About the Min-Min Lights:
The Min Min Lights and the Min Min Hotel:
Boulia's fame rests largely on its association with the mysterious Min Min lights. No-one seems to know just exactly what the phenomenon is but there have been sightings now for nearly a century and even sceptics are convinced that the phenomenon really exists.
The Min Min lights first appeared near the site of the old Min Min Hotel which is located 73 km east of the town at the junction of the roads from McKinlay and Winton. The old hotel is now little more than a ruin although the bottles and the nearby graveyard are a reminder that it obviously had a colourful past.
The hotel burned down in 1918 and shortly after that a stockman was followed by a light on his journey to Boulia. It often appears just after dark and is said to be similar to a car headlight except that it manifests itself as a small ball and often follows a traveller for some kilometres before disappearing into the darkness. Among the many rumours associated with the light is the suggestion that anyone who chases it and catches it will disappear.
Many people have encountered theses lights, and many stories are told because of this. Some speculate, that the lights seem to have some sort of intelligence and a 'playful manor' since they are claimed sometimes to 'follow' a person, or do a specific detailed 'deed,' sometimes constantly. They are often described as fox-fire, will 'o wisps, UFO's and other Paranormal Phenomenon, but scientists suggest that strain fields produced in the flexing of the earth's crust can move through an area and create magnetic and electrical effects that produce these bizarre lights. Medieval Europeans believed these lights to be dragons, faeries, sprites and other's... and many cultures still interpret them in that way. In parts of Africa, they are aku, or 'devil'. To many Malaysians they are considered to be pennangal, the ghostly heads of women who have died during childbirth. Around Darjeeling, India, they are thought to be the lanterns of the chota admis, or 'little men,' and in many other societies they are regarded as religous manifestations.
Min Mins Now
6:36am - Wednesday 13 November 2002
Whether they're seen as ghosts, spirits, extra-terrestrials or electrostatic disturbances, the mysterious 'min min lights' of non-urban legend have been associated with some genuinely unnerving tales ~ car headlights that veer off roads into paddocks and rise smoothly over fences without crashing, the people who get up from outback campfires to follow lights hanging low in the sky and are never seen again, glowing luminous balls that follow walkers down country roads at night, without ever catching up with them.
Now, after a decade's research, Fred Silcock, author of a soon to be published book on the lights, offers an explanation that puts them firmly back into the Natural World.
Publications: 'The Min Min Light: The Visitor Who never Arrives'
Author: Fred Silcock
Publisher: Self published
Further information:
For a copy of the book, contact Fred via his email address:
UQ scientist unlocks secret of Min Min lights
27-Mar-2003
A UQ neuroscientist has revealed the probable basis of a bizarre Australian Outback phenomenon that has baffled observers and scientists for centuries.
The western Queensland town of Boulia has built its tourist reputation on Min Min lights, mysterious lights that seem to follow travellers for long distances.
Professor Jack Pettigrew said despite intense interest in the Min Min, they had never been explained in a satisfactory way.
"The Min Min light seems to have magical qualities, sometimes following observers, even as they speed away in vehicles, while at other times seeming to retreat shyly," he said.
Professor Pettigrew, who is the Director of UQ's Vision, Touch and Hearing Research Centre, provides an optical explanation and data about Min Min lights in the current edition of Clinical and Experimental Optometry, the journal of the Optometrists Association of Australia.
He used his skills in the vision sciences combined with extensive first-hand experience of the Diamantina region of Western Queensland at night. Professor Pettigrew was studying an elusive nocturnal bird, the letter-winged kite in the region, where he encountered the phenomenon.
"The Min Min light occurs when light, from a natural or man-made source, is refracted to an observer who is tens, or even hundreds, of kilometres away, by an inverted mirage, or Fata Morgana," he said.
"Named after the Morgan fairy, who was reputed to be able to conjure cities on the surface of the sea ice, the Fata Morgana has a real physical phenomenon, being caused by a temperature inversion.
"A cold, dense layer of air next to the ground (or sea, or sea ice) carries light far over the horizon to a distant observer without the usual dissipation and radiation, to produce a vivid mirage that baffles and enchants because of its unfamiliar optical properties.
"In a celebrated and authenticated example, the Irish sea cliffs were seen floating in vivid greens and browns above the calm Atlantic by observers on a ship more than a thousand kilometres away.
"Wonderful during the day, such Fata Morgana can be terrifying at night when a single light source gives no hint that it is actually part of a mirage emanating from a great distance. Even hardened Outback observers can break down when they are unable to interpret the unusual optical properties of the light in terms of their own, very different, past experiences.
"The unusual terrain of the Channel Country makes the favourable atmospheric conditions more likely, while its isolation increase the impact of a single light source since the observer knows that it cannot be produced locally but sees it apparently there in front."
Professor Pettigrew said some people would prefer not to have the Min Min's mystique probed by city slickers.
"I apologise to them. However, knowing more about the unusual weather conditions responsible, could improve one's chances of seeing it," he said.
"Increased knowledge has certainly not lessened my own wonderment at the phenomenon on those infrequent occasions I've witnessed it."
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Another related news article:
Mystery of the Min Min lights explained
Friday, 28 March 2003
Jack Pettigrew and a Min Min light (Pic: University of Queensland)
An Australian neuroscientist claims he can conjure up the mysterious Australian outback phenomenon of the Min Min lights, now that he has worked out what causes them.
Professor Jack Pettigrew, of the University of Queensland in Brisbane claims the lights are actually an inverted mirage of light sources which are, in some cases, hundreds of kilometres away over the horizon.
Pettigrew studied the phenomenon in the Channel Country, Western Queensland, where he said it has been disturbing the locals for many years.
"I talked to old timers out there who had seen it and they were terrified by it," he told ABC Science Online. "It's a bit embarrassing for them because hardened outback men can be brought to tears by this thing. It really is quite alarming."
"Just imagine you were sitting in your living room and a light appeared hovering in the middle of the room and as you moved your head to try and see the cause of the light, the light moved with you."
When Pettigrew first encountered the Min Min he thought it was the planet Venus: "But it didn't set. It went down to the horizon and then sat on the horizon for some time."
On a later occasion while driving with colleagues, the three saw what they thought was the eyeshine of a cat about 50 metres in front of their vehicle. However when they stopped and turned out the headlights, it was still there, bobbing around as if it had a life of its own.
"We had a big argument no one could agree what it was and how far away it was."
Pettigrew and his two companions drove across the plains and used a car compass to work out how far away the light was, but had to drive five kilometres before there was any change in the direction of the compass.
"We calculated it was over 300 km away which was over the horizon," Pettigrew said.
They later found out there had been a car driving straight towards them at the time they had seen the light.
Refraction of a distant light source around the globe (Pic: Clinical and Experimental Optometry)
Fata Morgana
Fata Morgana of a distant mountain range (Pic: Clinical and Experimental Optometry)
Pettigrew - who been reading about the Fata Morgana in which landforms that are beyond the horizon appear to float above it in an inverted form - thought this might help explain the Min Min lights.
Such mirages are caused by a temperature inversion, where cold dense air is trapped next to the ground under a layer of warmer air. A certain shape of temperature inversion will mean that light near the ground will be refracted in such a way that it travels in a curved path around the globe.
"It's like the way light travels in a fibre optic, no matter which way you bend the fibre," he said. "The light is being carried hundreds of kilometres by this layer of air that traps the light and stops it from being dispersed."
To test his theory that Min Min lights were actually a night-time phenomenon caused by the same factors that cause Fata Morgana, Pettigrew then set out to demonstrate he could produce one.
"I actually created a Min Min," he said.
First he chose a night which had the right weather conditions: a cool evening following a hot day with little wind. He then drove 10 kilometres away over a slight rise into a watercourse, below the normal line of site of such a distant light. Six observers witnessed the light of the car float above the horizon, Pettigrew reports.
In the light of the morning after the demonstration, Pettigrew said there was a spectacular Fata Morgana of a distant mountain range, which supported the idea that the Min Min had been due to the specific atmospheric conditions at the time.
"A mountain range that was normally not visible [because it was over the horizon] floated up off the horizon and gradually got dissected by fingers of blue sky, which finally sunk below the horizon as the sun warmed the air."
The chances of seeing Min Min and Fata Morgana are higher in the Channel Country because it is flat with gentle hollows, where cold air is particularly likely to get trapped, and because there is usually a clear view of the horizon.
More Info?
Look, up in the sky, it's a bird poo, it's a plane, it's a trick of the eye
By Richard Macey
April 7 2003
They have been blamed on flying saucers, evil spirits and mythical beasts. The "Min Min lights" appear in the night sky, dancing above the horizon, sometimes chasing victims along dusty roads.
Boulia Shire Council, in western Queensland, self-proclaimed home of the mystery, even boasts a Min Min Encounter Centre, a $2 million shrine to the mystery.
Every year it attracts thousands of visitors wanting to view its high-tech simulation or buy Min Min lights T-shirts, fridge magnets, key rings or stubby holders.
But now a scientist has apologised to Boulia for not only explaining the mystery - but saying he can create them. "I know they are going to be upset," said Jack Pettigrew, a neuroscientist. "I have apologised."
Professor Pettigrew, director of Queensland University's Vision, Touch and Hearing Research Centre, first saw the lights more than 10 years ago. He said they often resembled a fuzzy ball, up to half the size of a full moon.
"They are extremely alarming," he said. "They follow you. There can be red ones and green ones. They dance a lot and sometimes they split in two." However, they were not magic.
"They are caused by temperature inversions. You need a hot day during winter that's followed by a cool, clear night."
Temperature inversions occur when a dense layer of cold air is trapped below warmer air and are well known for catching brown smog in the Sydney basin.
In the outback, inversions work like a lens, bending car lights, the moon, bushfires and other lights over the horizon.
"The atmosphere acts like a big fibre-optic light pipe. It looks very close but it can be hundreds of kilometres away," Professor Pettigrew said.
He even claimed he had "put on a Min Min show" by driving into the outback when conditions were right and turning on his headlights. Colleagues 20 kilometres away suddenly saw a fuzzy ball of moving light.
The chief executive of Boulia Shire, Kelvin Tytherleigh, agreed the lights were important to the local economy. But he doubted that the explanation, published in Clinical and Experimental Optometry, the journal of the Optometrists Association of Australia, would harm interest.
"A lot of people have tried to explain it," said Mr Tytherleigh. "Some say it's luminous vegetation birds have eaten. Some say it is caused by natural gasses seeping from fissures in the ground. We invite every scientist in Australia to come and have a look."
He said the $12 family entry fee to see the centre's light show would be waived at Easter as a "special" incentive.
Min Min Lights Mystery Solved
04/19/2003 17:13
Legends say that Min Min Lights are the souls of the dead who have somehow been delayed on Earth
Australian scientist Jack Pettigrew says he has not only solved the mystery known as the Min Min Lights, but also managed to reproduce the strange luminescence in his experiments. In the past, Min Min Lights frightened and disturbed locals and travelers in West Queensland. The lights could be regularly seen in a desert area called Channel Country. Usually, the lights are spherical in form. If the lights are neared, they move along with the approacher and even sometimes change color.
Legends say that Min Min Lights are the souls of the dead people who have somehow been delayed on Earth. The lights have also been alleged to be UFOs or extraterrestrials themselves. The mysterious lights have been compared with ball lighting, but the comparison is not precise, as the lights are less hostile toward people than ball lighting.
Other hypotheses explain the mysterious lights by recourse to glowing radioactive fallout or triboluminescence, gas that glows as a result of friction between crystalline rocks in fissures. Rather fantastic explanations of the phenomenon have sometimes appeared: People have said that the lights were just hares with fireflies stuck in their fur. In a word, the fantasies were endless.
However, all the above-mentioned hypotheses lacked accuracy and clarity; and nobody has managed to reproduce the Min Min Lights in practice.
Pettigrew has himself observed the lights on two occasions. The first time, the scientist thought the glowing light was Venus; however, its behavior light refuted the supposition. It seemed as if the Min Min Lights were dancing over the horizon, then stood motionless and, finally, disappeared. The second time Pettigrew saw the Min Min Lights was while driving a car with colleagues from the University of Queensland. At first, they thought the lights were a cat's eyes, but, when their headlights were off, the men saw that the lights were not the eyes of a cat, but still remained in the air.
As it turned out later, many kilometers from the place where the mysterious lights were observed, another car with the its lights on was driving toward Pettigrew's automobile. This became the first hint for the scientist, who started working on his own theory about the mysterious phenomenon.
The lights regularly appear in definite places, and this suggested to the scientist the idea that they could be connected with the specific character of the landscape. Then, Pettigrew studied many instances in which Min Min Lights had been observed and derived another regularity: Dependence upon weather conditions.
The scientist compared the obtained data and decided to hold an experiment to reproduce the Min Min Lights. Pettigrew decided to hold the experiment on a hot day that was to be followed with a cold windless day. He drove 10 kilometers away from observers who were participating in the experiment. He chose a desert route with a slight hilly slope. Min Min Lights dancing over the horizon were seen by six observers. Pettigrew arrived at the conclusion that car headlight together with an atmospheric "tunnel effect" were the cause of the mysterious lights.
?Tunnel effect¦ means that the light does not disperse and travels through a layer of cold air between the ground and a layer of warmer air. The rays of light curve as a result of an anomalous refraction-index distribution. One more mystery of nature was successfully solved: It turned out that Min Min Lights are just an optical illusion, some kind of fata morgana.
Such atmospherically produced optical illusions can be upper, lower and lateral. The upper kind occurs because of an inversion distribution of air temperature above cold ground. The lower optical illusion can be observed when the temperature suddenly drops over a superheated flat surface. One can see such optical illusions on superheated city roads in the summer, when it may seem that the asphalt is wet. In fact, in such cases, we are seeing an optical illusion caused by the sky, which makes the road appear so unusual. Lateral optical illusions can be seen in rocky areas. In the case of the Min Min Lights, we are talking about the lower variety of optical illusion.
Australia's Min Min Lights are not unique. In the U.S. state of Missouri, there is a "ghost-light road" where mysterious lights often chase travelers. Locals describe the lights as glowing yellow-orange and about the size of a football.
In western Texas, there are the so-called ?Marfa's mystery lights.¦ According to witnesses, the lights can change color, and they disappear as soon as someone attempts to approach them. In the 1960s, Texas citizens experienced "a lights fever" ? people tried to chase down the lights on horses and in cars, and special expeditions were even organized for this purpose. Some participants in this campaign said that the light re-appeared when people drove their cars away from and looked back.
An explanation resembling atmospheric illusions of the lower optical illusion sort was given in the book ?The Marfa Lights, A Viewer's Guide¦ by Dennis Stacy. The author wrote that the lights are just an optical illusion created by car headlights going up a hill. However, most skeptical people think that the "tunnel effect" is not a good explanation for all instances of the mysterious Texas lights.
In Great Britain, the will-o'-the-wisp was for the first time described in the times of Shakespeare. People said that the lights lured men into morasses in order to kill them. The phenomenon has been explained by saying that the glow may be caused by the luminescence of methane bursting from the swamp.
The structure and behavior of the above-mentioned mysterious lights are all very different, which is why the explanation of the Min Min Lights given by Jack Pettigrew may not be applicable in the case of other sorts of lights. To all appearances, all of them have an individual nature, which has not yet been thoroughly studied by scientists.
Any stories our viewers may have of Min-Min Lights are welcome! Please submit here, they will be placed on THIS page! Also, any pictures of roadsigns with 'Min-Min Lights' on them, or of the lights themselves can also be submitted here.
Maureen Kozicka also wrote the first book, by going out looking for the lights and collecting stories about them titled:
"The Mystery of the Min Min Light."
Bush bard's poetry inspired by spooky connection
05jul03
A SPOOKY family connection with outback Queensland's mysterious min-min lights proved a winner for multi-award-winning bush poet Melanie Hall at last weekend's Australian bush poetry championships at Winton.
Hall is rapidly branding her name on the Australian bush poetry landscape, taking out runner-up in the Australian Female Champion category to reigning champ Janine Haig, as well as new Junior Australian Bush yarn Spinning Champion.
Hall's latest win follows more top honours two weeks ago at Charters Towers with three trophies and the title of Overall Female Champion at the Geaney's Festival of Bush Poetry, as well as her big win of the prestigious Golden Damper at last year's Tamworth Country Music Festival.
The bubbly 37-year-old Townsville mother of two is a late starter to bush poetry, having only started writing and performing her own material 18 months ago. She inherited her love of verse from her dad Frank Fayers, a bush poet for 40 years.
"I feel that bush poetry is just storytelling in verse," Hall said this week.
"I would describe my style as bush storytelling with a woman's voice.
"I am Townsville born and bred, but my family all comes from out Boulia -- Julia Creek way.
"My work is largely inspired by my family history and just plain good bush yarns, such as the poem I wrote for the Winton championships.
"My family built the Min-Min Hotel outside Winton back in 1888, and my great-great-great-great-grandmother Mary Lilley was the publican until her death in 1897.
"The poem is about the first recorded sightings by a frightened stockman of the strange min-min lights over her grave a short time later, and how since then over the past 100 years, members of our family have seen the min-min lights when a family member has just died."
Story:
Min Min lights my story
Urban Legend
7/21/07
In 1972 as a young Airman in the Royal Australian Air Force. I was posted at Edninburgh in South Australia. One evening a Police Officer arrived and advised me that my mother was gravely ill in Sydney. A hurried trip was arranged and my wife and I drove through the night to get back to Sydney. During the trip across the Hay Plains I was driving the only car on the road. I noticed what I first thought was a motorcycle following me a fair distance back. As I drove on I noticed that the colour of the light was not yellow but blue. Then I realized as it got closer that it was off to the side of the road and not on its surface. The light stayed some 100 metres back and followed me for over a hundred miles. It disappeared when we near the precints of Hay. When I arrived back in Sydney I was told my mother died that night, around the time I had witnessed the Min Min light.
Ron Bromley
nsw
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