Case file · Apparition / miracle
Our Lady of the Fence Post, Coogee
In January 2003 crowds gathered at Dolphins Point, Coogee, where at certain hours a fence post appeared to show the Virgin Mary; vandals smashed the fence on 9 February.
2003 CE · -33.92, 151.26 · status: explained
The account
The image appeared only on sunny afternoons when light struck the post at an angle. The Archdiocese of Sydney never investigated; a shrine still marks the spot, and religion scholar Carole Cusack studied it as a broadly spiritual, non-denominational event.
The sceptical view
An optical effect of shape and shadow, as even its first promoter acknowledged.