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Mount Augustus National Park in Western Australia, 852 km north of Perth, is a national park based around the largest monolith in the world called Mount Augustus, or Burringurrah as it is known by the local Wadjari Aboriginal people.

Mount Augustus

Mount Augustus stands 858 metres above the surrounding plain, 1105 metres above sea level, and covers 47.95 km². It is located 490 kilometres by road east of Carnarvon and 390 kilometres north west of Meekatharra. Mount Augustus has a central ridge which is almost 8 kilometres long and it is estimated that the rock of the mountain is some 1000 million years old. It was formed from an uplift which raised an ancient seabed of sandstone conglomerate and folded it into a dramatic anticline. The granite rock which lies beneath Mt Augustus is said to be 1650 million years old.

On 3 June 1858 Francis Gregory, during his epic 107-day journey through the Gascoyne region, became the first European to climb the mountain. Some weeks later he named the monolith after his brother, Sir Augustus Charles Gregory (1819-1905). At the time Augustus was on his last expedition, an unsuccessful foray into western Queensland in an attempt to discover the whereabouts of Ludwig Leichhardt.

Comparisons with Uluru

For many years, Uluru/Ayers Rock was listed in record books as the world's largest monolith. This is wrong on two counts as Uluru is not a monolith at all, and Mount Augustus is about 2.5 times its size.

Mount Austin has a scree slope, so it lacks the distinctive shape of Uluṟu, however it does appear to change colour during the day like Uluṟu. Mount Augustus also has considerable vegetation on its slopes.

See also

• Protected areas of Western Australia
• Granite outcrops of Western Australia

External links

• Mount Augustus National Park
• Mount Augustus National Park Location

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