For more than a decade, a giant puzzle has been sitting in the sand of one of Sydney's most popular beaches. In that time it's become the pride and joy of locals and a popular tourist attraction, but this week observant passers-by may have noticed a change.
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00:00 If you've ever taken a walk along Sydney's Maroubra Beach,
00:04 you might have come across this - a giant puzzle sitting in the sand.
00:09 15 years ago, under the cover of darkness,
00:12 two locals transformed the old concrete stormwater drain into a Rubik's Cube.
00:18 It was so popular that it was allowed to become a permanent fixture.
00:23 These days, the council forks out for a new paint job every couple of years.
00:27 When you have something like that that is done by local artists,
00:31 it is a little bit edgy, you know, they didn't quite do it with permission,
00:35 but it didn't harm anyone, it looks amazing, and so we 100% support that.
00:40 It's become an icon, it's so good, it's an icon, yeah.
00:44 It's like typical Maroubra.
00:46 It's mad, you can't move it, but...
00:48 I'm into it, I like it, I'd like to know who painted it.
00:51 It's inspired others to get creative too.
00:54 Johnny makes costumes for the landmark on special occasions.
00:58 I turned it into a lamington on Lamington Day,
01:03 and another one I did, I got Christmas paper and wrapped it in Christmas paper
01:08 with a big red bow, it just had Merry Christmas to the community.
01:13 Google Maps has the Rubik's Cube marked as a tourist attraction.
01:17 Wikipedia lists it on its page of Australia's big things.
01:21 It even features in a children's book as a portal to another dimension.
01:26 But some have been calling for an update.
01:30 I feel like it needs to be solved straight out,
01:32 because how many years has that been here for now?
01:34 Since 2008.
01:35 Mate, yeah, I reckon someone needs to solve that.
01:38 With these colours painted on in these positions,
01:41 even if this cube was functional, it technically wouldn't be solvable.
01:46 But one of the great things about art is its ability
01:49 to make even the impossible possible.
01:52 This week, Maroubrin's work to find the puzzle finally and suddenly solved.
01:59 It's been repainted, I've just noticed it.
02:02 It's kind of cool now seeing it with the full colours together
02:05 to see how it would look like that.
02:07 I don't like it.
02:08 I quite like the randomness of it being kind of unsolved.
02:12 We can always change it up.
02:13 I thought that the wind had got it and tumbled it around
02:18 and solved itself.
02:19 No, I like it the old way.
02:21 So, yeah, change it back.
02:24 For now, the artists are opting to maintain the mystique
02:28 of their anonymity, but they told me they'd been wanting
02:31 to solve the cube for a while.
02:33 So I guess that leaves one big question.
02:36 Will it stay this way, or will the locals insist
02:40 on disorder being restored?
02:42 I personally think Council should respect the artists' decision-making
02:47 in this, and so it's nice to see it suddenly change.
02:51 Maybe at some point in the future they'll change it back
02:54 or into something different.
02:56 In a world full of seemingly intractable problems,
02:59 here's at least one we can tick off the list.
03:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]