Discover The Devils Marbles

We’re pretty sure that the devil never played marbles – what a rubbish sport for the Prince of Darkness to play? However, we’ll run with it for the sake of the story.

The Devils Marbles are huge boulders stacked on top of each other, found a short one-hour drive from Tennant Creek or 12 hours from Darwin in the Northern Territory and, as you can imagine, they’re red and dusty. Formed over millions of years of weather erosion, the boulders teeter, seemingly precariously, on top of each other. The boffins reckon that in about another 50 million they’ll be little more than pebbles. Unfortunately for the tourist board, the Devil’s Pebbles doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. The sinister name is thanks to foolish people. Legend has it that groups of travellers used the area as an overnight stop. Upon awakening, they would generally find that their livestock was dead – from eating the poisonous bush tomatoes that grow in the area.

Naturally, everybody presumed it was Beelzebub at work. Whether the tomatoes were actually from the devil’s own allotment is still unclear. Aboriginal opinion on the area tells us that they believe the marbles to be eggs, laid by the Rainbow Serpent during creation time. But we’re pretty sure they’re just rocks. The Devils Marbles provides an interesting afternoon of walks, small climbs and great views. You can also take advantage of many photo opportunities, including the truly hilarious variety, where you appear to be holding up a rock ten times your size. Like we said – hilarious.