The Painted Hills, from an Aerial viewpoint in late afternoon light, South Australia. - stock photo

The Anna Creek Painted Hills, are a beautiful and natural wonder that have spectacular colours, especially at either end of the day with low angled sunlight. This amazing and recently discovered area is a section of the pristine Breakaways country in the remote far north of South Australia. The changing colours of the hills are believed to be a result of oxidisation. The deep red and dark oranges are most likely due to the oxidation of iron that exists in the rocks, while the white and yellow coloured sections are where iron has completely leached away. Anna Creek Painted Hills is a rocky outcrop of a combination of quite large and many 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.