An Ancient Landscape Alive With Adnyamathanha Stories
Roaming South Australia's Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park, Melissa Iaria discovers an ancient landscape of rugged peaks, errant emus and gorges alive with the stories of Adnyamathanha ancestors.
On the drive in, Wilpena Pound looks like a long stretch of craggy ochre peaks jutting into the sky. The dramatic vista looks almost otherworldly, until we are sent back down to earth with a thud by a bunch of erratic emus on the road.
These jagged ridges began forming about 800 million years ago from sediments dumped by an ancient ocean. This is the land of the Adnyamathanha, or ‘rock people’, who have inhabited these ranges for more than 40,000 years.
