Follow ups to previous posts

Hi all,

I am emailed from time to time asking me whether or not there has been any further information  on a particular post. I thought I would take the opportunity to update you all on a few developments.

1. The 1942 "Tromp" case:

In 1957, an individual named William Jan Methorst of Melbourne, reported a fascinating and oft Internet quoted ( e.g. click here) observation to the Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society. In a letter to the Society, Methorst told how he had been on board the Dutch cruiser "Tromp" when he had sighted a UAP circling the ship. Click here to read my original post with more details.

I wondered if by any chance Methorst was still alive and whether any original documentation from 1942 could still be found. An electoral roll check at the State Library of South Australia did indeed reveal that one William Jan Methorst lived in 1957 at the address shown on the 1957 letter. However, I failed to be able to trace him beyond 1959 when he and his wife disappeared off the Victorian electoral rolls.

Recently, I managed to locate William Jan Methorst in Preston East, Melbourne in the 1954 electoral rolls; then in Reservoir East, Melbourne in 1957 (already found,) then to Fortitude Valley in Brisbane in 1963. At each address up to that date, he was accompanied by a Ruth Methorst, and his occupation was shown as a carpenter.

In 1972, he and Ruth appear in the in the North Brisbane electoral roll with his occupation then listed as caretaker. There is also a Berend Jan Methorst shown as living at the same address as William and Ruth.

I couldn't track either William or Ruth beyond 1972 using the electoral rolls. However, Berend Jan Methorst turns up as late as 1980 in the electoral division of St Lucia, sub-division of Ryan in Brisbane, Queensland.

Using the electoral rolls for 2009, I located Berend Jan to an address is Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT.) I also found that he was listed in the Telstra electronic white pages. I decided to send a letter rather than telephone him. It has now been four weeks since I despatched the letter. Although I put my return address on the back of the envelope, and it has not been returned to me suggesting that he has indeed received it, I have had no reply from him. So, the trail has gone cold on this tantilising 1942 event.

2. 1964 Gum Creek, South Australia entity case:

A classic entity case was reported by a South Australian woman, Doris Player, in February 1964. Click here for my original detailed post. Recently, while watching a You Tube video (click here for video) I found to my amazement that there was a segment on Doris Player and  a sketch of the 1964 entity at about the six minute five second mark in a segment mistakenly labelled "Tasmania 1964."

3. American contactee Valerie Ransone:

I ran as series of posts (click here, here and here) about a fascinating individual named Valerie Ransone who was involved with a number of people in he USA including the late US astronaut Gordon Cooper. I located her current whereabouts and sent her messages via Facebook and by direct email asking her if she'd be willing to update us on her research since the 1980's I never received a response.

4. Westall follow-up:

Following up on information given by Canberra based Westall researcher, Shane Ryan, at the May 2012 seminar arranged by the Australian UFO Research Association (AURA) I have been looking for some time for information on American projects which were based in Victoria, Australia in 1966. The purpose of this was to determine any relevance between such projects and the 6 Apr 1966 Westall case.

I recently located  file in the National Archive of Australia, file series M1148 control symbol USA-General, barcode 31415823, located in the Melbourne office of the National Archives of Australia (NAA.) The file title was "USA- General (includes correspondence, articles, draft article, and photographs, draft articles include 'Australia's role in the tracking of satellites, and deep space probes; Project Hibal; Operation Crowflight and the significance of American scientific projects in Australia.  Regretfully, nothing on the file throws any light on any American project which might have relevance to Westall, except for one possibility, Project Hibal.

This was a joint project between the US Atomic Energy Commission and the Australian Department of Supply; launched high altitude very large sized balloons; and had a chase aircraft which followed all flights. The several hundred kilogram scientific payloads which gathered radioactive particles in the stratosphere, came down under a 40 foot diameter parachute. Launched from Mildura, Victoria, these balloons sometimes drifted as far as Nowra, New South Wales; Canberra, ACT; Eyre Peninsula, South Australia,; and Bendigo, Victoria. A Project Hibal balloon, flight 292 was scheduled for launch on 5 Apr 1966, the day before the Westall incident. I attempted to learn the fate of flight 292, by interviewing five former members of the Department of Supply, Hibal launch team.  However, none of them was able to tell me what happened to flight 292. Mysteriously, the chase aircraft's log book, which I located, contained details for flights 291 and 293 but none for flight 292. Was flight 292 somehow implicated in Westall?