NASA's Landsat-8 satellite has captured a mysterious geoglyph on the surface of the Finnis Springs Plateau in South Australia. The drawing in the form of an Aboriginal with a stick or a boomerang in his hand was first seen by a pilot from a height of 3000 meters in 1998.
The 3.5-kilometer long geoglyph was named the Marree Man by analogy with the nearest settlement. By 2013, the lines had worn off due to erosion and were barely visible. In August 2016, local entrepreneurs, concerned about the loss of a tourist site, decided to restore the disappearing geoglyph. Using the exact GPS coordinates of the original and a construction geider, they redrawn Murray Man in five days.
To make the renewed geoglyph last longer, restorers made furrows to trap water and stimulate vegetation growth. Over time, they hope, the vegetation will turn the lines of the drawing green.
The question of who and why created this geoglyph remains a matter of controversy. There were reports that he was somehow connected with the Scottish traveler John Stewart, therefore he has a second name - Stuart Giant. Next to the geoglyph, after its discovery, a memorial plaque was found with the American flag, Olympic rings and a quote from Headley Finlayson's book "Red Center", written in 1946. This indicates its relatively small age.
This satellite image was acquired on June 22, 2019.