National Archives of Australia
For over 15 years now, on the first of January each year, I have checked the website of the National Archives of Australia (NAA,) for newly released Australian government files relating to UAP.
This annual activity followed the years between 2003 and 2008, when the Adelaide based Australian UFO Research Association (AURA) conducted its major exploration of Australian government UAP files. During those years, a large number of UAP related files were located via the NAA's search engine. Once a file was located, a digitized copy was ordered, paid for out of the pockets of AURA members. In those days each file cost between $25-50 to have digitized, as opposed to around $200 for a large file, today.
Once AURA's work was completed as much as possible, annual inspections of the NAA website by myself and Melbourne based researcher Paul Dean, continued to locate a small number of UAP related files, each year, up to the year 2022. A list of files located up until May 2016, may be found here. A reading of the files listed, reveals that there were an unexpectedly large number of different Australian government departments that kept UAP related files. A sense of what was on these collective files may be read here.
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| An NAA document referring to the 1978 Valentich incident |
The 2025 NAA search using various keywords
Were any newly released Australian government UAP files located in my 2025 annual search? Unfortunately, not. However, there still remain a few files which I located in previous years, and which I had the NAA examine and open them but have not had them digitized due to their cost. These are:
1. File series A9755, control symbol 9, title "[RAAF No. 92 Wing, Headquarters, Edinburgh, South Australia] Unusual Aerial Sightings [UAS] [UFO - Unidentified Flying Objects]" Date range is 1992-1994. Item ID 3533451. Held in Canberra. Formerly, a file of the Department of Defence.
2. File series A9755, control symbol 23, title "[RAAF Headquarters No. 82 Bomber Wing, Amberley, Queensland] Unusual Aerial Sightings. [UAS] [UFO - Unidentified Flying Objects]" Date range 1992-1994. ID 3533584. Held in Canberra. Formerly, a file of the Department of Defence.
3. File series B610, control symbol 315/1/425 Part 1. Title "Airways Operations - Miscellaneous Rockets, Missiles, Space Craft and UFOs. AO Aspects." Date range 1977-1985. ID 24947317. Held in Canberra. Formerly a file of the Department of Civil Aviation.
4. File series P2864, control symbol Maatsuyker 1973. Title "Navigational Aid Station [Light station] Log book - Maatsuyker Island [UFO sighting]" Date range 1973-1974. ID 33094195. Held in Hobart. Formerly a file of the Australian Maritime Authority.
5. File series C1342m control symbol 5/2/AIR Part 8. Title "Unusual Aerial Sightings [RAAF Williamtown] Correspondence Box 3." Date range 1983-1984. ID 24102990. Held in Sydney. Formerly a file of the Department of Defence.
Two other 'Open" files waiting for someone to pay to have them digitized, relate to the possibility that flight 292 of the joint Australian/USA HIBAL radioactivity sampling mission, might be the explanation for the mass sighting at a school in Westall, Melbourne on 6 April 1966, are:
File series B595, control symbols 99/66/105 Parts 1 and 2. Title "US Project 'ash can' 'hibal' for sampling radioactive content of stratosphere." Both files have a date range of 1953-1977 and both are held in Canberra. ID are 23801655 and 23801656. Formerly files of the Department of Civil Aviation.
The current situation
The current attitude of the Australian Department of Defence is that they have no interest in the subject of UAP, hence they are creating no new files on the subject. Therefore, it is doubtful that any more Australian government UAP related files will be located in the NAA. So, it is likely that we have found all such files in the NAA. However, it should be noted that from time to time, the AURA project did come across a few files that were not in the NAA as they should be but were still held by Departments themselves. So, it is possible that diligent research utlising the Freedom of Information Act might just turn up a few more files. The trouble with this is that one would have to submit FOI requests to all current Australian government departments, a daunting task.
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