ABC News (Australia) 7-10-98

Mystery Surrounds Huge Image In Australian Outback

Residents at Marree, near Lake Eyre in South Australia's north, are wondering who is behind a huge outline of a person they say has appeared north-west of the town.

Local resident Ray Goss says he is not sure how the outline was created but suspects someone used a grader and satellite-navigation gear to guide them. He says it is an impressive sight from the air and can apparently be seen from 30,000 feet.

"It's a drawing of an Aboriginal person," Mr Goss said. "He's holding something in his hand.

"It's probably four kilometres long and it would be, the thickness of the drawing itself, the outline, would be probably say 20 feet wide.

"It just sort of stands there and you can actually see it from one direction."

An anonymous person sent faxes about the drawing to local businesses earlier this week.

Mr Goss says it looks very impressive from the air.

"We were flying at 3,000 feet and we got to a big plateau and all you could basically see was a bit of an outline of a foot," he said.

"And then when the plane went round [the drawing] actually appeared and it was massive, really giant.

"[We] actually flew around it and as you fly around it, the ground just went back to the normal vegetation and you couldn't even see it was there."