Australian government UFO files I would like to find

Hi all,

Introduction:

Over the years I have accessed over a hundred Australian government UFO files, via either the Archives Act or the Freedom of Information Act. However, there are a number of files which I have not been able to locate. I'll describe what I know of these; perhaps a blog reader has come across them?

Darwin RAAF files:

National Archives of Australia (NAA) file series E1327 contains three files which I have  seen, namely control symbols 5/4/Air Parts 1, 6, and 6/7. The file titles are "Unusual sightings and incidents." I asked a reference officer at the NAA Darwin office if they could locate parts 2,3, 4 & 5 of this series. Their response was that they had "...no record of thse files coming into our possession." The originating agency for the series at the moment is  RAAF No 321 Combat Support Wing, Darwin, based at RAAF Base Winnellie.

HQ Support Command:

NAA file series A9755 control symbol 4 is a file formerly numbered B 5758 control symbol 5/6/1 Air part 8 with a date range of 1978-1989. I had a copy of the file digitised. It contains UFO reports from 1978. File series A9755 control symbol 5 has the same title with a  date range of 1986-1992, hence not available under the Archives Act. I asked a reference officer at the NAA Melbourne office if they could locate parts 1-7? Their response was that an examination of file series B5758 and B5759 had failed to locate any other parts held by them. This could imply that the files had been destroyed in accordance with standard Archive procedures, or that the originating agency still holds onto them.

SEC.CD2/2:

There are references on a number of files e.g. file series PP4741/1 control symbol 5/5/Air (16 Jan 1951); A11339 control symbol 5/7/Air Part 1 (21 Nov 1953) andA703 control symbol 554/1/30 part 1 (16 Nov 1953), to a file numbered SEC.CD2/2.

In March 2005 a Disclosure Australia representative, David Hearder, found a file series A1196 control symbol 29/506/13 Part 1 which contained a top numbered document from a DAFI file numbered CC1/3. It had some top numbered documents in exactly the same format as the Jan 1951 document mentioned above. David therefore deduced that file SEC/CD2/2 was an early DAFI file.

Folio 37 of file series A703 control symbol 554/1/30 Part 2 has a memo on it, which in part, says, "...the loss of Part 1 of the file 114/1/197 (ex CD2/2) in the move of the Department from Melbourne to Canberra. Two searches through records and the archives has failed to trace this file."

A request by me in 2005 to the RAAF Historical Section also failed ot locate this file.

The 1954 Nowra incident:

Australian researcher Bill Chalker interviewed the main witness to this case, Shamus O'Farrell, involved in the 31 Aug 1954 aircraft encounter near Nowra, NSW. In an article, by Bill, he wrote that O'Farrrell met J Allen Hynek in 1973. Farrell said "I had a telephone call one day from Sir Arthur Tange saying that Hynek was coming and he would like me to meet him. I said, well, I haven't got all the facts, they're all a bit hazy. So he sent me the two Defence Department files over to read, to refresh it all..." It was all investigated by the Joint Intelligence Bureau."

I'd like to locate these two Defence files.

Department of Supply files:

The Disclosure Australia Project located a number of Department of Supply files dealing with UFOs. However, on some RAAF files there appear reference numbers to Department of Supply files apparently dealing with UFOs. Yet, these have never been located.

The Westall incident:

RAAF officers were reportedly involved in the 6 Apr 1966, Westall High School, Clayton, Melbourne event where students and at least one teacher, reported observing an unusual object both in the sky, and at close range. However, despite searches by a number of people, no-one has yet located any RAAF or other agency documentation on this spectacular case. If any blog reader knows of such material, I'd like to hear from them.

Hope:

There is always hope that files such as the ones above, and others currently unknown, will in fact, turn up. I have had a couple of instances myself of just this.

One time, I submitted a request for any files on various Australian UFO groups held by the intelligence agency, ASIO. The initial ASIO response was that they held no such files. A year later, an ASIO file on the Queensland Flying Saucer Research Bureau quietly turned up, unannounced in the NAA. I came across it by accident while looking for other material.

A more recent example is the discovery of the Department of Transport Aircraft Accident Investigation file on the 1978 disappearance of Frederick Valentich, which again, quietly turned up in the NAA. Its presence went unseen, until I literally stumbled over it looking for other files.

So, there just may be hope for us to come across the files I have mentioned in this post.