The first of the anonymous faxes arrived in July of 1998, and Peter Moore got one of them.

You have to remember it was a fair bit of time ago, and the interest at first wasn't particularly strong, and then it did become very popular.

Peter lived in Marie back then.

It's a small town in the Australian outback,

though maybe town is too strong.

In those days,

Mari had about 80 residents.

So you've got a police station,

you've got a school,

you had a lovely two-story pub,

you've got like a very small country town. Marie is hot and dry, even in the winter. Houses sit on big red dirt

lots. You could grow a lawn if you really wanted to, but fresh water is mostly reserved for

drinking. You even bathe in salt water. Yeah, the best thing we can do is use dishwashing liquid to bathe in.

Peter doesn't live there anymore, but back in 1998, he owned the Mari Hotel, which is where

he was the day that he got the facts.

One morning in the hotel, I got basically an untraceable fact stating that if I go for a fly out of

Marie, there could be something of interest for me.

The title of the facts was tourist attraction for Marie.

No sender name.

Peter wasn't the only one who got it.

Other businesses in the area got it too.

And here's how it opened.

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