Dick Smith Offers Money to Anyone Who Can Solve This Riddle

The giant Marree Man artwork etched into the SA outback remains a mystery
Giant figure can only be fully seen from the air, which it first was 20 years ago
No one knows who created it but some say Americans others a local artist
Dick Smith is offering a $5000 reward to anyone who can solve the riddle

With his nether region stretching for more than 400 metres, there is no doubting the Marree Man’s manhood.

However, in proof that size does indeed matter, anyone who can explain how the 4.2km tall figure, also known as Stuart’s Giant, came to be sketched into the red dust of central Australia stands to pocket the hefty amount of $5,000.

That’s the sum put up by business entrepreneur Dick Smith in 2018 to find out who is behind the artwork that appears to show an Indigenous hunter throwing a boomerang or spear in remote South Australia, about 700km north of Adelaide.

No one knows how the 4.2km figure Marree Man was etched into the remote outback of central Australia or who did it

The figure, which has an outline measuring 28km in length and whose etchings are roughly 45 metres wide and 35cm deep into the desert, has been named after the nearest small settlement of Marree.

Such is the scale of Marree Man that it was only recognised as a single sketch by a man named Trec Smith, who was flying a small airplane overhead in 1998.

‘It was huge and sculpted really deeply,’ Mr Smith said in the short 2016 film ‘The Mystery of the Marree Man’.

‘It was really noticeable, so I thought at the time everyone must have known about up there – that is was so obvious.

‘When we got back into Marree, of course, that wasn’t the case. No one knew anything about it.’

Businessman Dick Smith describes the Marree Man as a ‘class whodunnit’ and offers $5000 to any one able to solve the mystery

A few days later, anonymous faxes were sent to Marree businesses and SA media outlets.

‘On a plateau 36 miles north-west of Marree, there is a giant drawing of an Aboriginal more than two miles long,” the first fax said.

The faxes had American spelling and references, such as measuring the distance in miles.

A few days later, authorities discovered an American flag near the Marree Man and a note that mentioned infamous US cult the Branch Davidians.

A later fax promised there was a dedicatory plaque that been buried close to Marree Man’s nose.

Following the fax’s directions, authorities dug up the plaque along with an American flag and what seemed to be Olympic rings.