The story of this place
Wilpena Pound is a natural amphitheatre 17 kilometres long and 8 kilometres wide, ringed by quartzite ridges that were once mountains higher than the Himalayas. Over 500 million years, erosion has reduced them to these ancient, rugged ramparts. The rocks in the Flinders Ranges contain Ediacaran fossils — creatures from 600 million years ago that represent the first complex multicellular life on Earth. The Flinders Ranges is one of the most important fossil sites in the world for understanding how life evolved from simple cells to complex organisms.
The Adnyamathanha people, the 'rock people' of the Flinders Ranges, have inhabited this landscape for at least 49,000 years. Their Dreaming stories explain the formation of Wilpena Pound — where two serpents coiled together and their bodies became the mountain ring. In 2021, the Flinders Ranges was added to Australia's National Heritage List, recognising both its natural and Indigenous cultural values. The pound was used as a film location for Mad Dog Morgan (1976) with Dennis Hopper.