Making light of a
mystery
By Ashleigh Wilson
December 26, 2003
It bobs around on the horizon - a strange, fuzzy circle of light
they call the Min Min. And in Boulia, a small town in western
Queensland, there's no shortage of theories about what it is.
"I reckon it's an emu running around with a torch up its arse,"
says council worker Robert "Bruiser" Cooms. "That's what it's like,
exactly that."
For years, the legend of the Min Min light has been one of Boulia's
major tourist attractions, and the eerie phenomenon has even
managed to spook the most hardened bushmen. But now the locals are
fighting a new threat.
Faced with a rational explanation of the Min Min light by a
Brisbane academic, the people of Boulia are playing down the facts
and talking up the mystery. And no one's going to convince them
otherwise.
"You don't know where it is - it could be a hundred yards or a
hundred miles away," says Mr Cooms, 62, who last saw the light
while he was shooting kangaroos outside town.
"It can be really scary, but you just can't explain it."
Others politely disagree. Earlier this year, a neuroscientist from
the University of Queensland, Jack Pettigrew, achieved what none of
the locals wanted to know: he solved the mystery of the Min Min
light.
Professor Pettigrew showed the light was a product of a fata
morgana, or inverted mirage, and created one himself to prove
it.
He says the light is caused when a pocket of cold air is trapped
below warm air close to the ground.
But in a town that boasts an elaborate $2 million Min Min tourist
centre and thrives on the tourism dollars the phenomenon attracts,
they don't want to know too much.
There's even a prominent sign enticing visitors on the way into
Boulia to experience "this unsolved modern mystery". When telling
their own tales of Min Min encounters, the locals speak in hushed
and reverential tones.
Council worker Ned Rivas relates his own story, then grins when
asked how many he's seen. "It depends on how many of these you've
had," he says, pointing to his beer.
However, Professor Pettigrew insists he is not out to spoil the
fun. He even describes the light as "freaky'.
"It's not that I'm trying to take the piss out of them, or take the
wonder out of it, I'm just providing a basis for this phenomenon,"
he says.
For his part, Mr Cooms is quick to dismiss Professor Pettigrew's
findings and scientific approach.
"They should leave it alone," he says. "It's one of the great
mysteries of the world."