Wikipedia description of the Porongurup Range’s geomorphology:
The Porongurup Range is 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from east to west and consists of porphyritic granite[3] peaks levelled into domes. The range is the remnant of a sizeable reservoir of molten granite that bubbled up when the Antarctic continent struck Australia in the Stenian Period of the Mesoproterozoic Era, around 1200 million (1.2 billion) years ago.[9]
The sea levels of the late Cretaceous were around 100 metres higher than today[10]and during this time the Porongurup Range was an island surrounded by the sea.
Presumably, at some point, long ago, the pictured granite boulder came thundering down – granite, tumbling on granite – from the rocky peaks & slopes above my vantage point in the Karri-dominant forest.
As the boulder’s “clothing” makes apparent, lichens and mosses thrive in the Porongurups’ clean air.
This little range is home to more than 700 different native plants. At least nine species grow nowhere else.
It s also rich in fungi, insects, birds, spiders, reptiles and marsupials…and some of the world’s most delicious and best-value Rieslings.
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