....ABOUT THOSE TANNED LEGS....
Above you can see a weather map displaying temperature information across Australia from September 1947 to February 1948. Looking at this map, it doesn't seem like he would have got it from Victoria. If I have read it correctly, it looked like a fairly cool summer that year in Victoria with the temperature ranging from 18 degrees down to 14 or 15 degrees. C. If you click on the map it will take you to our Weather website, BOM. You will be able to select time periods from the various option boxes displayed.
My thoughts are that in order to get a long-lasting tan such as the one that the Somerton Man had, he would probably have been in a place where the temperatures were somewhere between the 25 to 35-degree range. Stand to be corrected on that of course but what do you think? Anywhere North of Victoria but given that he was found in Adelaide, it just might be that he was in the North of that State.
To clarify the information in this post about just where the man could have acquired his tanned legs. The inquest documents refer to the fact that the tan would have come from the previous season. The season when the an appeared on Somerton Beach was Spring, in fact it was the last day of Spring. The previous season was therefore winter.
ReplyDeleteNow we need to drill down further, the question I asked was how long does it take to get a tan and the answer according to various sources is between 7 to 10 days. Further the information I have read says that such a tan can last from a few weeks to 6 months. Our man was fair skinned and of European extraction. His tan, would therefore tend to fade more quickly but let's allow the 6 months which would mean he acquired his tanned legs in June 1948. The average temperature in Victoria in June 1948 was around 13 degrees, pretty chilly and not conducive to acquiring a decent long lasting tan.
So, where would he have got it? I suggested that it could be in the far North of South Australia, the average temperature there for that month was around 18 degrees but no doubt some days were higher. I need to confirm just what those temperatures were in that region. He would quite definitely have been able to get a tan further North, there is a band of higher temperatures stretching from Exeter in Western Australia to Rockhampton in Mid North Queensland and above that the Far Northern parts of WA, the Northern Territory and Far North Queensland would all qualify. If my information is correct, the man's tan was not acquired in Victoria or NSW. Please see the article on the Government Aircraft Factory employees here:
https://tamamshud.blogspot.com/2022/09/somerton-man-mystery-is-one-of-these.html
OR - a tan could have been “recently” obtained in the northern hemisphere somewhere?
ReplyDeleteI agree, could well be from Northern Climates in their summer and from the previous season. Something that may align with the theory that he was a seaman. Access to records of crew members of inbound ships is available on NAA and elsewhere, State records?
ReplyDelete