Devils Marbles Conservation Reserve description and photos - Australia: Alice Springs (Topic)

Devils Marbles Conservation Reserve description and photos - Australia: Alice Springs. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The name in English is Devils Marbles Conservation Reserve.

Photo and description

At 114 km from the town of Tennant Creek (Northern Territories), there is the mysterious Devil's Balls Reserve - a cluster of huge round granite boulders scattered across a wide and shallow valley. The granite of which the Devil Balls are composed was formed millions of years ago as a result of the solidification of magma on the surface of the earth. And then water and wind stepped in, carving amazingly shaped stones for millennia. Due to the dramatic changes in day and night temperatures in Central Australia, boulders expand and contract during the day. Sometimes this leads to the fact that they crumble and even fall apart.

Local aborigines call these oval boulders "Karl Karl" - dangerously balancing on each other, they are in a sacred place for the indigenous people of Central Australia. People from the Kaiteti tribe believe that these boulders are nothing more than the eggs of the mystical rainbow snake, the progenitor of humanity. They are also associated with other stories about the creation of the world, only a part of which the aborigines can tell the uninitiated. Despite the fact that over time many ceremonies and rituals associated with the Devil Balls have been lost, this place is still of great importance to the Aborigines and is considered one of the oldest religious sites in the world.

In 1953, one of the Devil Balls was taken to Alice Springs to create a memorial to John Flynn, founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service. It was believed then that this would perpetuate his connection with the Australian Outback, but later serious controversies began about this, because the stone was taken from a sacred place for the aborigines without their permission. Only in the late 1990s was the stone cleaned and returned to its original place. And on Flynn's grave, they installed a similar one, donated by people from the Arrernte tribe.

In 2008, the Northern Territories State Parks and Wildlife Service returned the Devil's Balls to Aboriginal ownership, but the reserve is jointly managed by the Service and Aboriginal communities.

Today, the reserve is visited by thousands of tourists all year round due to its accessibility and well-developed infrastructure: several hiking trails have been laid through the territory, information boards have been installed, picnic areas have been organized. From May to October, the park rangers organize various events and performances,

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Topic: Devils Marbles Conservation Reserve description and photos - Australia: Alice Springs.