Is The Marree Man Still Vsible From Planes ?

NINE years on and it is still clearly visible from the air, but who created the Marree Man may forever remain a mystery.

Situated in South Australia's Far North, 60km west of Marree, the 4.2km-long figure with a circumference of 28km was glistening in the Outback sunshine this week.

Claims that SA artist Bardius Goldberg carved the figure have never been officially endorsed because he died five years ago.

Marree General Store owner Bev Oldfield said the riddle of the Marree Man - which was discovered in 1998 - still baffled locals.

"People still talk about it, but we've got no idea who did it and whether it's going to be re-done," she said.

"We think the only people who would know who did it would be the Aboriginal Affairs Department, but we'll probably never, ever know.

"It seems to be slowly fading but if you're in the right spot you can still see it from the air. You can't drive out there and see it. The only way you can see it properly is from the sky."

Over the years the icon had lost some of its tourist appeal but nearly all of the Outback town's visitors knew about the mystery.

William Creek-based flight tour operator Trevor Wright, from Wright's Air, said tourists were still encouraged

to fly over the mystical Marree Man.

"From the southeast, the Marree Man is quite visible but you've got to be at the right height to see it, at between 3000 and 4000 feet (about 1100m)," he said.

"If you're below that height you can easily fly over and miss it, not getting the bigger picture.

"The tourism interest has waned a bit over the years, but people still talk about

it and when people ask whether it's worth seeing, I tell them that it is."

We did a flight from Marree last month with Wright's Air. I actually asked the pilot about "Marree Man" and was told "you can just make out his foot".

We flew out over Muloorina Station so were nowhere near east enough to see him...

I saw it by chance on a flight back from Thailand to Melbourne about 5 years ago.

I actually did not know about it at the time, but after seeing it I did my research and found out what it was.