Dixie Sulda and Narelle Graham* reveal the secrets behind Magnetic Hill where gravity ‘reverses’ in outback SA.
A giant magnet that sits on Magnetic Hill in South Australia’s outback has often been speculated as the reason why ‘gravity reverses’ at the tourist destination.
The hill, which is about 7 kilometres from Black Rock in Orroroo in the Mid North, is known for making vehicles feel like they are rolling up it.
In approaching Magnetic Hill, visitors are instructed to turn their car’s ignition off, select neutral, and not activate their brakes.
Steel vehicles will go uphill, while plastic and aluminium will go downhill, the signage reads.
Of the thousands of visitors, many are left scratching their heads as to why gravity seemingly reverses at the site.
Kathie Bowman, Mayor of the District Council of Orroroo Carrieton, said there were many stories about the hill but the one she was familiar with happened in the late 1960s or early 1970s.
“The guy who owned the farm directly north of it was driving his sheep on the road, which contains Magnetic Hill from the paddock that was east of the hill, to his home property which was west of the hill,” Ms Bowman said.
“As you do when you’re driving along on what you think or presume is a downhill slope, you put your ute in neutral and follow your sheep down the bottom of the hill.
“So he tried that but he didn’t follow the sheep down the bottom of the hill — he went the other way.”
After mates of the man discovered the gravity shift, they nicknamed it BS (bullsh*t) hill.
“But after it got a bit more notoriety and a few more tourists heard about it and started to come up to experience the phenomenon, the local chairman of the council at the time decided it needed a better name,” she said.
So what causes it?
A nearby resident made the magnet symbol at the hill “for a bit of fun”, Ms Bowman said.
Despite many believing the magnet was the cause of the feeling, Ms Bowman said she believed it was an optical illusion.
“Apparently due to the fact that you cannot see the horizon … this is what I’ve been told,” she said.
“If you can’t see the horizon, because you’re surrounded by hills, you get a different sensation of levels, and inclines and declines,” she said.
“It’s an incredible, exhilarating feeling quite frankly.”
Hill causes rookie error
Ms Bowman said the local grader driver who levels the road on Magnetic Hill was caught out by the illusion after he graded the waterways on the side of road.
“He got a phone call from some of the locals saying “John, you’ve actually graded the waterways the wrong way, the water was running uphill because he was confused that it was downhill but it’s not, it’s actually uphill,” she said.
*Dixie Sulda is the Regional Drive producer for ABC Radio South Australia and Broken Hill. Narelle Graham is a senior journalist with ABC Goulburn Murray based in the Wodonga newsroom.
This article first appeared at abc.net.au.
