Project Newsprint receives a Victorian report from 1990

Project Newsprint

Quite some time ago, I undertook a project I called "Project Newsprint." I contacted dozens of newspapers in Western Australia and Victoria, and asked readers to let me know of any past or current sightings they knew of. I was pleasantly surprised at the large response I received. I wrote a number of blog posts based on the details of sightings sent in to me. For example; to read about a spectacular Western Australian case,click here; and for details of three Victorian vehicular close encounters, click here.

A recent email

Just a few days ago I received an email from an individual, about an incident near Wangaratta, Victoria, around June 1990. His account reads:

"...shifted out to Wangaratta at the start of 1990 to do a cooking course at their TAFE. Towards the end of the course (around June 1990) I got a job cooking counter meals at a pub in the Whitfield/Cheshunt area.

Image courtesy of Google maps

I was at a loose end on a Sunday night and decided to drive down there, just to check out how long it would take to drive from Wangaratta ( I did not want to be late for the first shift.)

I drove down to the pub and saw that it took around 30 minutes or so and so I headed back. When you drive from Wangaratta to Whitfield it is along a winding country road and with no lights at all. On both sides of the road you have flat fields, mostly used as cow pasture, but to your right you have the occasional hills which are heavily wooded, set far back at the end of the pasture.

As I was driving back, with the hills to my right, I noticed a cluster of lights high up on a hill in the distance. As I got closer, more details became clearer. The light seemed to be almost at the top of a hill and nestled amongst the trees. I parked parallel to it, stopped the car and got out to take a closer look at it. The actual description of it now  is a little vague, given that it was nearly thirty years ago.

Image courtesy of Google maps

It seemed to be a large white light/cluster of lights, very white and bright, with possibly a peak at the top of it, imagine something like a carousel/merry go round/circus tent top in appearance.

I honestly could not give you an accurate idea of its size, but it might have been as high as the trees in the area, maybe around 20 or so metres high.

I stood there for a few minutes, just looking at it and debating what to do. I thought of walking towards it but then some common sense kicked in. It was around midnight, in the middle of nowhere, no torch, nothing. I would have to park the car, on the side of the road, no one to watch over it, if someone passing along decided to break into it (a bit unlikely but you never know.) Also, to get to the light I would have to walk ten minutes across a large paddock, to reach the base of the hill, plus another twenty minutes to walk up the hill. Once again, with no torch and up a heavily wooded hill in the midnight dark. At that stage I decided to play it safe and move on.

Even today,when recalling it, I know I was not looking at just a cluster of lights like a farmhouse lit up or a string of decorative lights in someone's backyard, or someone going out spotlight shooting. This was something else and it unnerved me something bad. I got in the car and drove back to Wangaratta, seeing the light recede in the distance.

The next Friday I did my first shift at the pub and got on well with a couple of the ladies working in the kitchen, so I thought it safe to raise the subject with them at the end of the shift. I started off by asking them if they had seen any strange lights in the area or up in the hills around the area. They got quiet, looked at each other, smiled and asked me what I had seen. I recounted what I had experienced and they told me a couple of stories they had been told by the locals.

1. Some of the locals had been diving back to Wangaratta when a disk like pinwheel hovered over their  a while, and then vanished.

2. A couple of the local men were on the back roads late at night, doing some spotlight shooting. Their lights went dead and a large silvery disk flew over them and over the forest without making a sound. They reported to others that it scared the you-know-what out of them and the two locals were not known for lying or exaggerating.

This was all they could tell me in regards to local sightings and the like. I worked at the pub for another month and drove there and back at night for around a dozen times, but no sign of anything again, not even house lights in the hills. The last time I went back there would have been 1993 or 1994. I drove up there at night and went up and down the road but still nothing. I slept for a few hours in the car and then spent some time carefully going over the road during daylight looking into the hills for any sign of houses that might have been lit up back in 1990, but nothing. To his day, I still do not know what it was, but,to the best of my knowledge, I doubt it was houselights or something similar. The size, location, timing and the like just do not point in that direction."

Research

I looked through the 1989, 1990 and 1991 issues of the Victorian UFO Bulletin, published by the Victorian UFO Research Society, but found nothing about sightings in this area. However, it is nice to know that, several years later, Project Newprint is still bringing in anomalous sightings.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who may have any details about sightings in this general area, via keithbasterfield@yahoo.com.au.

Project Newsprint - Queensland - part three

Hi all,

(Continuing Sheryl Gottschall's report on Project Newsprint - Queensland.)

7. October 2014. Response from Noosa News.

"One evening in October 2014, a man observed 6 or so orange lights in the sky. They were brightening and dimming, then they would disappear and reappear then flare up and repeat their performance. He found it difficult to estimate distance or height, but was certain they were definitely not planes or helicopters. he observed them for nearly an hour.

8. Circa 1996. Cooran, near Noosa. Gympie Times.

"One night twenty years ago, about 6.30pm to 7pm a man observed a light shining in his back yard. He looked up and saw a huge, round object about 200 to 300 metres above , approximately the size of his house. It was yellow all over  with orange lights underneath. He watched it for 20 seconds then it took off in a south easterly direction leaving a trace behind it. This witness was ex-navy and worked on aircraft carriers during his time of service, so he had seen a lot of planes, but this was nothing he had ever seen before. he reported this event to the police who didn't ant to know about it. The wife of the witness also observed the incident."

9. Connondale. 1984/1985 1am Maleny Range news.

"A man reported seeing two lights about one kilometre from where he was siting with 2 other adults and 2 children. At that distance the objects appeared to be the size of small trucks, and were flying around a tree on a hill in a playful manner. They were blue white in colour and at times would hover then move from side to side. After 5 minutes they took off."

10. Oxenford. 2/3 January 2016. Gold Coast Bulletin.

"A woman arrived home after being interstate. She looked out her back window and saw a large, metallic, dull grey saucer shaped object hovering above the ground on its side near her gum trees. The object was as tall as one of her fully grown gum trees, dull grey and metallic. It hovered momentarily before taking off at high speed."

11. 20 Jan 2016 ABC Radio Capricornia- Rockhampton.

The following reports were called in while Sheryl was on air.

a. Capella 13 Jan 2016. 

James was hunting in the evening when he saw 2 lights travel across the sky from north to south. he has seen shooting stars before but these lights were the same size as stars and travelling information. He observed them for 10 to 15 seconds.

 b. Circa 1966.

Fifty years ago, late one night, "R" saw a massive light moving very fast, that lit up the clouds. It suddenly stopped for 3 to 4 seconds before taking off again. It disappeared as fats as it arrived.

13. Te Rapa, New Zealand. Gladstone Observer.

"A woman was living in New Zealand at the age of 20. One night she was driving home after her 4pm to midnight at work. As she got to the little town of Te Rapa she saw a white light in the distance approximately 5 to 10 kms from her location. Then it moved away very fast in a zig zag pattern towards her and within seconds it was 5o metres away from her vehicle. Her radio started crackling, then her car spluttered as she  pulled over to the side of the road, then her car just stopped.

She was shaking and terrified and wet herself from fear. She described the object as looking like the top of an old hills hoist clothes line, or the top of a child's spinning tip toy, but segmented with red, green and white lights all over it. Suddenly the object took off and her car started. She drove home and told her mother who took her to the police station the next day to report the event. She was informed by police that they had received other reports."

14. 1975-1977. Alexandra Headlands. Maroochy Weekly.

"Sometime between 1975 to 1977, a man was looking out towards Point Cartwight at dusk. he saw three or four shimmering stars with different colours, red and white, just above the horizon. The lights were close together in a pyramid shape. The witness watched them for about one minute before they all took off in different directions.

15. Sydney. Early 1950's. 7.30pm.

"It was a dark night so it must have been mid-year, The corner of Elizabeth and Market Street, Sydney. I was facing south. We had just left St James Theatre as we used to attend afternoons sessions because of public transport for me to get  home. With the crush of patrons going in both directions the  crowded footpath forced me to step down onto the road proper. This placed me in an amazing fantastic position to observe what was about to happen. "Hazel" was just behind my right shoulder because when I swung my arm through an arc following the craft she was standing clear of my arm. What attracted my vision I am not sure save that I felt I saw a flash of light or reflection to my left towards Hyde Park. My eyes swung upwards just at the exact moment as the craft passed directly overhead. Stunned at what I saw I yelled  "Look at that." By the time I managed to get this out the vessel had passed just over the top of David Jones Food fair  towards Glebe and the Western suburbs.

If one said they saw a flying saucer in those times one was a candidate for a mental examination as well as public harassment so I just shut up. The staggering thing is the wonder of one's eyes and brain  to absorb so much detail in split seconds with the brain to retain all the data after all this time.

It had a curved metallic polished surface as the Sydney lights reflected in shades of dull red and blue. This occurred as it passed over David Jones, Food hall, market Street and Castlereagh Street about 30 metres across. Height: just clearing radio antenna on David Jones store. 4o to 50 metres maximum.

The "exhaust" visible trail or propulsion movement appeared to be a solid block of royal blue light about 1 metre across with 3 spherical balls contained along it length. Two were similar in size and solid blue around 1.5 metres but the middle  ball's diameter would have been I estimate 2.5 metres, which revolved clearly visible as an orange and blue segments almost like the old barber's pole and large marbles but not quite the  same. These were positioned about 5 meters apart commencing with the first bubble 1/3rd along the trail. It is extremely difficult to describe satisfactorily. If one could locate some old marbles with built in designs it could be demonstrated or even some of the new water features with  spinning globes.

There was absolutely no sound that I could ascertain due to the heavy Saturday tram and vehicle movements. There were no flight paths for Air Traffic ever that flew down Market Street. The path of this craft would have been say 90 degrees to the approach  to Sydney, Mascot Airport. I have only recently seen a report of a UFO with a trail or tail so I have decide to place this on full record with drawings and comment for support.

I am a non drinker or smoker just for the record. I am still capable of reading newspapers without glasses if necessary. To say I was astounded even today would be an  understatement but what I saw at such close range beggars belief. Especially when there were hundreds and hundreds of people surrounding Hazel and myself but none of them was looking upward. I do not know if even one responded to my alarm. I do not recall if Hazel caught a glimpse of the craft.

Another officially reported sighting. I was advised by a man  who was serving in the Militia and their vehicle broke down around Gatton, from memory, and they observed an  illuminated object suspended for an extended period, "over half an hour," which then flew south at an incredible speed. There is more to this story to be reported but it maybe on  record already."

16. Mt Isa. Early 1970's. Mt Isa News.

"The sighting was in the early 1970's during the period of the construction of Lake Julius dam. The company I worked for designed the dam, along with all the necessary infrastructure. As such, our company also carried out supervision, of all the construction work in relation to the dam.

During this period, my mother visited me from Melbourne. During one of her visits, I took her out to have a look at the dam, and pipeline construction. On our return from the dam site, we stopped at one of our supervision camps, which was on the Paroo River, for afternoon tea.

Not long after we left the camp site, we were on the pipeline access road, heading towards Mt Isa, when my mother  noticed what appeared to be a silver sphere out to the west. I told my mother it was probably a weather balloon, or over flying aircraft. However, the object stayed in the one place for the whole time of travel back to Mt Isa which was about  40 minutes.  When we arrived back on the outskirts of Mt Isa we stopped the car and got our for a look. We could only have been stoped for about half a minute when then object  just disappeared in a flash. Mother and I just looked at each other  and we both said in unison "bloody flying saucer." We didn't mention it to others, thinking we would be ridiculed. But, we would often mention it to each other., "wonder what that thing was in the sky that day." Unfortunately, my mother has passed away since that time so I have no one to back up this story."

Sheryl comments:

"Surprisingly many of these reports are up to 50 years old, and upon questioning it was revealed that almost all witnesses had  never reported their experience for fear of ridicule. Although the ridicule factor is lower today, I continually find the fear of  ridicule remains a driving force for the public to remain quiet about UFO incidents, particularly in people around 50 years of age and over. While I continue to receive reports which will be published in future, I can only wonder how many people have and will go to their graves never having  told anyone about their experiences.

Contacting newspapers and receiving stories form the public, with many follow-up contacts has proved quite time consuming. However, I believe that Project Newsprint has been a worthwhile pursuit as we would never have known about these events otherwise. Organisations like  UFO Research Queensland received, document and investigate UFO incidents and to this end we have over 5000 reports stored in  our archive since 1956, but it's apparent we could easily double or triple this amount of reports ion our archives if we actively pursue their collection.

This report can also be found on the UFO Research Queensland website at www.uforq.asn.au "

Project Newsprint - Queensland - part two

Hi all,

(Continuing a preliminary report by Sheryl Gottschall about Project Newsprint - Queensland.)

3. Pilbara region, Western Australia. Circa 1957. Maleny Tange News.

"I'm 79 years old now, but when I was 20 my friend and I with her two young children were driving from Darwin to the Pilbara region in Western Australia. I was driving a 1954 Dodge and the trip took us 12 days. The roads in those days were quite basic, a lot of dirt roads etc, and one night we found ourselves on one of those dirt roads near the De Grey River. My friend was looking at the bush when she asked "Is that a satellite?"

At that time satellites were new to us, we were just staring to hear about them. I wasn't paying much attention ,concentrating on driving. Then she dais it was getting closer, coming down. Then I saw it about 500 metres above us. It looked like a beach ball or hot air balloon in the sky, but round, with colours moving all over it like the northern lights, no particular pattern to their movement, just swirling over it.

Then I checked the rear vision mirror and saw a red glow behind us. My friend screamed and I turned off the car lights so we couldn't' be seen.  At that time I started to hear what I can only describe as big but slow piston sound,  like two tones repeating slowly. By this time I was speeding through the bush on a dirt road with no headlights.

All of a sudden I saw a set of gates in front of us and I slammed on the brakes. This caused the car to stall and all of a sudden everything was quiet. The object immediately disappeared. The next thing we heard were the sounds of aboriginal people singing in the distance. I guessed it was a corroboree.

My friend was deeply frightened by the experience so when we saw something similar in 1961 while driving in the Northern Territory near Humpty Doo, she told me to turn around and go home which we did.

Then in 1957 while I was hitchhiking near Katherine in the Northern territory, it was midnight when I saw light moving at an extraordinary speed from horizon to horizon, back and forth, up and down, in a few seconds."

4. Grafton. Rockhampton News.

"As a child I lived near the navy base in New South Wales and my father and I saw lights in the sky. The next day 3 circles were found on the ground and everything in the area was dead. Eventually the grass grew back but it was a blue colour.

On my 7th or 8th birthday I woke to find blood on my left shin. It upset me and I cried all day but I don't understand why. Then last year I was scratching the area and a hard object popped out. It was dark brown like a dark copper colour., shiny and tubular about 5mm and flat on both ends. I put it on a little white saucer on the kitchen hutch but the next day found it had disappeared.

I'm and ex-airforce wife and when my son was 4 years old we were in the kitchen doing the dishes, my son said "the sun  just took  photo of my eyes." I looked out the window and saw a cigar shaped white object. It was daytime and I took my son outside to see it better. It was just hovering over the air force base, not as high as a commercial plane, but high.

Last year when looking over the National park I saw a massive object that looked like a plane, but it had no wings or windows and made no sound. It was like the fuselage of a plane.it was less than a couple of hundred metres from me, just above treetop height.

5. Inune. 2013 (photo)

"As per conversation this is one of a series of photo's I took as I panned across the site. The location was the southernmost end of then Expedition national resource park. In my role as earthworks supervisor on construction of the facility,  part of my brief was to photograph progress on the project. This happened to be the third sighting of ufo's I had witnessed in a two year period on this job. I was not alone on the first two occasions, one in broad daylight seen by the work crew at the morning pre-start meeting (as these were held out in the field.) this was a classic white orb seen against a cloudless blue sky, firstly travelling in a straight line before performing erratic manoeuvres and then speeding away directly upwards.

The second was as we were leaving camp on our rostered break, it was about 4.30am, I had people in the work ute with  me heading out to the airport, we came to an intersection when my front seat passenger saw the light, we stopped briefly to watch it perform similar to the first object I had seen before speeding away.

I did not realize the green ufo was in my photo until I put the SD card into the computer, leaving my project manager, superintendent and myself baffled. At first thinking it could be sun shining through water crystals, but when we zoomed in you could see it had a disc shape with definite thickness, you could also see that it was above the clouds. It appeared to be surrounded by wavy lines of some sort.
"

This photo was passed on to Barry Taylor for photographic analysis. His comments were "The green flare is very typical of a lens flare. The colour is typical as is the angle relative to the position of the Sun within the field of view of the camera. If you draw a line through the slightly elongated flare, the line will point directly at the Sun. ...close inspection shows the edge of the cloud through the flare. It is not above the cloud..."

6. Wivenhoe/Somerset Dam area. Noosa News.

"Ten or 11 years ago my late husband and I moved to Noosa and went camping a lot. On one occasion we camped somewhere in the Wivernhoe or Somerset Dams area. My husband was a wildlife enthusiast and during the day we saw  a lot of interesting wildlife, so he was excited about what we would see at night when we went spotlighting.

About 7pm we headed off with a torch to have a look but gave up after about 30-45 minutes because there was no sign of any wildlife. I mean, it was completely gone. Then my husband said "look at this in the sky" and we saw 3 orange/tallow objects soundless, with a rounded shape and smooth, coming right at us. They got close, really close, then took off only to approach us from a different direction. It's hard to judge distances especially at night, but they were no higher than a helicopter at their furthest, then they disappeared. The next morning we returned to the location where we had seen the objects to get a GPS location but our equipment wouldn't work, nor would our video camera."

Project Newsprint - Queensland - part one

Hi all,

Sheryl Gottschall, President of UFO Research Queensland, recently joined me in Project Newsprint, volunteering to conduct Project Newsprint in the state of Queensland, Australia.

Between 1 and 25 January 2016, Sheryl contacted 110 Queensland newspapers, and as a result, so far has received 16 reports via email, phone calls and during on-air radio interviews. Details of these reports are listed below. To date she has undertaken two radio interviews, with ABC Radio Capricornia and Sunshine Coast. She continues to receive reports and expects this will continue into the next few weeks and beyond.

Reports received

1. Rockhampton Morning Bulletin circa 1984.

"I'm providing a copy of what was reported in the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin around 1984. I'd come home a bit sozzled from a party, but quickly sobered up when I saw these weird orbs, semi-translucent and making like an escaping steam sound. They seemed to perform aerial manoeuvres, within and without from each other. At one point they seemed to mimic the Southern Cross.

I was surprised to find this report in the paper soon after. There was another follow up report which I haven't kept, which offered an explanation, that it was fireflies. Bunkum. I don't necessarily give over to the notion that they were extra-terrestrial, however, an explanation of an as yet undiscovered natural "intelligence" may hold sway."

The newspaper article read:

"Nine see, hear loud UFO above City street.

An unidentified flying object confronted a frightened group of seven residents and two policemen near Rockhampton golf course about midnight on Saturday.

They said the object "three distinct lights, with a loud electrical crackling noise," rose above rooftops in Eton Street, waking residents.

Witnesses said the object rose from the south, came nearer, sank away then returned remaining visible for about 20 minutes. They said two lights seemed fixed, while a third moved independently from above. A fourth light was visible when the object loomed closer the second time.

No one who witnessed the object was prepared to be identified yesterday, but a spokesman said it was impossible to decide what it was they had seen.

He said his partly death son had been one of the first to hear the crackling noise, while he was feeding his cat.

"About the same time Mrs... (a neighbour) was awakened by the noise," he said.

"I've never believed in UFOs. But we saw something. I would like to think someone could explain it," he said.

The woman said she went outside fearing a fire had started nearby.

She had called residents out of the three adjacent houses to watch the object, while one telephoned police.

The residents, who all admitted being frightened by the object brought out binoculars and a telescope but were not able to ascertain whether the solid mass was suspended between the lights.

The spokesman said two policemen arrived at the scene "making jokes about strait-jackets" but they were quickly convinced when the object loomed above the roof tops again.

The two policemen told the Morning Bulletin they had checked the area but could not find any logical explanation for the lights and noises.

Door-to-door investigations in the area revealed no other person who had seen or heard the object.

The nine witnesses gathered again at 11.30pm on Sunday but the strange lights did not return."

2. 1970. Barraba, NSW

A man named Brian emailed the following from Canada.

"In 1970 I was working as a roughneck on a diamond drilling site about 30km outside Barraba, New South Wales which was literally in the middle of nowhere.

On night on the graveyard shift I was high up on top of the rig pulling coring pipe when a vibrant cobalt blue light lit up the forest about 500 yards from the rig.

The night up there is pitch black and the light silhouetting the trees was pulsating so I just assumed somebody else was arc welding on another rig in the forest.

I called the driller up to check it out and his jaw dropped. Holy shit what the f... is that he said. I told him I thought it was welding on a different rig, but he said "no way man, there is no other rig around here."

In the morning after our shift I went back to the bunk house and gathered my Nikon, and walked into the woods where we saw the light. We came into a meadow of long grass and quickly spotted a large round area where the grass had been burnt in a concave shape. The grass was severely burnt to the bare ground in the centre of the circle gradually becoming less burnt at the outer edge of the circular indentation which I think was about 30 to 40 feet in diameter.

The most amazing thing was the three triangular shaped indentations at even points close to the outermost edges of the burnt circle. I shot half a dozen photos before we headed back to the camp to tell our crew boss what we had seen. He called the sheriff in Barraba and told him our story. Naturally the sheriff and a couple of his deputies arrived in camp about two hours later and wanted us to take him to the area, which we did along with out boss.

It was then that I made probably the biggest mistake of my life, I mentioned that I had taken some pictures earlier the morning. When we headed back to camp the sheriff asked if he could please see my camera. Shit, I shouldn't have opened my big stupid mouth. He opened my camera and ripped the Kodakrome film out ruining my pictures. He warned us all that the area was as of this minute, off limits to all, under penalty of facing criminal charges.

Sincerely, B."

Sheryl received this report by email, and attempted twice to ask more questions. However, both times her reply bounced back."

Project Newsprint - Stage 2 - Victoria - concludes

Hi all,

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.

Image courtesy Google Maps

Detailed articles about the Project were carried by a number of papers, including the Mildura "Sunraysia Daily";  (two articles) the "Swan Hill Guardian"; the "Wangaratta Chronicle"; the "Mansfield Courier" and the "Gippsland Times."

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.

Three more vehicular close encounters from Victoria

Hi all,


I have now found out details about three more close encounter cases from Victoria, which involved objects approaching motor vehicles travelling along the road.

Paradise Beach - 2003/2004

Following the appearance of a piece about Project Newsprint, in a recent issue of the "Gippsland Times" I received a telephone call from a man, who told me about yet another close encounter.

22 January 2016 edition

 

He was 6-7 kilometres out of Paradise Beach in Victoria, heading westwards towards Longford in a car. At about 3pm, so in broad daylight, he saw a small, bright, white light off in the distance through his windscreen. This bright light became larger, and brighter as if approaching the vehicle. As it came even closer he saw no shape, or structure, to the light since it was so bright. There was no associated noise at any stage.

Image courtesy whereis?

 

He began to become alarmed as the light seemed to be heading directly towards his car, coming down at a forty-five degree angle. He had wound down the driver's window as the object approached him. He thought for a moment that it was going to crash into the vehicle and he might die. The duration up to this point he estimated at ten seconds. At closest approach it seemed to veer to one side and moved away from the car, became smaller and then was gone.

He continued to drive on towards Longford, and about 2 kilometres further on, saw a car pulled up at the side of the road and a man was outside looking up. My witness says he decided not to stop. There was no air pressure effects on the car from the object.

Coongulla  - Around 1997

 

UFO Research NSW Inc. received a fascinating report on 27 April 2015 from a 71 year old man from Coongulla, Victoria to advise them about a personal experience. Their report notes are as follows.

"...lives in Coongulla, a small town close to lake Glenmaggie in southern Victoria, 160 kilometres east of Melbourne. He worked at the Glenmaggie reservoir doing maintenance on the dame and allocating water irrigation to the local farms.

Eighteen years ago he was travelling home one night at about 10pm along Upper Mafra Road, when he became aware of a bank of 6 lights appearing suddenly behind his car and shining so brightly, they almost blinded him. It was like daylight. He said to himself "you bastard" before pulling over to let the vehicle pass. However, the lights were suddenly gone, vanished into thin air.

Image courtesy whereis?

He started driving again but found himself on a different road and he had no idea where he was or how he got there. He said to himself "I don't remember this road." He drove for some time before noticing the Coongulla sign and arrived home at midnight, 2 hours later than expected.

He had no recollection what happened in those two hours and he felt as if his memory had been blanked out. He felt awful, tired and confused. When he tried to make a cup of tea, he had to think how to do it and he felt weak and shaken. The next day he went to work but didn't feel good and his supervisor asked him what was wrong. For most of the day he continued to feel shaken and confused but the feeling eventually went away. He had no further memories about that incident and what could have happened to him that night, but he wondered if he'd been picked up by a UFO and whether they had also taken his car up into a craft. He said, other people have seen strange lights in that area and one fellow he spoke to believed there is a portal in that area."

 

Jam Jerrup, Victoria - Around late 1980's

 

An Internet search located the third case, from a copy of the "South Gippsland Sentinel Times" dated 18 February 2014. This was an article titled "Close Encounters of the South Gippy Kind." Included in the article, was the following.

 

"...with one particularly disturbing account dating back to the late 1980's. 'A woman was abducted near Jam Jerrup as she was driving down South Gippsland Highway to pick her husband up at Tooradin one night' Steve explained.

 

Image courtesy whereis?

 

'While driving she was blinded by a bright white light and the next thing she remembered was driving down the highway still, but highly confused and disoriented.

 

'Half an hour has passed and she had no idea how or why. Her husband went mental at her for being late but she couldn't explain what had happened. The next day she hopped into the shower and found a triangular pattern on her stomach she couldn't explain."





More reports from Project Newsprint - Victoria

Hi all,

Project Newsprint - Victoria, continues to appear in Victorian newspapers. The latest to feature the Project was today's edition of the "Gippsland Times" (Sale) in hard copy version only.

So far, today, I have heard about the following sightings:

November 2005, Mildura

"I was driving home one night on the Calder Highway between Mildura and Merbein West. I noticed in the north west region of the sky , at what I estimated to be a 45 degree angle four bright orange/red stationary orbs of light, estimated three times the brightness of a star or planet.

What struck me immediately was the quality of light they produced unlike any aircraft light I have ever seen. They gave me the impression of being more of an energy or a plasma, than an ordinary electric light if that makes sense.

I pulled over to the side of the road and got out of my car to get a better grasp of what I was seeing. As I watched, at different times to one another they would slowly fade in brightness to a small point of white light, barely visible. Within seconds they would start to gain brightness and intensity again, glowing back to a bright orange/red orb.

Courtesy Google maps.

This went on for a while, fading in and out at different times. Right when I thought that was strange enough I noticed that two of the balls of light had positioned themselves horizontally to one another, quite close together, with a third to the left of them creating a formation resembling something close to a right angled triangle.

This is when I really began to wonder what I was looking at. It gave me the impression I was seeing something intelligent, or a display of intelligence as crazy as that sounds. One by one the balls of light had faded out to not return, while one seemed to stay visible and slowly move off into the horizon before disappearing.

The whole sighting lasted around 10-15 minutes. I've always been baffled by what they were. If they were Chinese Lanterns they were incredibly;y bright, and I couldn't imagine these to fade out to near invisibility, only to become brighter again over and over, one by one. They were also rather stationary in terms of their position in the sky throughout the sighting, not moving with the wind."

 

17 January 2016

 

Andrew of Mildura telephoned to tell me that at about 2215 hrs, he and three other people were in his backyard when they saw two objects in the night sky. One was a bright orange colour, and noiselessly slowly moved across the sky. The other was a white light which had at one point, turned across the path of the orange light. This one was also silent.

 

 

Unknown date

 

A man from Sale telephoned me to advise that when he was age 19, he lived in Dargo, Victoria. His dog had become disturbed and looking up he had seen a cigar shaped light in the sky, hovering above them. It made no sound.

Four complex, Victorian, vehicular close encounter cases

Hi all,

Introduction

There are certain categories of UAP reports that do not seem to be occurring today, in the numbers of former years. One of these, is the close encounter between individuals in a motor vehicle and UAP. Undertaking a review of such Victorian reports, I noticed three such incidents happened in the years 1993 and 1994.

January 1993. Mansfield, Victoria. 2300hrs
Four people travelling by car noticed two lights in the distance which approached them. They got out of the car for a better look and saw a large horizontal cylindrical shaped object pass over the vehicle. They got back in the car and left the area. For more details click here.

8 August 1993. Belgrave, Melbourne, Victoria. 0000hrs.
The Kelly Cahill abduction case. A couple in a car saw an object descend into a paddock. A group of tall entities approached them. For further details click here.

Image courtesy Amazon Books.

24 July 1994. 60kms NW of Melbourne, Victoria. 0430hrs
Four people in a car saw a large, orange coloured light close to their vehicle. A large diamond shaped object was seen close to the ground. They believed they had lost 75 minutes of unaccounted for time.

A "new" old event reported

Through Project Newsprint, I was contacted by a man from Victoria who recounted the following story to me.

"My first UFO encounter happened in the autumn/winter of 1994 I think. I didn't write the date down but my friend who was there did and I can ask him, so you might be able to tie it in with other sightings.

At that time I would have been 20. There were four of us in the car, musicians, coming home from a gig in Ruby, near Korumburra in Gippsland, probably 1 or 2 in the morning.

Image courtesy Whereis?

Things got strange well before the encounter as there was  a real pea soup fog as we drove through a small town to the extent that we had to drive very slow, watching the white line to not run off the road and we nearly hit a pedestrian even at very slow speed. It was quite surreal.

After not too long the fog cleared and we were on the open road for maybe 10 or 20 minutes when off in the distance there was an orange glow lighting up the sky as if a bushfire was burning but it couldn't be in winter!

As we got close it still didn't make any sense until we rounded the hill and there it was. At this point our memories are slightly divergent but clear and even weirder, later I have three differing memories of the same event but I'll get to that later.

A large red ball in the sky

A blood red (my friend says orange red) ball of light about the size of a house, roughly 100 metres away, 30 or 50 metres high. Instantly we all knew this was not manmade! It was silent! I had the intense feeling that it was like a huge eye looking into the car, looking into us! This thing was so powerful and simply beyond human, the object itself seemed excruciatingly aware of us. No details were visible in its appearance. The instant feeling of our world being turned upside down, paradigm shattered us. It was if a dream was on us.

The car had slowed down and the driver pulled off to the side but I think after only 10 or 20 seconds (I can only guess at this stage) the thing simply vanished or shot into the sky so fast it seemed to vanish.

The driver was taking it ok but the front seat passenger panicked and said "get the f...out of here" so we drove off. I remember being stunned but not scared perhaps because I was a bit stoned, but my friend next to me in the back seat said "c'mon we might only see something like that once in our life, we have to go back."

So, the driver turned the car around and we went back. We didn't see anything. We drove slowly for another 4 or 5 minutes but it seemed to be gone, and then we came over the crest of a hill and there it was again, right over the road straight in front of us, lower and this time bluish-white light and much brighter. 

Fractured memories

Then came a point the others don't recall, but I have different memory of:

1. Is that orange red blobs of what looked like lava simply fell out of it and I can't remember anything after they hit the ground.

2. Is that several blood red perfect triangles of light came out of the sphere and descended to the ground with a gentle wavy motion. I can't remember anything after they went behind some trees and touched the ground.

3. Is that they weren't triangles but blood red lines that shot out at incredible speed tracing out perfect triangle angles as they shot towards the ground, after that I can't remember.

The next thing any of us remember we were on the road driving at speed on the highway towards Melbourne, the opposite direction to before we all blacked out.

The keyboard player from the band overtook us, he was later to tell us he had stayed back at the gig for at least another hour after us!

When we got back to the driver's girlfriend's house she was quite distressed as to what took us so long.

Another weird thing is that I had a vague memory of stopping at some servo on the way home after the encounter as we went in and sort of milled around but didn't buy anything. The other guys say we didn't stop."

Questions

I asked my informant a number of questions which he kindly responded to.

Q1. There were four of you in the car. Can you recall the people's first names for me, and where each was sitting in the car?

A1. "The driver was ...; front passenger ....; ... and myself in back seats."

Q2. Can you recall what day of the week the event was, ie. 1 or 2 o'clock on what day?

A2. "I can't be sure which day of the week, I would only be guessing, but probably Friday or Saturday."

Q3. By this time, 1 or 2 o'clock how long had you been awake?

A3. "I slept in late every day at this time (playing gigs 4 nights  a week) so I was most likely up for around 14 hours and definitely, not like 24 or anything like that."

Q4. Any clues as to exactly where you were when you saw the large sphere of light?

A4. "I looked at the map this morning and I clearly remember we weren't on the highway when we saw the object. It was a secondary road; 2 lanes. I would say we headed north to get to the Princes Highway instead of the South Gippsland Highway. I don't remember seeing any other cars before the encounter. We may have passed other cars but it was a lonely road with not much traffic. If we were on the highway we would have been passing plenty of traffic even late at night."

Q5. How long did you expect it to take to drive from Ruby to Melbourne?

A5. "The drive would be over 2 hours."

Q6. May I check if the driver's girlfriend's place was in Melbourne? If so do you recall which suburb?

A6. " I can't recall which suburb sorry."

Q7 Roughly what time would you have expected to arrive at her place?

A7. "We would expect to be there between 3 and 4am."

Q8. Any idea what time you actually arrived at her peace?

A8. " I think we were about an hour late so more like 4 or 5 at least."

Q9. The blood red sphere - how large was it compared to say the full moon seen on the horizon?

A9. "The blood red sphere was much bigger than a full moon, it was easy to make out that it was close as the car was moving and it was not on the far horizon. We came around a hill on a farm and there it was next to the hill. I am certain it was not in the distance."

Q10. Was the red light constant in brightness?

A10. "The light was featureless except that it seemed to have static to it like the static on an old tv not tuned in. It seemed fiery and full of energy. I can't really say it was in fact a sphere, either it was hard to define,its appearance as it could have been a cardboard cutout, like a hole in the sky with light shining through. It was utterly hypnotising. We could only stare in absolute awe."

Q11. Did the red light hurt your eyes to look at?

A11. "The light did not hurt to look at, it was a very intense colour but not painful or too bright to look at."

Q12. The second time, was the bluish-white light, how big was it compared to the full moon?

A12. The second time again it was the same size and at that close distance I would say it was 4 times the size of a full moon low on the horizon. The object was elevated and around 30 metres high off the ground. Also we had turned the car around and driven back on the same road well past the point where we saw it the first time.

The first time it was on the left side of the car as we came around the hill. Now it was quite some distance, perhaps 1 km further up the road, straight in front of the car. The first time it disappeared while we were watching it with a clear view."

Q13. Was there any associated noise the second time?

A13. "Again, it was silent."

Q14. I assume the keyboard player was in a second car? Did he tell you he saw anything unusual?

A14. 'The keyboard player did not see anything unusual except that he passed us after staying back for quite some time after us."

I am attempting to locate and interview the other three occupants of the vehicle.

Project Newsprint - Queensland commences, and another old sighting from Victoria

Hi all,

The President of UFO Research Queensland, Sheryl Gottschall, has joined me in Project Newsprint, by undertaking a search for both past and current sightings in that state.

So far, her appeal for Queensland sightings, has appeared in the 12 January 2016 issue of "The Morning Bulletin " (Rockhampton)

The Morning Bulletin

 and the 13 January 2016 issue of "The Gympie Times."

The Gympie Times
 

Mansfield, Victoria. January 1993.

 

Source http://www.whereis.com/vic/mansfield-3722

 

One Friday night, at about 11pm, early in January 1993, four people were travelling by car from Melbourne to Mansfield, in Victoria. At a point nine kilometres out of Mansfield, one of them "...asked if anyone had noticed the two lights in the distance." They were both constant white lights. One appeared to be "...following the outline of the distant mountains and one following straight along the ground."

 

After watching them "...for a short time they appeared to come together and moving across the land..." towards them from the car's left hand side.

 

After watching for about a minute,  they decided to stop the car, and get out for a look. "Close to the road we could see a down light, which was switched off as it moved overhead, just above the gum trees."

 

Visible to them now, was "...an extremely large cylinder..." with white lights around the edge. "There was no sound and we stood and watched it pass over." The cylinder was in a horizontal position as it went over.

 

"I don't remember being interested in watching where it went, but we all got back in the car, with no comment from any of us. It wasn't spoken of over the weekend at the holiday house."

 

"I spoke to my friend years later (who had experienced UFOs before) asking if she or our two friends had remembered the experience, and she was just full of excuses why they wouldn't. Very strange to me."

 

"At around the same time my two sons saw the quick moving lights in the Mansfield area and sat on the side of the road to watch them."

 

1994

 

When I read the above sighting this reminded me on an incident to four women travelling by car, again in Victoria, in 1994. I provide details below. I know of no one who investigated this 1994 incident.

 

24 Jul 1994 60Km NW of Melbourne Victoria 0430hrs CE4? Grace Kyriakidis, Tina Chatzibasile, Joy Bock and Victoria McGinley (37:15, 144:25)

Grace was driving the others home when oblong, glowing orange lights were seen parallel to the road.  A few moments later a large orange light was noted only twenty metres behind the car.  They stopped and got out of the vehicle and looked up to see a large, diamond shaped object, with writing on its tail, close to the ground.  A steady, droning sound seemed to come from it.  The object went sideways and disappeared behind trees.  They went on in the car, pulled into a driveway but were frightened to see a shadowy, human figure.  They left the scene.  They were followed by a bright orange light, before it finally vanished.  On arriving at Grace’s house they determined that seventy five minutes of time had been lost.  The next day all four suffered nosebleeds and headaches.  Victoria was charged with static electricity.  All experienced frequent memory lapses.  Them women later saw small, bright lights on the walls of Joy’s house.

Source:  Woman’s Day 26 Dec 1994.

Project Newsprint - Victoria - update

Hi all,

Three Victorian Newspapers (the Mildura Sunraysia Daily; the Swan Hill Guardian and the Wangaratta Chronicle) have now carried detailed articles about Project Newsprint's search for past and current sightings in that state. Many others have carried my letter to the editor requesting sightings. Some 40 plus newspapers have also published my appeal on their newspaper Facebook pages.

Local sighting

Yesterday, I received my first sighting report from a Mildura man, who had read the article in the Sunraysia Daily. He started off by telling me that he had never mentioned this event to anyone outside the family until now.

A 64 year old Mildura man, and his wife were camping at Menindee Weir, near the town of Menindee, New South Wales (latitude 32.4 deg south; longitude 142.4 deg east) on a summer's weekend day in 2013.

At about 2.30am he went to the toilet and glancing in the northern sky, at a low angular elevation, just above the tree tops, he was startled to see an elliptical, cigar shaped object, moving slowly backwards and forwards in the very dark sky. It was moving towards Broken Hill. It had round windows in it, and light could be seen streaming out of these windows.

He described the object's movements as moving forwards a little, then backwards a little, then forwards again, but with a general movement towards Broken Hill, which was to their north-west.

He woke up his wife and asked her to look in the sky, without prompting her with what he had seen himself. She said she could see a cigar shaped object with windows. They watched it for a total of 30 minutes and then went back to bed. In the morning they mentioned it to their son, who was also with them. He told his parents that he had heard of similar local sightings.

He also told me that about a month later, a grazier, on a property north of Menindee Lakes had captured a similar object on their camera. He could not recall further details of this.

Sightings from NW Australia - part two

Hi all,

Apart from sightings which I have posted about, namely Roebourne in 2007; Broome in 2012; and Exmouth in 1992/1993, I have received details of other sightings from the same general area. Unless otherwise indicated I have been in direct touch with the witness.

Exmouth. Late 60's or early 70's

 

"My father and his friend travelled around Australia in his early years. He was in his late 20's I think. He was able to get work at Exmouth setting up the communications, this is where he and about another 200 people witnessed a craft directly above them. The Americans would set up an outdoor picture theatre for the staff, every weekend, and whilst they were watching the film a craft appeared above them. Left at an unbelievable pace. This is the story my father told me as a child. Would have been in the late 60's I guess or early 70's."

 (Report from daughter to Mariana Flynn, UFO Research NSW Inc.)

Near Exmouth. Undated

One night, a woman was advised of a family member who had died. She left home about 11pm and was driving alone on the main road to Exmouth. She noticed a bright, single,  light approaching her vehicle. She flashed the lights of her vehicle at it. By now it was 1am. She switched on the spotlights of her vehicle. The approaching bright light went out at a distance of about 50 metres. Passing the spot where it had been she swung round and checked the road. She thought she may have run another vehicle off the road. However, nothing was to be seen. She travelled on in to Exmouth and stopped to report the incident to police there. They merely said, no problems, they knew of other reports of this mystery light.

Near Exmouth. 1978/1979

Two girls were on a station, when during the early morning hours they need to go to the bathroom. They heard a sound - a magnified high pitched noise. They walked on to the patio and as they did so, noticed an unusual blue beam over the station's rubbish dump. Both of them saw this light and heard the noise. They were scared and cried. The "thing engulfed the sky." It was massive in size. Both screamed and ran into dad but they couldn't wake either him,  or the brother of one of them. The noise and beam scared them so they took a sleeping bag into a cupboard to hide. The noise went on. They told dad in the morning and he said "They won't hurt you."

Karratha. 2005/2006

"In office at work talking to secretary at about 10am (?) when we both looked out and saw a disc shaped UFO - brown and white alternating stripes (alternately radiating from centre of UFO, not many, say 4-8 stripes.)

Above the LIA flipping back and forth in the sky on about a 2 or 3 degree arc. I went out of the building to investigate and when I got to the bottom of the stairs and came out past the edge of the building next door it was gone...It looked like one of those discus's we threw for sports at school. When I got back upstairs I said to the secretary "Where did it go?" She said it just disappeared.

Karratha. Late 2012

"Going to 8 ball one night I was at a lady's place in Karratha....Just walked out of the house with two 8 ball friends when I looked into the sky and there was a very brightly lit light doing spirals in the sky to the north but quite close.

"My friends were in front and had peeled off to the left to walk to their car just up the road. I didn't say anything but was strangely at peace and glad to see the light. Initially, my logical brain thought it was a helicopter but knew it couldn't be. Maneuvers were too extreme. It then just disappeared.

 

Barrow Island. 2015(?)

 

I received the following photograph from a man, who told me that the Chef on his Oil Rig tender boat took this photograph, while the boat was at anchor off Barrow Island.

 



An extraordinary close encounter near Exmouth: Sightings at US Navcommsta Harold E Holt - Part two

Hi all,

Introduction

In a previous post, I brought you two sightings from 1973 and 1981. This post presents details of what can only be described as an extraordinary close encounter, with photographs, and official intervention, near the base, at Exmouth, Western Australia, in 1992/1993.

This account, by a former Exmouth resident, is their own, first hand, written account of the incident. I have spoken to this individual by telephone; confirmed their identity, and listened to them recount their terrifying experience.

Naturally, if any blog reader can add anything further to what is given here, especially to identify the officials mentioned in this account, I would be delighted to hear from you via email to keithbasterfield@yahoo.com.au

 The event



"It was approximately end of 1992 beginning of 1993 and I was out with an American friend at the Harold  E Holt Naval Communications Base bar and grill having a few drinks. The base is about 6 kms on isolated roads from the actual town of Exmouth.

"Time got away from me and by the time, around 1.30am I left the base, Exmouth Taxi Service had stopped running for the night. At first I couldn't figure out what I was going to do and contemplated walking. Then an APS, Australian Protective Services/Federal Police Officer I knew as Brian sang out to me and offered me a ride back to Exmouth. Brian explained that him and his co-worker needed to do a security check of the surrounding area and would drop me home.

The location of the base - Courtesy Google maps



The object appears

"Brian introduced his co-worker as Kevin. All 3 of us piled into a short wheel base Toyota Land Cruiser that had a front bench seat. I was in the middle with Brian driving and Kevin in the passenger seat. We were driving along chatting for only about 1km when Brian announces "It's back Kev...Grab the camera." The whole time he is looking out the driver's window, while still driving, and straight up.

"I question what was back, as Kevin undid his seat belt and lent into the back of the car for the camera. Brian cups the back of my head and pushes me forward telling me to look up. Needless to say I did and sighted a strange looking craft following directly above the vehicle.

"It looked really close but I'm thinking it would have been 100-200 feet above the car. The craft looked diamond in shape with what I would describe as one end chopped off, very pointy front end and flat back. I could see different coloured lighting in symmetrical patterns on the underside.

"I started crying and shaking while Brian started shooting pictures of this craft. Kevin seemed just as scared as I was and just kept saying "What the hell is it?" I still kept leaning forward to see if it was there and Brian still kept shooting pictures for a matter of 2-3 minutes.

"Then all of a sudden the craft shot to the left of us at a speed faster than your eyes could move. It was lower down and keeping pace with the car. Brian was yelling at Kev to take the camera and shoot pictures but Kev was silent and seemed in shock.

"Next the craft shot up in the air, to the right of us and started to lower down to the ground in the bush. At this stage Brian had slowed the car to nearly a stop but Kevin and I were yelling at him to go.

"Brian was saying "No way we can get a good shot of this...I can get in there." I was hysterical and demanded to be dropped off. Brian sped to the edge of town and dumped me off where I high tailed it home. They turned the car around and headed back in the direction of the craft.

Map of NW Cape - courtesy Google maps

The aftermath

"I was terrified and didn't sleep all night. The next day I'm relaying the story to anyone that would hear me but everyone just laughed and asked how drunk I was, but I was not alone in what I saw, nor had I had much to drink.

"2 days after the incident I was working at a local cafe when 2 US Military Police walked up to the counter. They asked my manager if they could speak to me and then informed me I was wanted at the base. My manager looked at me and told me I better go with them. I asked what this was all about, assuming that a week before I had been out there partying and may have done something wrong, but at no stage did they actually answer me.

"When we turned into the base I just assumed we would stop at the APS building to check me in but they just waved us through like they were expecting us, not ever done as you had to produce ID to enter that base.

"We continued onto the base and then suddenly turned left into what I knew was the top secret part of the base, heavily surrounded by fencing. The gates automatically opened and we drove to the right towards a large solid looking building.

NW Cape  satellite view- courtesy Google maps

"By now I was scared and trying to figure out why the hell they would be taking me in there, still never thinking it had  to do with what we saw. We stopped at the front of the building and one of the MP's opened my door and signalled for me to get out. He then just said "Follow me maam."

"We entered a long hallway and walked about half way along when the other MP opened a door and held it for me. As I stepped into the room the first thing I saw was 3 men in black suits and about 4-5 US military men in very official looking uniforms. I also then  spotted Brian and Kevin and knew immediately what I was there for. They were sitting on chairs in the middle of the room and there was one spare between them both.

The interrogation



"The MP then told me to sit down and they left the room. I noticed that both Brian and Kevin had their heads down and looked like they had been there for a long time. One of the men in the official uniforms stepped forward and asked me if I had been in a vehicle with Brian and Kevin 2 nights prior, to which I answered yes. He then questioned me on what exactly I thought I had seen that night. I ran through the whole story with all of them just staring at me and taking notes.

"They asked me that same question several times, each time a different person asked "Are you 100% sure of what you seen that night?" I said yes. They started getting almost irate and kept saying "Well we think you saw a weather balloon and in  your head you think it was a UFO." I was getting angry and just kept saying "I was raised here, I have released weather balloon and that was no weather balloon we saw that night." But then, they would come back at me over and over telling me I didn't know what I was talking about and what I saw was indeed a weather balloon.

"I was arguing back and refusing to say that was what I saw. Brian, head still down, was quietly whispering to me to just agree with them. By this stage I was furious and turned to Brian and said "F*ck them Brian, you, Kev and I know we saw no f*cking weather balloon." Brian shut up then and I continued to argue with these officials about what I saw.

"Eventually, after a few hours it all went quiet and they whispered amongst themselves. After what seemed like forever they turned to me and said I could leave, but kept Brian and Kevin. I was then escorted back home by the same MP's who had picked me up.



Closer view of NW Cape - courtesy Google maps

Follow up with Brian

"I was furious at what had happened and just wanted to speak to Brian or Kevin as to why they didn't back me up in there. I also called my cousin who resided in Broome and told him what had happened as he was very interested in this kind of stuff. My cousin was coming down my way and asked if we could perhaps look Brian up when there as I knew Brian well but not Kevin so much. When my cousin arrived we went round to Brian's house, after I got his address from a mutual friend, and Brian came out the front to meet us.

"Brian stated that I truly needed to leave this alone or we will all be in serious trouble. He offered to tell my cousin and I what happened that day to Kev and him but asked that we come inside. He said that Kevin and him went back to the craft that night, left the vehicle and snuck up on this thing. He said they got lots of photos of it hovering a few feet above the ground. The next morning they took the pictures and got them instantly developed and started showing people. The day after they were called to the base and asked to bring the  pictures, negatives and camera with them. They were actually excited thinking they had made a major discovery. Hence they were taken into that room and drilled for hours.

"All their equipment was removed from them and they were threatened with disciplinary action if they told another person what they had seen. Right there was when Kevin evidently mentioned that I was in the car with them and they hit panic stations. They both ended up in serious trouble for taking me with them that night and it was forever banned that a civilian rode with them on security checks. Brain stated they took his pictures, negatives and even his camera. He said they were also later made to have some blood and health checks, thankfully I wasn't. He then asked me to please drop this as people can disappear for shit like this. I said to him I wouldn't promise to do that as I knew something was covered up that night."

The base - Naval Communications Station Harold E Holt - courtesy of Google maps

Sightings at or near US Navcommsta Harold E Holt - Part one

Hi all,

Introduction

In 1963 an agreement was reached between the Australian and United States governments to build a US Naval communications station, near what is now the town of Exmouth in Western Australia. It was opened in 1967 and originally titled US Naval communications station, North West Cape.



Courtesy Google maps

In September 1968 its name was changed to US Naval communications station Harold E Holt. From 1967 until October 1992, a US Naval Security Group Detachment was stationed at the base.

Up until 1974 it was staffed by United States personnel, but after that date became a joint operation  and officially designated NAVCOMMSTA Harold E Holt.

Courtesy Google maps

All US personnel were withdrawn in 1993. In 1999, all operations transferred to the Royal Australian Navy.

In July 2002, the Royal Australian Navy handed the base over to the Defence Material Organisation. It is currently operated under contract by Raytheon Australia.

1973

In about 1975, a UAP group based in Sydney, UFOIC, received ten pages of documentation relating to this sighting, directly from the RAAF. There were two handwritten witness statements, one sketch of the object, and two, three page completed RAAF unusual aerial sightings proformas. The sighting reports are attributed to a Bill Lynn and a Lt Commander Moyer.

Lynn

On Thursday 25 October 1973, at 1920 hours, a US Navy fire captain sighted an unusual object in the sky. \"At 1920hrs I was called by the P.O.W. to close the officers' club. I proceeded towards the club in the Fire Dept pick-up 488, when my attention was drawn to a large black object, which I at first took to be a small cloud formation, due west of Area "B"

Page of Lynn's proforma

While travelling towards the officers' club I couldn't help but be attracted by this object's appearance.

On alighting from pick-up 488, I stood for several minutes and watched this black sphere hovering. The sky was clear and pale green-blue. No clouds were about what so ever.

The object was completely stationary except for a halo round the centre which appeared to be either rotating or pulsating.

After watching it for approx. 4 mins, it suddenly took off at tremendous speed and disappeared in a northerly direction in a few seconds.

Lynn's sketch of the object

I consider the object to have been approx. 30ft in diameter, hovering at 1000ft over the hills due west of the base. It was black, maybe due to looking in the direction of the setting sun. No lights appeared on it at any time."

Lynn had been resident in Exmouth since 1968.On the proforma Lynn estimates that the object's angular elevation as 12 degrees and azimuth 270 degrees. This bearing was established by a compass after the sighting. His estimated angular size of the object was "2 inches plus halo at arm's length." There was no trail, exhaust, vapour or light noted. It was last seen north-west of Area "B," at azimuth 320 degrees. There was no associated sound at any stage.

Lt Commander Moyer

"I wish to report the sighting of a large, black airborne object at approximately quarter past seven (PM) last Thursday 25 Oct 1973.

Moyer's sketch of the object

I was travelling south on Murat Road, when I observed this object at a distance of approximately 5 miles to the west at an altitude estimated as 2000ft. After about 20-25 seconds the craft accelerated at unbelievable speed and disappeared to the north. The sky was absolutely clear at the time."

He estimated the accuracy of the time as plus or minus five minutes. He was travelling back to Exmouth at the time, a route he had taken twice a day for 21 months. The object was initially seen at an angular elevation of 20 degrees (plus or minus 5). He estimated its angular size as "Approx same as moon when high in the sky." Azimuth was 270 degrees. There was no associated sound. There was no trail, vapour, exhaust or light. It disappeared to the north at an estimated 45-50 degrees elevation and azimuth 345-350 degrees.

Research

I spoke by telephone to Sydney researcher Moira McGhee who was the person to whom the RAAF gave the copy documents about the case. I read the material written by Sydney researcher Bill Chalker in his 1996 book "Oz Files."

Melbourne researcher Paul Dean and I then conducted additional comprehensive research during 2013 which included locating the family of Bill Lynn.

Bill Lynn (on left) at the base in 1975

Lynn  turned out to be an Australian citizen employed by the US Navy as a fire fighter. Despite extensive searching during 2013/2015 no one has ever been able to locate Lt Commander Moyer. If any blog reader was based at the station in 1973; or lived in Exmouth in 1973, and can throw light on the identity of Lt Commander Moyer, please contact myself at keithbasterfield@yahoo.com.au

For details of our research findings, please take a look at the following links:

1. An initial "cold case" assessment.

2. Time check for the NW Cape incident.

3. Another anomaly with the NW Cape incident.

4. NW Cape incident - some further research notes.

5. William Gordon Lynn.

6. NW Cape - follow up questions.

The case remains an excellent example of  Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP.)

1981

 



The second sighting at US Navcommsta Harold E Holt surfaced in 2001 on Peter Davenport's National UFO Reporting Center in the USA. It was an anonymous report and has never been investigated, so caution needs to be exercised in reading it. However, for what it is worth:

"On an evening in 1981 I was driving north from the small town of Exmouth to the US Naval (navcomsta he holt) communications base to deliver a pizza to an employee of mine who was in the base hospital. We have very clear skies in Exmouth and I noticed what I took to be a very bright planet at about 11 o'clock high on the way out.

After making my delivery as I drove back into town I looked for the planet again but it wasn't there. I looked all round the sky and located it again at a very low elevation due east of me.

I pulled over and stood on the roof of my car so I could see over the surrounding scrub. What I observed was a white oval cross sectioned object with an orange coloured dome on top.

It continued to descend from about 20 degrees above the horizon down to the ground coming between myself and a range of hills about 6 kilometres from me. The area in which it came down is inaccessible under normal circumstances. It was not an airplane or helicopter and unfortunately no one else witnessed the event."

1990

 

In 2014 an anonymous contributor submitted the following, to the MUFON Case Management System, stating that it happened at Exmouth, Western Australia. 

 

"I can't tell you who I am, but I have been living with this event since 11 June 1990. I am ex-Australian military and was operating out of RAAF Base Learmonth  on the night mentioned at approx. 0208am myself and my patrol section were on a recon exercise patrol when we experienced something - a rifle section consists of 9 men. We were the only patrol out that night. The triangle craft was massive, at least tow football fields wide. I've seen a lot of aircraft in my lifetime but this scared the shoot out of me and my patrol. The object was black, with eight dull lights (white) on 2 edges of the craft with a red light in the centre. It gave off a low humming noise, like a sub woofer amp and moved slowly at first almost like a zeplin airship almost hanging still in the air. We were awe struck by this object, once it was spotted my section layed low on some dunes near the beach and watch for approx. 14 min when the object went from no purpose to rapidly moving south west for possible 5km out to sea and then vertical like a blur, we got a clear look at what we could and the area of coast is not populated and it was a clear night. I mentioned our experience to my flight Sargent when we returned to Learmonth, it was dismissed as a USAF Galaxy transport aircraft as we had  a few arriving in Learmonth to resupply y the Harold E Holt US Navy base during  the week. I can tell you it was no Galaxy. I confide to you as I struggle to this day to understand what it was we saw."

 

Notes:  

 

1.  There was a very interesting UAP report made dated 9 June 1987. I documented it in a blog post dated 18 August 2013. It is reported to have occurred at RAAF Base Learmonth. I provide the text below:

 

Sighting by SAS personnel: This is the only UAP report in Government files where the observers were members of the Special Air Services.

The case came to light in a memo dated 7 August 1987 from Major R A Hill, Intelligence Officer, The Special Air Service Regiment, Campbell Barracks, Swanbourne, Western Australia, to the Senior Operations Officer, No. 3 Telecommunications Unit, RAAF Base Pearce. It simply enclosed two Unusual Sightings reports by two SAS personnel.

These reports were then on forwarded by Squadron Leader B Biddington to Airlift Group Headquarters, RAAF Richmond. The memo read:

"1. Attached is documentation of an unusual aerial sighting made by two members of SAS during recent exercises at RAAF Learmonth. Of interest, and these are points that INTELO RIC may decide to follow-up are:

a. air-ground VHF comms on the night of the sighting (and on that night alone) were not achieved, and

b. that at least some of the crew of the 36 Sqn aircraft also observed the light but decided not to report their sighting.

2. This headquarters has no explanation for the phenomenon observed..."

The file contains report forms by the two SAS personnel.

Observer one:

"The light approached from the East towards the airstrip (as airstrip lights were turned on). It was moving in a zig-zag to the left and right of the axis. It was at about 5,000 AGL at this time, as it arrived over the airstrip (northern end). It went into a hover and remained stationary for some 6-7 minutes. The light was changing colour from white to amber. I was not able to see a shape other than a round light. The object then moved upwards into the light cloud but was still visible with binoculars. It then  moved in the direction of NE slowly at first then at a great speed."

This person's report form says that the date of the event was 9 June 1987, and the time between 1900 and 1910hrs (i.e. 10 minutes duration.) The weather conditions were given as "Wispy thin clouds at 10,000 AGL, nil ground wind, visibility good." It was first reported at 1600 metres 45 degrees east, and last seen at 45 degrees north-east at 800 metres. The UAP was said to a one, white, round light about 5 metres diameter which changed from a white colour to amber. There was no associated sound. Its speed was estimated as 200 kms plus, slowed down to 80kms.

The investigating officer's evaluation included:

""(word redacted) in the (word redacted) he is an apparently stable personality and a most reliable SNCO."

The investigating officer's evaluation of possible cause read, "Cause is unknown; the light was too far away to observe size and shape accurately and was brought to attention by the speed of its erratic zig-zag movements and its light. It would not appear to have been an aircraft. It is worth noting that it was also observed by the RAAF pilots of the aircraft in support who refused to report the incident."

Attached to the form was the following statement:

"On the night of 9 June 1987 I was tasked with setting up the DZ at Learmonth airstrip for a night freefall descent. I was the DZSO and I had a medic (redacted word) to assist me on the DZ

At 1855hrs we were situated on the western side of the runway directly opposite the civilian terminal. At this time we commenced to place the DZ lights for the descent and at 1900hrs the light was observed on its approach from the east.

The C130 aircraft involved with the activity was still on the ground and did not become airborne until 1915hrs. The object had disappeared by this time.

Once the aircraft was airborne I tried to establish communication on VHF. Communications were not established both on primary or alternative frequency. Two VHF radios were used and both had a fresh battery fitted. The C130 was at 10,000 feet and event when it flew directly over the strip communication was non-existent.

On completion of the activity I spoke to the pilot who was FLLT Watts of 36 Sqn RAAF on what had occurred. He also explained to me that the aircraft had tried to establish communication on VHF primary and alternative frequencies with no success.

This was the first time during the period 3-9 June 87 that communication from ground to air with the C130 was not obtainable."

Observer two:

The second observer was aged 26 and gave the same details as observer one. He said there was one bright, white light, round in shape, taking zig-zag movements initially. His narrative read:

" We noticed it while awaiting a RAAF plane. It came over the horizon moving a very erratic course (zig-zagging across the sky) until it arrived over the airstrip and went into a hover above us, where it stayed for several minutes. Before accelerating straight up at extreme speed. It was high in the sky and size and shape were hard to determine."

The investigating officer wrote:

"(name redacted) is a medic in the SASR RAP. He has no connection with any UFO organisation and is a stable well balanced soldier."
 .    

Continued in part two - an extremely unusual close encounter with government intervention.