Giant Outback Figure: An Australian Enigma Viewed From Above

The “Marree Man” carving portrays a nude Indigenous Australian huntsman brandishing a boomerang or a throwing stick of similar design. Its dimensions encompass about 17 miles.(Image credit: NASA/Landsat 8)QUICK FACTS

Where is it? Finniss Springs plateau, South Australia [-29.532472, 137.468390]

What’s in the photo? An enormous 2-mile-tall land art of an Aboriginal Australian hunter etched into the terrain of the outback

Which satellite took the photo? Landsat 8

When was it taken? June 22, 2019

This remarkable aerial picture showcases an immense geoglyph, called the “Marree Man,” which unexpectedly materialized in the Australian wilderness less than three decades ago. The roots of the artwork, which is inspired by Aboriginal culture, stay unexplained.

The Marree Man, alternatively known as “Stuart’s Giant,” represents a geoglyph — a sizable design or emblem crafted by manipulating the planet’s surface somehow. In this instance, it was etched directly into the Finniss Springs plateau in South Australia, located approximately 37 miles (60 kilometers) to the west of the town of Marree, as reported by NASA’s Earth Observatory.

The pattern of the figure likely draws from an Indigenous Australian, portrayed without clothes and clutching either a “woomera” launching stick or a boomerang. It spans roughly 2.2 miles (3.5 km) at its widest extension, stretching from the base of its feet to the edge of the weapon, while its boundary spans around 17 miles (28 km) overall.

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In contrast to most other geoglyphs — like the Nazca Lines in Peru, potentially dating back to 200 B.C. — the Marree Man is incredibly recent, having unexpectedly emerged during the summer of 1998. Yet, specialists remain unsure about who fashioned the imposing figure or the means by which they outlined it so rapidly.

The geoglyph can be found around 37 miles to the west of Marree in South Australia.

By 2016, the outlines of the Marree Man, which initially reached depths of approximately 10 inches (25 centimeters), had almost vanished due to the impact of wind-induced erosion.

Consequently, local entrepreneurs took action to recarve the lines through the use of a specialized digger along with a GPS-based guidance apparatus, leading to significantly deeper outlines, as reported by ABC News.

The revamped geoglyph, featured within the satellite image, should have an extended lifespan compared to its earlier version (as seen below) because uniquely crafted grooves intended for capturing water were integrated into its structure. Hypothetically, this enhancement should encourage plant life to flourish around its boundaries, thus granting it a more resilient green frame, according to the Earth Observatory.

Who made the Marree Man?

The Marree Man came to light thanks to a charter aviator in 1998. The presented image was taken by another flyer several weeks afterwards.

The original spotting of the Marree Man occurred on June 26, 1998, when a charter pilot noticed it, shortly before an unknown sender dispatched a fax to nearby accommodations, notifying the staff about the geoglyph’s manifestation and giving it the original title of Stuart’s Giant. (The moniker Marree Man subsequently gained fame through media coverage.)

Satellite images acquired by Landsat 8 later made it clear that its creation transpired at some juncture within a 16-day span occurring between May 27, when the satellite detected no traces of the geoglyph, and June 12, the day it was initially captured in photographs from space.

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It was plausibly made by some sort of earth-moving apparatus, and some professionals posit that accomplishing this feat would require an initial variant of GPS-assisted mapping.

When the outlines were reworked in 2016, it occupied the workers for approximately 60 hours to conclude the endeavor with enhanced technology. The crew additionally located 250 bamboo markers distributed across the periphery, which were in all likelihood employed as guideposts for the original design, according to a 2016 piece from Expedition Australia.

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The most frequently speculated instigator behind the Marree Man was an artist residing in Adelaide by the name of Bardius Goldberg. A number of Goldberg’s associates have asserted that he confided in them about being responsible, albeit he never openly verified it and passed away in 2002.

Substantiating this, there is some suggestion that it might have been fashioned by American personnel present at a nearby Royal Australian Air Force outpost, given that a small marker bearing the U.S. flag surfaced close to the giant’s head. Experts have later drawn attention to the presence of numerous “Americanisms” contained within the anonymous fax, according to ABC News.

In 2018, Dick Smith, an Australian entrepreneur and adventurer, proposed a reward of 5,000 Australian dollars (equivalent to U.S. $3,700) for anyone possessing details pertaining to the geoglyph’s inception, as reported by CNN.

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Harry BakerSocial Links NavigationSenior Staff Writer

Harry serves as a U.K.-based senior staff scribe at Live Science. He pursued marine biology at the University of Exeter preceding his shift into journalism training. His coverage is extensive, including areas such as space endeavor, planetary science, space climatology, climate shift, animal behavior, and paleontology. His recent contributions on the solar peak clinched “best space submission” at the 2024 Aerospace Media Awards and earned a spot among the “top scoop” nominees at the NCTJ Awards for Excellence in 2023. He also authors Live Science’s recurring Earth from space sequence.

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