Marree Man mystery lives on, a year after Dick Smith offers $5000 reward

A $5000 reward to help solve the mystery of who created the Marree Man has so far failed to dig up any convincing leads on the landmark.

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A $5000 reward to help solve the mystery of who created the Marree Man has so far failed to dig up any convincing leads on the landmark.

Entrepreneur Dick Smith offered the reward in June 2018 and said since then, about 30 people have contacted him.

However, of those, no-one offered any evidence.

Entrepreneur Dick Smith offered the reward in June 2018 but said no-one has offered any evidence.

“Some of them claimed that they’d been involved in doing it so I said, ‘Well, how did you do it?’ and they’d make up stories about laser beams,” Mr Smith said.

The Marree Man was discovered in 1998, marking his 21st birthday this week. Following his creation, a series of anonymous faxes were sent to The Advertiser and hotels in William Creek, Marree and the UK.

Mr Smith said he’d had several people contact him believing Alice Springs artist Bardius Goldberg was involved in the artwork’s creation. Goldberg was said to have confessed to several people.

But Mr Smith believed that was impossible because he could “barely write”. “All the faxes that were sent to The Advertiser showed evidence that (the person) could not only write but I think it was someone wealthy in the Adelaide establishment or someone tied up with the

government or semi-government, say, university, who did it,” he said.

“It was all about getting publicity for SA so it could compare with New South Wales, with its Opera House, and the Northern Territory with Ayers Rock.”

He has spoken to about 200 people over two years, to find out who created Marree Man, but still has “absolutely no idea”.

The identity of those who created the Marree Man remains a mystery. Picture: Simon Cross.

“I reckon they should be given an award by the SA Government for creating all that tourism,” Mr Smith said.

“The person should get a knighthood. I’m going to keep searching — it’s a lovely challenge. I’m utterly convinced that I will get the answer to this one.”

In 1978, Mr Smith found the wreck of the Kookaburra aircraft which had crashed in the Tanami Desert, in the Northern Territory. Then in 1989, he and wife Pip found the wreckage of the Weapons Research Establishment Satellite, in the Simpson Desert.

Mr Smith believes the Marree Man was inspired by other similar artworks in England, including the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset, England and the Long Man of Wilmington, East Essex.

“It’s my belief that someone in the UK had seen these things and realised the enormous publicity they get and thought, ‘I could give it a go in SA’.

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