The Painted Hills
I must confess, I think this was the highlight of the Lake Eyre area for me. The Anna Creek Painted Hills, previously called the Secret Painted Hills, are a spectacular and recently discovered section of the pristine Breakaways country in the far north of South Australia.
Anna Creek Painted Hills is a rocky outcrop of large and small hills, which emerge suddenly out of a flat, desert landscape. The hills are approximately 20 kilometres x 18 kilometres in size. It is believed that the Anna Creek Painted Hills are the leftover effects of 50 million years of climate change, with the climate going from glacial to wet and semi-tropical over million of years.
The changing colours of the hills are believed to be a result of oxidisation. The deep red is due to the oxidation of iron in the rocks, while the white sections are where iron has leached away.
