Stage one
Project Newsprint commenced in September 2015. Its main aim is to seek any previously unknown, past or current sightings, from remote and regional Australia, outside of the capital cities, by forwarding letters to the editors of newspapers.
Stage one was conducted in Western Australia, and the final stage one report may be read here. Some fascinating, older close encounter cases came to light.
Stage two
The second state in which I chose to run Project Newsprint, was Victoria. I submitted 100 plus emails directly to the editors of rural and regional newspapers, plus posted on their respective newspaper run Facebook pages. I advised that I was collecting sightings from their local area and that I would like to hear from readers about their experiences.
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| Image courtesy Google Maps |
I received the following reports of sightings:
1. Menindee Weir, NSW. 2013. Large cigar with windows.
2. Mildura, Vic. 2013. Two very unusual lights.
3.Wangaratta, Vic. 1997.
While riding his bike, a man saw a large, white light in the sky. The main light went out and several smaller lights were seen. There was no sound. Total duration was 20-30 seconds.
4. Mansfield, Vic. 1993. Large cylinder passes over car.
5. Ruby, Vic. 1994. Car encounters large sphere.
6. Mildura, Vic. 2005. Four bright orange/red lights.
7. Mildura, Vic. 2016. One large and one white lights in the sky.
8. Dargo, Vic. Unknown. Cigar shape in sky.
9. Alexander, Vic.1976.
While walking alone at around 2am a man noticed a very bright light in the sky. The light then went off. About two seconds later, a very large, 200 metres across, object appeared silently over the town. It looked to be 3-4 tiers deep and had layers of portholes just like a passenger ship. It travelled over the town and he lost sight of it over a hill.
10. Paradise Beach, Vic. 2003/2004. Daylight car encounter.
11. St Arnard, Vic Ca. 1972
A man was driving to Melbourne at around 2200hrs. He was on a remote stretch of road, with no other vehicles around when ahead of him he noticed what he thought originally were headlights of another vehicle. They disappeared,. Next, on his left about 150 metres away, over paddocks he noted a light which appeared to be going at the same speed as him, namely 100 km/hr. It was near ground level. He looked back and forwards a number of times and it was still there. Finally, one time he looked it had gone. Then he saw it to the right of the road, at ground level. It disappeared. then it reappeared ahead of him along the road. This went on for 20-30 kilometres. It then just disappeared. Later, he returned along the road during daylight but found nothing to account for his observations.
12. Mafra, Vic. Undated.
A man and two mates were driving near Maffra at about 1930hrs one evening, to visit the man's brother who was a farmer. They first noticed a large orange glow in the sky, but when they got closer found it was a large orange coloured object sitting over power lines. The man said he got out of his car and felt his hair stand on end. The object slowly travelled over adjacent paddocks. There was a slight, high pitched noise associated with the object. It then shot off at high speed and was lost to sight in a few seconds.
The three men continued on to the brother's farm. When they arrived there they were surprised to find that it was now 2200hrs and they could not account for 2 missing hours of time.
Comments
What was interesting was that I received sightings mainly from the newspapers where the more detailed articles appeared, rather than from newspapers which published the letter to the editor. My known hit rate for an article to appear was only about 6% of the total emails sent out. It is possible that if every newspaper had published an article, I may have received 150 plus sightings.
Another thing worthy of mention, is that over half of the people who responded, told me that I was the first person outside of their family to whom they had confided in about their sighting.
As a side note, former VUFORS researcher, Paul Norman (now deceased) used to travel to country Victoria locations, announcing the dates when he would be there through the local paper, and where he was staying, and interview people who came to see him about their sightings. He came up with some very good reports using this method.
Stage three
Project Newsprint - Queensland - stage three, has been underway for some time now. Sheryl Gottschall, of UFO Research (Queensland) has contacted Queensland newspapers seeking past and current sightings. She will shortly forward me details of those incoming sightings; which I can then share with blog readers.
In summary
Victoria has shown, like Western Australian, that a simple letter to the editor, can produce some previously unknown and interesting sighting reports.
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