The world's second largest geoglyph had been slowly fading into nothing so in 2016 it was redefined by a large grader using GPS and has once more been immortalized into the ancient, barren soils of the Australian continent. By 2014 it had become barely visible from small aircraft and had all but disappeared from satellite images on google maps. There was the danger that in several years it would be entirely indistinguishable such that it had never existed at all. This is testimony to its modern origins. It is not an ancient land marking. It is not an aboriginal sacred site. It is not an image from the Dreamtime. It is a modern artefact made by persons unknown.
We refer to the so-called 'Marree Man', a geoglyph discovered by a chartered plane pilot in 1998. The figure is etched into the red sands of the Stuart desert - it is sometimes called the 'Stuart Giant' - not far from the remote South Australian town of Marree. In strange circumstances, a series of anonymous faxes sent to a publican at William Creek Hotel, some 200 km from Marree, described the figure and indicated its location in the months before it was discovered. The publican thought the faxes were a hoax and ignored them. Then, the pilot, flying over the region, caught sight of a huge human figure - presumably meant to show an indigenous man throwing a boomerang or other implement - etched into the landscape. The figure is some 4 km tall and the total perimeter of its outline is over 28km in length. Here are some views:
About seventy per cent of the configuration could still be discerned at ground level, but it had faded into nothing on satellite pictures after decades of being visible from space.
Calls to the South Australian authorities to protect and preserve the image came late and were long unheeded. It should come as no surprise to readers - Australian readers certainly - that such a thing as the 'Marree Man' became hopelessly entangled in the cesspool of self-interest and the small-minded politics of resentment that characterizes Aboriginal land management. No sooner was the image discovered than Aboriginal elders claimed it as their own, and then when it was shown to be a modern fabrication demanded that the person or persons responsible be prosecuted for defacing aboriginal land. The Dieri Mitha tribe, who had made a disputed claim to the region, demanded that the image be erased. Others - predictably - tried to put a fence around it to keep people out and/or charge them to go in. It quickly became a fiasco. It is generally impossible to do anything when the conflicting interests of Aboriginal elders get in the way, and the proper management of the 'Marree Man' has been no exception. Suggestions to inscribe the image deeper into the earth, down to the chalk sub-soil, went unmet. Eventually, though, steps were taken and it has now been re-inscribed to the extent, at least, that it will not be entirely lost.
The greater mystery of its origins, though, remains. Who made the image in the first place? The anonymous faxes offer some strange evidence. From their language and terminology it would seem they were sent by, or had been made to seem they were sent by, some non-Australian party. The FAX referred to "the local indigenous territories" and used other terms not typical of Australians. A further FAX made reference to the American geoglyph the 'Great Serpent in Ohio' and used the distinctly non-Australian term "your state of South Australia." This has led many to conjecture that the figure was the creation of some Americans who, it is suggested, had been posted at the nearby Woomera military base. Further to this, also in 1998, a glass jar was found at the location containing a satellite photograph of the freshly inscribed geoglyph along with a note sporting the American flag and, strangely, references to the "Branch Davidians" from the siege in Waco Texas in 1993. Then, in 1999, another anonymous fax reported that a dedication plaque had been buried on the nose of the figure. The authorities dug up the plaque which again sported an American flag, time time with the interlaced rings of the Olympic symbol and the inscription: In honour of the land they once knew. His attainments in these pursuits are extraordinary; a constant source of wonderment and admiration. This is a quote from H. H. Finlayson's book The Red Centre (1946).
Some have concluded that this evidence is so brazen that it must have been planted at the site to reinforce the impression that Americans were responsible, and that this, along with the original faxes, are a red herring to deflect attention from the true origins of the figure.
If this is not all odd enough, subsequent studies of the figure revealed that not only is it a modern artefact but it is also entirely pseudo-aboriginal in design. The section of Finlayson's book from which the inscription on the plaque was taken concerns aboriginal hunting tools and one would think that the figure was based on such accounts - this is the impression that the plaque appears designed to give -, but in fact it was eventually discovered that the figure is made from the reversed outline of the famous classical Greek statue the Artemision Zeus, thus:
If this is not all odd enough, subsequent studies of the figure revealed that not only is it a modern artefact but it is also entirely pseudo-aboriginal in design. The section of Finlayson's book from which the inscription on the plaque was taken concerns aboriginal hunting tools and one would think that the figure was based on such accounts - this is the impression that the plaque appears designed to give -, but in fact it was eventually discovered that the figure is made from the reversed outline of the famous classical Greek statue the Artemision Zeus, thus:
and bears no relation whatsoever to any authentic aboriginal image. It is comprehensively bogus. It is a pseudo-geoglyph of a pseudo-aboriginal design, an exercise in pseudo-archeology on a vast geo-physical scale. A hoax, perhaps, but a modern wonder.
Extraordinarily, no one has ever claimed creating it and no one, it seems, witnessed its creation. We do not know how it was made, but it must have been quite a construction done over some period of time, a major undertaking of earthmoving. The desert soil is unyielding and the climate is hellish. The lines of the figure when freshly made were over a foot deep and over thirty metres wide. yet no one saw it. Not a single person has ever come forward offering any account of how and why it was done. This might not be surprising since the location is extremely remote, but at the same time one would think you could not move the necessary earthmoving equipment - or teams of people with spades! - in and out of the area without the people of Marree noticing, at least. Yet the people of Marree claim to know nothing about it. Nothing.
As readers might suppose, theories of the wildest kind soon gather around such a case. The UFOlogists are quickly on the scene. We can be sure, though, that the Marree Man is a human creation even if the identity of its creator and the motivation for its creation is unknown. At this stage, coming on twenty years since its discovery we may have to settle with the fact that we may never know. The most popular theory is that it was the handiwork of an artist (and Sean Connery look alike - see picture below) based in Alice Springs named Bardius Goldberg. Mr Goldberg is reported to have often said that his ambition was to create a sculptural work visible from outer space, and he later told friends - it is reported - that he was paid $10,000 to create the Marree Man (by whom, and for what purpose, it is not said, and why he would then lace the project with red herrings concerning Americans and Branch Davidians is unexplained.)
Others familiar with Mr Goldberg, however, relate that this was likely an opportunistic boast on his part, and typical of his manner. He died in 2002, confirming nothing. His involvement with the Marree Man is based solely on rumour. According to the reports only a closed circle of four or five people knew that he was the culprit and they were sworn to secrecy until after his death. (Why this ruse is again unexplained.) In favour of the theory, though, is the fact that Mr Goldberg did engage in some large and eccentric earthwork projects. In the picture below, for example, he is seen in front of his 'Green Cross of Compassion' sculpture standing in a pit that was part of a scheme he had devised to bury a caravan in the ground in which to live (sheltered from the blistering Central Australian sun.) He dug this pit on his own by hand with a shovel! It was a folly, as it happened, because the walls of the caravan crumpled the minute he started backfilling the pit. (His imagination and appetite for digging holes was greater than his engineering skills.)
The desert very quickly devours all human contrivances. The evidence for Mr Goldberg's hand in the Marree Man is, in fact, circumstantial - he is the only likely candidate within 500 miles! - but there is much to contradict it. The faxes that preceded the discovery of the geoglyph seem unlikely to have been his work, for instance, and the people claiming to have been privy to the secret clearly know nothing about them or the plaque. Then of whom? Why? That aside, the Marree geoglyph must remain a mystery, and one that it is difficult to situate and categorize in the annals of modern mysteries. Are we to regard it as some type of hoax? If so, on whom is the hoax played? The Americans at Woomera? The public at large? The aboriginals of the desert? Or should be try to place the work in the context of modern sculptor, a work, somehow, of modern art? There are so many questions unanswered. For a start, what on earth does this have to do with the Branch Davideans?
Extraordinarily, no one has ever claimed creating it and no one, it seems, witnessed its creation. We do not know how it was made, but it must have been quite a construction done over some period of time, a major undertaking of earthmoving. The desert soil is unyielding and the climate is hellish. The lines of the figure when freshly made were over a foot deep and over thirty metres wide. yet no one saw it. Not a single person has ever come forward offering any account of how and why it was done. This might not be surprising since the location is extremely remote, but at the same time one would think you could not move the necessary earthmoving equipment - or teams of people with spades! - in and out of the area without the people of Marree noticing, at least. Yet the people of Marree claim to know nothing about it. Nothing.
As readers might suppose, theories of the wildest kind soon gather around such a case. The UFOlogists are quickly on the scene. We can be sure, though, that the Marree Man is a human creation even if the identity of its creator and the motivation for its creation is unknown. At this stage, coming on twenty years since its discovery we may have to settle with the fact that we may never know. The most popular theory is that it was the handiwork of an artist (and Sean Connery look alike - see picture below) based in Alice Springs named Bardius Goldberg. Mr Goldberg is reported to have often said that his ambition was to create a sculptural work visible from outer space, and he later told friends - it is reported - that he was paid $10,000 to create the Marree Man (by whom, and for what purpose, it is not said, and why he would then lace the project with red herrings concerning Americans and Branch Davidians is unexplained.)
Others familiar with Mr Goldberg, however, relate that this was likely an opportunistic boast on his part, and typical of his manner. He died in 2002, confirming nothing. His involvement with the Marree Man is based solely on rumour. According to the reports only a closed circle of four or five people knew that he was the culprit and they were sworn to secrecy until after his death. (Why this ruse is again unexplained.) In favour of the theory, though, is the fact that Mr Goldberg did engage in some large and eccentric earthwork projects. In the picture below, for example, he is seen in front of his 'Green Cross of Compassion' sculpture standing in a pit that was part of a scheme he had devised to bury a caravan in the ground in which to live (sheltered from the blistering Central Australian sun.) He dug this pit on his own by hand with a shovel! It was a folly, as it happened, because the walls of the caravan crumpled the minute he started backfilling the pit. (His imagination and appetite for digging holes was greater than his engineering skills.)
Yours, Harper.
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