Mystery In The Desert

With all the ingredients of a thriller government cover-ups, local rivalry and intrigue the story of the Marree Man geoglyph in South Australia is enduringly fascinating.

- Hannah James

ON A REMOTE AND EMPTY desert plateau, on the banks of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, South Australia, is the world’s second-largest geoglyph.

Unlike the 1000-year-old Nazca Lines in Peru that hold the title of the biggest geoglyph, the artwork that became known as the Marree Man is of more recent origin. Located 60km north-west of the tiny town of Marree, it was first spotted from the air by a local pilot in 1998. Investigations were immediately launched into the work, which is 4.2km long and shows a man hunting with a stick.

Local pub-owner Phil Turner bought the Marree Hotel seven years ago partly on the strength of the Marree Man. “I got carried away, like everyone else, with the myth, the mystery and the intrigue, the fact they couldn’t find the people who did it,” he says. “The Marree Man was such an attraction – scenic flights were helping business – and it was part of our decision to buy the pub.”

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 SA 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.