In June 1998 a charter pilot flying over the South Australian desert spotted a naked hunter carved into the earth — 2.7 km tall, with a 28 km perimeter, one of the largest artworks on the planet. Satellites proved it appeared in a 16-day window, yet no one saw a single machine at work, and to this day nobody knows who made it or why.
The core file: spotted 26 June 1998, lines up to 35 m wide, and a creator who has never come forward despite decades of investigation.
By comparing Landsat images, scientists pinned the figure's creation to a 16-day window between May 27 and June 12, 1998 — an alibi window with no suspect.
See the scale that makes this a mystery: a figure so vast it is legible from satellites, etched into terrain almost no one ever visits.
A tour through the whole enigma — the discovery, the impossible logistics of grading 28 km of lines unseen, and the theories that never quite fit.
The definitive shrug from a science desk: two miles tall, no witnesses, no confession, and a figure that has faded and been re-cut more than once.
Anonymous faxes hinting at American involvement, Olympic rings on a buried plaque, and artist Bardius Goldberg — who would neither confirm nor deny it before his death.
The strange trail of clues left behind — a buried plaque 5 m south of the nose, quotes from a 1946 book on Aboriginal hunters, and a US flag no one can explain.
Flying over the giant as the original pilots did — the only way the artwork can actually be experienced from the ground-bound world.