Marree, South Australia
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Marree (Template:Coor dm) is a small town located in the north of South Australia. It lies at the junction of the Oodnadatta Track and the Birdsville Track, to the south of Lake Eyre.
The area is the home of the Kujani people. The first European to explore the area was Edward John Eyre, who passed through in 1840.
Originally called Hergott Springs, the name of the town was changed to Marree during the time of the First World War. The Central Australia Railway reached the town in 1884, and the town became a major railhead for the cattle industry. The railway then continued north from the town to Alice Springs. For many years, this was the route of the passenger train known as The Ghan. In recent years, the railway has been moved hundreds of kilometres to the west.
The town was also the home of the legendary Tom Kruse, one of the men who drove the mail trucks from Marree to Birdsville in Queensland, a distance of some 700 kilometres. This route crosses some of the most challenging sandy and stony desert country in Australia, and it was a remarkable feat for fully loaded trucks to make the run at all.
The name "Marree" was referred to briefly around the world when in 1998, a chalk figure etched into the landscape 60 km west of Marree was discovered, dubbed the "Marree Man". Calls were made to turn it into a state icon but an unimpressed native population preferred to let it fade naturally back into the landscape.
Marree is in the federal Division of Grey and the state electorate of Stuart. It is outside of council areas, and administered by the Outback Areas Community Development Trust.