Located 16KM south of the coastal town of Cervantes in Western Australia is a remarkable and immense outcrop of stone pillars known as The Pinnacles. Just as remarkable, though, no one is quite sure how they formed.

Set within Nambung National Park, the Pinnacles Desert looks like a scene from an other-worldly Science Fiction film. Thousands of limestone pillars upto 5-metres tall stand among compacted yellow sand. Unusually for a National Park intent on preserving its heritage, this is one location you can both drive around and walk freely. There are even regular parking bays, which is a first on our trip.

Pinnacles Drive

More suited to a high-clearance 4WD vehicle than a standard car, the Pinnacles Drive leads in a winding loop around the limestone pillars, which extend over a large area of ancient sand dunes. The track is clearly marked by regularly spaced boulders and occasionally pinnacles, which provide little clearance for wider vehicles or less capable drivers as tyre marks and paint scrapes attest.

Windswept Origins

The strong winds on the West coast had initially eased a little on our visit but it was clear to see areas where the wind sweeps through the park gradually eroding the pillars into some unusual shapes. The wind is also slowly exposing further pinnacles in a cycle that has repeated many times as sand blows inland from the nearby beach. In fact the formation of the Pinnacles is closely tied to the winds common to the Western Australia coast.

During a period of abundant marine life, shells rich in lime deposited on the beach gradually broke down into fine-grained sand and subsequently blown inland forming dunes. At this point three possible theories are trying to explain how the pinnacles formed. The most probable at the moment, at least until further studies prove otherwise, suggests rain falling on the dunes leached calcium through the upper layers of sand creating a soft limestone below that, through time and with successive deposits of sand, compacted and hardened.

Subsequent periods of environmental change created soils that covered the dunes allowing plant life to flourish. The plant’s roots burrowed down into the limestone seeking moisture and creating cracks in the process. During much drier periods the wind stripped the topsoil and loose sand exposing the limestone below to the weathering effects of the seasonal winds and further eroding the cracks creating isolated pillars. The whole process taking somewhere around 80,000-years to create what we see today. Though come back a few years later and it may well have changed again with new pillars exposed and some buried under the shifting sands.

Ancient City?

Well at least that is the scientific take on the origin of the Pinnacles. Early mariners viewing from the sea believed the pinnacles were the ruins of some ancient civilisation but it wasn’t until the 1950’s that the area was truly explored. Realising the geological importance of the region the Pinnacles Desert was placed under protection with the creation of the Nambung National Park.

The Pinnacles is yet another of those photographer’s paradise locations in Western Australia and a must see on a west coast trip. The close-by beachside town of Cervantes provides camping facilities as well as motel rooms, a supermarket, newsagent, fuel and the famous Lobster Shack providing delicious seafood meals.