Giant Geoglyph of a Man Mysteriously Appears in Australian Outback
MARREE, AUSTRALIA – A colossal depiction of a man, stretching over two miles in length, materialized seemingly overnight in the remote South Australian outback, baffling authorities and captivating the world. The geoglyph, visible from space, first came to international attention in June 1998 when a pilot spotted the figure near Marree, a small town in the Flinders Ranges. It’s sudden appearance and the identity of its creator remain a mystery decades later.
The “Marree Man,” as it’s become known, depicts a customary Indigenous Australian hunter carrying a boomerang. Created by removing the topsoil to reveal the lighter-colored subsoil beneath, the figure is an amazing feat of earthwork. Satellite imagery from Landsat 8 later pinpointed the creation period to a 16-day window between May 27 and June 12, 1998 – the period between when the satellite showed no geoglyph and its first photographic capture from space.
The scale of the project suggests important planning and resources. Experts believe earth-moving machinery was used in its construction, with some speculating that early GPS mapping technology may have been essential.A 2016 re-creation of the lines, utilizing modern technology, took a team approximately 60 hours to complete. During that effort, workers discovered around 250 bamboo stakes along the perimeter, believed to have served as markers for the original design.
Despite numerous theories, the creator of the Marree Man has never been definitively identified. Adelaide-based artist Bardius Goldberg is the most frequently cited suspect. Several friends claimed Goldberg confessed to creating the geoglyph before his death in 2002, but he never publicly took obligation.Another line of inquiry points to possible involvement by American personnel stationed at a nearby Royal Australian Air Force base, fueled by the discovery of a plaque bearing the U.S.flag near the geoglyph’s head and the presence of “Americanisms” in an anonymous fax claiming responsibility, as reported by ABC News.
In 2018, Australian entrepreneur and explorer Dick Smith offered a 5,000-australian-dollar (approximately U.S. $3,700) reward for details leading to the identification of the geoglyph’s creator, but the mystery persists. The Marree Man remains a striking and enigmatic landmark, a testament to human ingenuity and a continuing source of fascination.
