. The gorge is also of interest to geologists, with exposures of

Tumblagooda sandstone The Tumblagooda Sandstone is a geological formation deposited during the Silurian or Ordovician periods, between four and five hundred million years ago, and is now exposed on the west coast of Australia in river and coastal gorges near the tour ...

, an

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya. T ...

redbed Red beds (or redbeds) are sedimentary rocks, typically consisting of sandstone, siltstone, and shale, that are predominantly red in color due to the presence of ferric oxides. Frequently, these red-colored sedimentary strata locally contain th ...

formation that contains fossils of

eurypterid Eurypterids, often informally called sea scorpions, are a group of extinct arthropods that form the order Eurypterida. The earliest known eurypterids date to the Darriwilian stage of the Ordovician period 467.3 million years ago. The group is l ...

s, representing some of the earlier fossil evidence of land animals. Fossilised eurypterid tracks are common in the vicinity of the gorge, as are tracks of other

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chiti ...

s, possibly

trilobite Trilobites (; meaning "three lobes") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the ...

s. The gorge is considered to be in excellent condition and lies almost entirely within the

Kalbarri National Park Kalbarri National Park is located north of Perth, in the Mid West region of Western Australia. The major geographical features of the park include the Murchison River gorge which runs for nearly on the lower reaches of the Murchison River. Sp ...

. It was nominated in 1991 as a geological monument for the Register of the National Estate.

References

{{coord, -27.58717, 114.45547, format=dms, display=title Canyons and gorges of Western Australia Geology of Western Australia Heritage places of Western Australia Kalbarri, Western Australia