Introducing Keith Basterfield

Keith Basterfield here. I have been interested in the UFO phenomenon since the mid 1960's. In those years I lived in the United Kingdom and looked on, in amazement, as UFO report after UFO report appeared in the British media.

Moving to Australia in 1968, I joined a local UFO group and spent several years investigating reports first hand, both locally in South Australia and also in other states of Australia.

In these early days, the UFO phenomenon was one of observations of classic metallic objects often leaving ground traces. There was no published Australian abduction events, although "occupants" had been recorded.

Over the thirty years, during the period 1970-2000, I interviewed numerous Australians who came forward to report UFO encounters, including abductions. I spent quite a bit of time documenting my findings, and contributing to the global debate on the subject.

Between 2003 and 2008 I spent most of my time working with members of the Adelaide based Australian UFO Research Association (AURA) looking at the Federal Government's UFO files via both the Freedom of Information Act, and in the National Archives.

Also, during the latter period along came the rise of the Internet which allowed anyone to air their views to a broad audience. Serious research became buried under an avalanche of hoaxes, of the weird, of the bizarre, and of the unbelievable.

In response to a number of factors, I decided to give up my UFO research, in 2008.

Now, two years later, with a fresh perspective provided by time away from the subject, I have decided to return to this topic. I have initially decided to focus my limited time available on a couple of specific areas of research.

1, Cold cases. Old, classic UFO cases may be examined out of the media spotlight, and the demand for immediate responses. Perhaps, a more leisurely re-examination of "cold cases" may reveal a missed piece of data, a possible clue as to the case's cause.

2. Abduction/contactee cases. AURA in South Australia have been running a project now for about three years looking at abductee/contactee experiences. Some of their excellent research has already been published in the magazine "The UFOlogist." I aim to contribute to this area of research.

In addition, I look forward to some electronic intellectual discussions with "Pauline Wilson" who has been running this blog for over 12 months now. Thanks Pauline, for the opportunity to contribute to this blog.