The story of this place
The Devils Marbles — Karlu Karlu in Warumungu language — are a collection of granite boulders that appear to be stacked and balanced in impossibly precarious arrangements across a wide, flat plain in the Northern Territory. Some are perched on their edges. Others are split perfectly in two as though sliced by a blade. The boulders have been forming for 1.7 billion years as magma cooled underground and was then exposed by erosion, with chemical weathering rounding their corners into spheres.
For the Warumungu, Kaytetye, Alyawarre and Warlpiri peoples, Karlu Karlu is a sacred site of profound spiritual importance — the rounded eggs of the Rainbow Serpent, a Creation Being of immense power. The site was returned to Traditional Owners in 2008. Some boulders that had been removed as souvenirs in the early 20th century — including one taken to Adelaide — were eventually returned after extensive negotiation. The sunrise light on the orange-red boulders against a blue sky is one of Australia's most photographed natural phenomena.