Marree Man
Encyclopedia
The Marree Man, or Stuart's Giant, is a modern geoglyph
discovered by air on 26 June 1998. It appears to depict an indigenous Australian man, most likely of the Pitjantjatjara tribe, hunting birds or wallabies
with a throwing stick. It lies on a plateau at Finnis Springs 60 km west of the township of Marree
in central South Australia
. It is just outside the 127000 square kilometres (49,035 sq mi) Woomera Prohibited Area. The figure is 4.2 km (2.6 mi) tall with a circumference of 15 by 28 km (9.3 by 17.4 mi). Although the largest non-commercial geoglyph in the world, its origin remains a mystery, with not a single witness to any part of the expansive operation. The name "Stuart's Giant" was given in an anonymous press release, after John McDouall Stuart
.
The site was closed by the South Australian government
but, , joy flights are still allowed over the site, which falls under federal government jurisdiction.
The Marree Man geoglyph depicts a man holding either a throwing stick
once used to disperse small flocks
of birds, or a boomerang
(but see Plaque section below).
The lines of the figure were 20–30 cm deep at the time of discovery and up to 35 metres wide.
Selecting a suitable site would have required aerial photography
or satellite imagery
. Using a computer, the figure could have been superimposed over the photograph and adjusted to fit the geography with the corresponding latitude and longitude coordinates mapped out. Some surveying
skills would have been needed to plot the outline, and then with the aid of a hand-held global positioning system stakes could have been placed every hundred metres or so.
The image is gradually eroding through natural processes, but because the climate is extremely dry and barren in the region, the image is still visible. While there is a layer of white chalk material slightly below the red soil, the figure was not defined to this depth. This raises the question why the creators did not dig a little deeper to make the image both more visible and more permanent.
in the remote north of South Australia
spotted the figure from the air on 26 June 1998. The discovery of the geoglyph fascinated Australians due to its size and the mystery surrounding how it came to be there. At the time of the discovery there was only one track entering and one track exiting the site and no footprints or tire marks were discernible.
Shane Anderson from the William Creek
Hotel, located 200 km north-west of the town of Marree claimed the hotel received an anonymous fax
describing the location of the artwork, but they ignored it, dismissing the fax as a joke.
. The releases quoted measurements in miles, yards and inches, instead of the metric system
usually used in Australia. This would be unusual for an Australian press release, but since the metric system was only introduced
in Australia in the 1970s, older Australians still often quote imperial measurements. The releases also said "your State of SA
", "Queensland
Barrier Reef
" and mentioned Aborigines "from the local reservations
". "Reservations" is a term more commonly associated with the North American Indians. The press releases also mentioned the Great Serpent in Ohio
, which is not well known outside the US. But it has been conjectured that these features of the press releases may have been red herrings
, inserted to provide the illusion of American authorship.
When the site was discovered, several items were found in a small pit : what appeared to be a satellite photo of the figure, a jar
containing a small flag of the US, and a note which referred to the Branch Davidians, a religious group infamous for being attacked in the Waco
raid in 1993. These were the only man-made items found at the site when it was discovered.
Artist Christopher Headley says that he sent two letters, one to Colonel Tom Meade, the head of the former US-Australian Joint Defense Facility Nurrungar
, to ask about the possibility of making a permanent commemoration of the American presence in Australia. This could have inspired the idea of creating a geoglyph among locals.
buried 5 metres south of the nose of the figure, by way of a fax which was received via a hotel in Oxford
, England. The fax also said that the plaque was intended to have been dug up by a "prominent US media figure" shortly before the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Similar clues were said to be buried near the Cerne Abbas giant
near Dorset
and the Long Man of Wilmington
, Sussex
, in England
. The plaque has a 3 centimetres (1.2 in) long by 2 centimetre (0.78740157480315 in) wide American flag and an imprint of the Olympic rings. It reads:
The quote on the plaque buried at the figure comes from a book, "The Red Centre", by H.H. Finlayson, in a section describing the hunting of wallabies
with throwing sticks and with photographs of hunters without loin cloths
and with other details like the "Marree Man". In the book it can be deduced that the subject is a hunter from the Pitjantjatjara tribe.
, the State's only daily newspaper, called for the figure to be made permanent by excavating the outline down to the white chalk layer. The Native Title holders over the area are the Arabunna people but the site was closed shortly after discovery when some members of the Dieri
tribe, whose Native Title claim lies east of Marree, complained of harm and exploitation of the Dreamtime. It was called environmental vandalism by the Environment minister, Dorothy Kotz, and graffiti
by the South Australian chief of Aboriginal affairs.
scars placed on the chest have also been said to have been placed perfectly. The figure appears to be an amalgam of the body of a man photographed in the distinctive throwing stance and the head of another man wearing a headband
and chignon
.
Geoglyph
A geoglyph is a large design or motif produced on the ground and typically formed by clastic rocks or similarly durable elements of the geography, such as stones, stone fragments, gravel, or earth...
discovered by air on 26 June 1998. It appears to depict an indigenous Australian man, most likely of the Pitjantjatjara tribe, hunting birds or wallabies
Wallaby
A wallaby is any of about thirty species of macropod . It is an informal designation generally used for any macropod that is smaller than a kangaroo or wallaroo that has not been given some other name.-Overview:...
with a throwing stick. It lies on a plateau at Finnis Springs 60 km west of the township of Marree
Marree, South Australia
Marree is a small town located in the north of South Australia. It lies North of Adelaide at the junction of the Oodnadatta Track and the Birdsville Track, above sea level. The area is the home of the Dieri people. At the 2006 census, Marree had a population of 70.The town was home to Australia's...
in central South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
. It is just outside the 127000 square kilometres (49,035 sq mi) Woomera Prohibited Area. The figure is 4.2 km (2.6 mi) tall with a circumference of 15 by 28 km (9.3 by 17.4 mi). Although the largest non-commercial geoglyph in the world, its origin remains a mystery, with not a single witness to any part of the expansive operation. The name "Stuart's Giant" was given in an anonymous press release, after John McDouall Stuart
John McDouall Stuart
John McDouall Stuart was one of the most accomplished and famous of all Australia's inland explorers. Stuart led the first successful expedition to traverse the Australian mainland from south to north and return, and the first to do so from a starting point in South Australia, achieving this...
.
The site was closed by the South Australian government
Government of South Australia
The form of the Government of South Australia is prescribed in its constitution, which dates from 1856, although it has been amended many times since then...
but, , joy flights are still allowed over the site, which falls under federal government jurisdiction.
Work
Spear
A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head.The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as flint, obsidian, iron, steel or...
once used to disperse small flocks
Flock (birds)
A flock is a group of birds conducting flocking behavior in flight, or while foraging. The term is akin to the herd amongst mammals. The benefits of aggregating in flocks are varied and flocks will form explicitly for specific purposes...
of birds, or a boomerang
Boomerang
A boomerang is a flying tool with a curved shape used as a weapon or for sport.-Description:A boomerang is usually thought of as a wooden device, although historically boomerang-like devices have also been made from bones. Modern boomerangs used for sport are often made from carbon fibre-reinforced...
(but see Plaque section below).
The lines of the figure were 20–30 cm deep at the time of discovery and up to 35 metres wide.
Selecting a suitable site would have required aerial photography
Aerial photography
Aerial photography is the taking of photographs of the ground from an elevated position. The term usually refers to images in which the camera is not supported by a ground-based structure. Cameras may be hand held or mounted, and photographs may be taken by a photographer, triggered remotely or...
or satellite imagery
Satellite imagery
Satellite imagery consists of photographs of Earth or other planets made by means of artificial satellites.- History :The first images from space were taken on sub-orbital flights. The U.S-launched V-2 flight on October 24, 1946 took one image every 1.5 seconds...
. Using a computer, the figure could have been superimposed over the photograph and adjusted to fit the geography with the corresponding latitude and longitude coordinates mapped out. Some surveying
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
skills would have been needed to plot the outline, and then with the aid of a hand-held global positioning system stakes could have been placed every hundred metres or so.
The image is gradually eroding through natural processes, but because the climate is extremely dry and barren in the region, the image is still visible. While there is a layer of white chalk material slightly below the red soil, the figure was not defined to this depth. This raises the question why the creators did not dig a little deeper to make the image both more visible and more permanent.
Discovery
Trec Smith, a charter pilot flying between Marree and Coober PedyCoober Pedy, South Australia
Coober Pedy is a town in northern South Australia, 846 kilometres north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway. According to the 2006 census, its population was 1,916 . The town is sometimes referred to as the "opal capital of the world" because of the quantity of precious opals that are mined there...
in the remote north of South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
spotted the figure from the air on 26 June 1998. The discovery of the geoglyph fascinated Australians due to its size and the mystery surrounding how it came to be there. At the time of the discovery there was only one track entering and one track exiting the site and no footprints or tire marks were discernible.
Shane Anderson from the William Creek
William Creek, South Australia
William Creek, Australia is located halfway on the Oodnadatta Track, 210 kilometres north of Marree and 166 kilometres east of Coober Pedy in South Australia. The town has a population of 6....
Hotel, located 200 km north-west of the town of Marree claimed the hotel received an anonymous fax
Fax
Fax , sometimes called telecopying, is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material , normally to a telephone number connected to a printer or other output device...
describing the location of the artwork, but they ignored it, dismissing the fax as a joke.
Anonymous press releases
Several anonymous press releases which appeared following the discovery led to the suggestion that the Marree Man was created by people from the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The releases quoted measurements in miles, yards and inches, instead of the metric system
Metric system
The metric system is an international decimalised system of measurement. France was first to adopt a metric system, in 1799, and a metric system is now the official system of measurement, used in almost every country in the world...
usually used in Australia. This would be unusual for an Australian press release, but since the metric system was only introduced
Metrication in Australia
Metrication in Australia took place between 1970 and 1988. Before then, Australia mostly used the imperial system for measurement, which the Australian colonies had inherited from the United Kingdom. Between 1970 and 1988, imperial units were withdrawn from general legal use and replaced with SI...
in Australia in the 1970s, older Australians still often quote imperial measurements. The releases also said "your State of SA
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
", "Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
Barrier Reef
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world'slargest reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately...
" and mentioned Aborigines "from the local reservations
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
". "Reservations" is a term more commonly associated with the North American Indians. The press releases also mentioned the Great Serpent in Ohio
Serpent Mound
The Great Serpent Mound is a -long, three-foot-high prehistoric effigy mound located on a plateau of the Serpent Mound crater along Ohio Brush Creek in Adams County, Ohio. Maintained within a park by the Ohio Historical Society, it has been designated a National Historic Landmark by the United...
, which is not well known outside the US. But it has been conjectured that these features of the press releases may have been red herrings
Red herring (plot device)
Red herring is an idiomatic expression referring to the rhetorical or literary tactic of diverting attention away from an item of significance...
, inserted to provide the illusion of American authorship.
When the site was discovered, several items were found in a small pit : what appeared to be a satellite photo of the figure, a jar
Jar
A jar is a rigid, approximately cylindrical container with a wide mouth or opening. Jars are typically made of glass, ceramic, or plastic. They are used for foods, cosmetics, medications, and chemicals that are relatively thick or viscous...
containing a small flag of the US, and a note which referred to the Branch Davidians, a religious group infamous for being attacked in the Waco
Waco, Texas
Waco is a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas. Situated along the Brazos River and on the I-35 corridor, halfway between Dallas and Austin, it is the economic, cultural, and academic center of the 'Heart of Texas' region....
raid in 1993. These were the only man-made items found at the site when it was discovered.
Artist Christopher Headley says that he sent two letters, one to Colonel Tom Meade, the head of the former US-Australian Joint Defense Facility Nurrungar
Joint Defense Facility Nurrungar
Joint Defence Facility Nurrungar , located on the edge of Island Lagoon, approximately 15 km south of Woomera, South Australia was a facility operated jointly by the Australian Department of Defence and the United States Air Force from 1969 through 1999...
, to ask about the possibility of making a permanent commemoration of the American presence in Australia. This could have inspired the idea of creating a geoglyph among locals.
Plaque
In January 1999, officials were told about a plaqueCommemorative plaque
A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, typically attached to a wall, stone, or other vertical surface, and bearing text in memory of an important figure or event...
buried 5 metres south of the nose of the figure, by way of a fax which was received via a hotel in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, England. The fax also said that the plaque was intended to have been dug up by a "prominent US media figure" shortly before the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Similar clues were said to be buried near the Cerne Abbas giant
Cerne Abbas giant
The Cerne Abbas Giant, also referred to as the Rude Man or the Rude Giant, is a hill figure of a giant naked man on a hillside near the village of Cerne Abbas, to the north of Dorchester, in Dorset, England. The high, wide figure is carved into the side of a steep hill, and is best viewed from...
near Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
and the Long Man of Wilmington
Long Man of Wilmington
The Long Man of Wilmington is a hill figure located in Wilmington, East Sussex, England on the steep slopes of Windover Hill, northwest of Eastbourne. The Long Man is tall and designed to look in proportion when viewed from below....
, Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The plaque has a 3 centimetres (1.2 in) long by 2 centimetre (0.78740157480315 in) wide American flag and an imprint of the Olympic rings. It reads:
In honour of the land they once knew. His attainments in these pursuits are extraordinary; a constant source of wonderment and admiration.
The quote on the plaque buried at the figure comes from a book, "The Red Centre", by H.H. Finlayson, in a section describing the hunting of wallabies
Wallaby
A wallaby is any of about thirty species of macropod . It is an informal designation generally used for any macropod that is smaller than a kangaroo or wallaroo that has not been given some other name.-Overview:...
with throwing sticks and with photographs of hunters without loin cloths
Loincloth
A loincloth is a one-piece male garment, sometimes kept in place by a belt, which covers the genitals and, at least partially, the buttocks.-History and types:Loincloths are being and have been worn:*in societies where no other clothing is needed or wanted...
and with other details like the "Marree Man". In the book it can be deduced that the subject is a hunter from the Pitjantjatjara tribe.
Suggested creators
Bardius Goldberg, a Northern Territory artist who died in 2002 and lived at Alice Springs, has been suggested as the creator of the work. Goldberg, who was known to be interested in creating a work visible from space, refused to either confirm or deny that he had created the image when questioned. A close friend said Goldberg was given $10,000 at the time of the Marree Man's discovery.Reactions
Much of the public and media reaction to the discovery of the figure was positive. The AdvertiserThe Advertiser (Australia)
The Advertiser is a daily tabloid-format newspaper published in the city of Adelaide, South Australia. First published as a broadsheet named "The South Australian Advertiser" on 12 July 1858, it is currently printed daily from Monday to Saturday. A Sunday edition exists under the name of the Sunday...
, the State's only daily newspaper, called for the figure to be made permanent by excavating the outline down to the white chalk layer. The Native Title holders over the area are the Arabunna people but the site was closed shortly after discovery when some members of the Dieri
Dieri
The Dieri is an Indigenous Australian group and language from the South Australian desert—specifically Cooper and Leigh Creek, Lake Howitt, and Lake Hope, Lake Gregory and Clayton River and low country north of Mount Freeling.-Alternate names:DiariDiyeri...
tribe, whose Native Title claim lies east of Marree, complained of harm and exploitation of the Dreamtime. It was called environmental vandalism by the Environment minister, Dorothy Kotz, and graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
by the South Australian chief of Aboriginal affairs.
Authenticity of the figure
While the figure was shown nude, if the picture were copied from a 19th-century photograph it has been said that it may have had a loin cloth. There was also initially some question as to whether the figure is holding a throwing stick or a boomerang, but these issues seem to have been resolved following discovery of the plaque and the origin of the plaque quote and likely source photographs of similar nude hunters. The hand which is not throwing has the correct posture in the normal Aboriginal technique for throwing. The initiationInitiation
Initiation is a rite of passage ceremony marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components...
scars placed on the chest have also been said to have been placed perfectly. The figure appears to be an amalgam of the body of a man photographed in the distinctive throwing stance and the head of another man wearing a headband
Headband
A headband is a clothing accessory worn in the hair or around the forehead, usually to hold hair away from the face or eyes. Headbands generally consist of a loop of elastic material or a horseshoe-shaped piece of flexible plastic or metal...
and chignon
Chignon (hairstyle)
A chignon is a popular type of hairstyle. The word “chignon” comes from the French phrase “chignon du cou,” which means nape of the neck. Chignons are generally achieved by pinning the hair into a knot at the nape of the neck or at the back of the head, but there are many different variations of...
.
External links
- View in Google Maps:
- Audio Interviews with Brad Thompson, Marree-based pilot: Centenary of Federation - Connecting the Continent