Australia So Much to See

The creation of Marree Man, sixty kilometres from the town of Marree, remains a mystery. No-one has claimed creating this huge artwork, a perfectly proportioned 4.2 kilometres tall man appearing to be an Aboriginal hunter etched into the desert sands and first seen from the air in 1998. The width of the lines when first discovered were 35 metres wide. As the lines faded, in 2016, with the permission of the Arabana people, a grader was used to restored the outline which may now show even more detail than the original. This work was completed over five days. After a long running legal battle with the state government, Marree Hotel publican Phil Turner, who organised the restoration, was vindicated in April 2018 when the charges were dropped.

How the original was etched in such perfect proportion and in secret remains part of the mystery. Bamboo pegs every ten metres have been found on the 28 kilometre outline. Marree Man can be seen from the air on a plateau in the Finnis Springs area, on the southern side of Lake Eyre South.

Marree Man

The outline bears a striking similarity (but in reverse) to that of the Artemision Zeus bronze raised from the bottom of the Adriatic Sea in 1928.

Flights from Marree with Wrightsair can be taken to see Marree Man, and a choice of flights, most including Lake Eyre, are outlined on the Marree Hotel website. This is also a good option for those not wanting to drive on unsealed roads, as the road to Marree from the south is now all sealed. We did not get to see Marree Man.

A little way south of Marree, near one of the many memorials to explorer John McDouall Stuart, someone has created a man from rocks. This novelty statue is commonly known as Marree Man or Stuart Man, as it may be symbolic of either. Similarly, the Marree Man geoglyph is also known as Stuart’s Giant.

Heading south, the road from Marree was a very good sealed road. The sealing had been recently completed. Follow us on our continuing tour as we investigate the historic town of Farina.

Resources

Wikipedia

ABC Restoration of Marree Man

Australian Geographic

BBC News

Extract from Australian Geographic

Theories about who created it sprouted and grew in all different directions. Investigations centred for a while around the US Army, thanks to the Man’s proximity to the joint US-Australian defence projects of the Woomera Prohibited Area, and the sending of press releases purporting to be written by its creator that included US terminology. In 1999 a plaque was discovered near the Man’s head showing a US flag, and another flag was found in a nearby pit, although it’s been suggested both were red herrings. Inevitably, someone also proposed a theory that it was the work of aliens.

Another possibility is that it was created by South Australian artist Bardius Goldberg, reported by the Adelaide Advertiser to have told friends he’d been commissioned – and paid $10,000 – to create an artwork visible from space. However, Goldberg died in 2002, and with him the possibility of discovering the truth of that theory.

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