Lake Eyre & Uluru

Parachilna is reinventing itself as a place of fossils. Once it was a station on the Ghan railway line on the way to Oodnadatta. More recently the lu e running past carried coal from Leigh Creek enroute to Port Pirie. The mine closed two years ago so the 10 minute earthquake like rumble is no more.

That line to Leigh Creek is no longer used and unless the mine reopens nature will take it away over time.Read more

Some of my readers may already have this story via MMS. Internet service in Marree was very poor so there has been no opportunity for a while to upload footprints.

We flew over Marree man on our lake Eyre Flight.

After 20 years, Marree Man is as much a mystery as he was when first discovered in 1998.

The huge 4 kilometre high geoglyph depicts an aboriginal man hunting with a boomerang or perhaps a throwing stick. The image was originally etched 150 to 200 mm into the red earth with lines around 40 meters wide. The location is a perfect canvas. A large very clear level plateau that is surrounded all around by 10 m cliffs that jump up from the vast salty plains.

The area was not used by aboriginals or even visited by many people but how someone managed to mark out the image and dig the impression is rather intriguing. Dick Smith was as curious as anyone and even offered a reward for information about the creator.

There is absolutely no evidence of who did it or how it was done. No tracks of any kind, no discarded items and curiously no satellite images. It is almost as if the creator had a lot of help to make the image.

Naturally some have speculated that the only way something like this could have been done involves aliens with advanced technology.

Some people here in Maree don't really care to find an explanation to this fine whodunit. It brings many visitors to the area who spend on accommodation, food and air charter flights.Read more