Min Min lights or debil debil, can be found in aboriginal myth pre-dating western settlement of the region and have since become part of wider Australian folklore. According to eye witnesses, the lights sometimes follow or approached people, and have disappeared when people have fired upon them,only to reappear later on.
Hundreds of people over the years have told of seeing the Min Min Light in the Boulia district. The light got its name from the old Min Min "pub" and mail-change, which used to stand on the boundary of two big stations -Warenda and Lucknow. Only a stack of bottles, a dust heap, and the remnants of a cemetery, reminds us of what was. The locality is approximately 100 kilometres east of Boulia, just off the Boulia-Winton road.
Two men were driving near the Queensland Northern Territory border, out of Tennants Creek, in November 1979. They stopped for a break and also to wait for another truck following them.
The two men saw strange lights, which they took to be "bloody Min Min Lights." The other truck pulled in behind the first. Two aborigines with them became scared of the lights, calling them "debil, debil." They retreated to behind the trucks. The lights appeared to be about 3 feet in diameter and looked like a swirling ball shaped manifestation. The lights would change, ostensibly with the angle of observation, from a very pale grey, misty grey, to a hazy blue. When they moved the lights changed from a blue to a hazy blue, to a light green colour.
As the men closed in on the lights a peculiar smell, likened to ozone, was noticed. Horses that they were carrying on a float, became very agitated, and there was extensive static on the radio, like a very high-speed engine and buzzing noise. These aspects suggest a possible static electricity explanation, albeit a rather amazing form of it. One of the men took photos of the lights at a distance of only 30 feet. This extraordinary phenomenon remained in view for 4 to 6 minutes. As the group closed in on them, the lights went off across a paddock and down towards a gully, disappearing into a washout or "donga".
Accounts of the light appearances vary, though they are most commonly described as being fuzzy, disc-shaped lights that appear to hover just above the horizon.
They are often described as being white, though some accounts describe them as changing colour from white to red to green and back again. Some accounts describe them as being dim, others describe them as being bright enough to illuminate the ground under them and to cause nearby objects to throw clearly defined shadows.
In early1920 a Min Min light entered a Hotel in Outback Queensland it flew around the room for a few seconds and then left through the front door
Some witnesses describe the light as appearing to approach them several times before retreating. Others report that the lights were able to keep pace with them when they were in a moving motor vehicle.
Scientest believe Min Min Lights, could be Fata Morgana mirages, these mirages tremendously distort the object or objects which they are based on, such that the object often appears to be very unusual, and may even be transformed in such a way that it is completely unrecognizable. A Fata Morgana can be seen on land or at sea, in polar regions or in deserts. This kind of mirage can involve almost any kind of distant object, including such things as boats, islands, and coastline, as shown in the photographs which accompany this article.
Some say it is a unknown natural phenomenon involving low-level air oscillations; or ionisation in geophysically-generated electrical fields (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) or "earth lights"
WARNING if you ever get caught by the Min Min lights, you will disappear completely".
NEVER follow the Min Min Lights of the Outback.
