The Nullarbor Nymph, referring to supposed sightings of a half naked woman living amongst kangaroos on the Nullarbor Plain, was a hoax perpetrated in Australia between 1971 and 1972.
The first report on 26 December 1971 was by kangaroo shooters from Eucla in Western Australia, near the border with South Australia. They claimed to have seen a blond, white woman amongst some kangaroos, and backed their story with grainy amateur film showing a woman wearing kangaroo skins and holding a kangaroo by the tail. After further sightings were claimed, the story was reported around the world, and journalists descended upon the town of Eucla which had a population of 8 people at the time.
The incident was eventually revealed as a hoax, initiated as a publicity stunt. The girl on film turned out to be a 17-year-old model named Janice Beeby.
Janice Beeby did appear in a photograph taken later, as evidence of the Nullarbor Nymph, but the woman in the original photograph used by the media to perpetuate the hoax, was Geneice Brooker,[1] the partner of Laurie Scott; Laurie was a professional kangaroo shooter who was one of the first hoaxers.
A 1993 thesis by Dora Dallwitz analyses the Nullarbor Nymph Hoax as a fantasy, opening it to the scrutiny of several psychoanalytic models.[2] The Nullarbor Nymph functioned then, and continues to function today on an archetypal level. Various meanings and implications of this idea are explored with reference to their value to both men and women. Notions of Australian national character are examined in the dissertation and it is suggested that the relationship of the Nullarbor Nymph to the land is an important issue. There is an investigation into the symbolic potential of the Nymph and proposals made about the way this potential might serve people today.