At 9:20pm LT, a man was driving when he saw a tube of light close to his windshield. He then saw a football-shaped object about 30 feet in diameter that was pulsating and was an irridescent blue. The car engine failed (EM effects). No sound could be heard. After 5 minutes, the object moved off and then rapidly disappeared. The car lights and engine then resumed functioning.
More than 200 students and staff from two schools watched as an object landed in a nearby paddock, lifted off and vanished. Everyone seems to agree that the object was a low-flying, silver/grey shining object, either of classical flying saucer shape or close to it, "a cup turned upside down on a saucer". Students were familiar with light aircraft because the schools were close to Moorabbin Airport. Westall is only six kilometres from Moorabbin Airport, and the object was roughly headed in that direction, travelling north to south. The object was in view for up to 20 minutes, and many saw it descend and land behind pine trees at the Grange Reserve. Dozens of students ran across an open paddock to the reserve to investigate, but the object had lifted off and vanished. Some say it made no sound, others say it did. Many witnesses have reported seeing up to five aircraft trailing the UFO.
The UFO appears to have left a circle of scorched grass, or the ground appeared “cooked or boiled”. Some people have said several circles were left in paddocks bordering Grange Reserve. Many reported that police, air force and military personnel inspected the site. Several people say they saw authorities burn the site. The Dandenong Journal had the story as front-page news two weeks in a row, and reported that "students and staff have been instructed to 'talk to no-one' about the incident". Ex-Grange resident Mr Matthews, 51, now living in Greenvale, said police and other officials interviewed his mother.
The Westall object had a large number of credible witnesses. The story was covered at the time by Channel Nine, The Age and local newspapers. It was viewed in daylight and attracted a forceful response from police and the RAAF. Investigators have had no luck obtaining police and RAAF reports. The police involvement is a controversial aspect of the case. Shane Ryan of Canberra has been investigating the event and following leads that the Victorian Police may have been involved. On Jun 4 2010, at 8.30pm, the World Premiere of Westall '66: a suburban UFO mystery, the story and Shane Ryan's research into it, aired on the Sci Fi Channel, Foxtel.
At about 8 pm, on April 4th, 1966, Ron Sullivan, a steel construction businessman from Maryborough, was travelling on a straight sealed section of the Dunolly-St.Arnaud road, near Bourkes Flat, in central country Victoria. Ahead in a paddock off to his right, Sullivan observed an unusual light. He first took it to be a tractor, engaged in night ploughing, but as he drew closer, Sullivan began to see a most unusual light display, located at ground level. The following things happened quickly as he drew closer to the scene, and then passed it. Sullivan was paying attention to both the light display in the paddock on his right and the road when he observed the following sequence of light display in the strange phenomenon in the paddock.
Initially, as he approached Sullivan saw a white phosphorous type of light on the ground that appeared to be about 15 feet in diameter. "It opened up and there was another white oval on top of it, about 30 feet (in height, coming down making the shape of a cone (with a) 15 feet bottom diameter and 20 feet to diameter - and in that cone were tubes of coloured lights - all the lights as you see as you look through the spectrum ("all the colours of the rainbow") ... red, blue, indigo and purple ... travelling up and down ... or they seem to be... from the small oval to the bigger oval at the top. They were going up and down in shafts. Then gradually the top seemed to come to meet the bottom ... They seemed to close in ... making a transition of one light oval -- similar to first view -- everything then just disappeared." The last thing Sullivan saw of the light display was "just a spot on the ground -- a light spot, become smaller and smaller, to nothing." Meanwhile, as he was driving, he observed that his car headlight beams suddenly appeared to be pointing in a direction off to the right in the direction of the strange light display and also seemed to be, bending back on an axis with the object in the paddock. As he got closer, the angle of bending of his car's headlight beams became more acute. He thought his car must have been heading off the road to the right, and immediately compensated by turning it to the left. He found he was now heading directly towards a tree on the left hand side of the road. Sullivan turned the car to the right to regain the direction of travel along the straight section of road, thoroughly confused and leaving behind the display in the paddock.
Ron Sullivan had his car lights checked and found them to be working properly. Later in Maryborough he found that a young man from Carnegie, Gary Taylor, was killed in a car accident at Burkes flat on the night of April 6th, two nights later. Sullivan reported his experience to police. At the accident site, it was determined that Taylor's car had collided with the same tree that Sullivan almost collided with 2 nights earlier. Directly opposite the tree in the paddock, about 70 yards from the roadway, coincident with where Sullivan saw the strange light display, a shallow depression was found in the fallowed earth. It was a little over 3 feet in diameter and only a few inches in depth. The depression was cleanly scooped out of the sandy soil with no apparent debris around it. There were no human or animal tracks around the area. The property owner indicated the depression had not been there when he had finished fallowing. There appeared to be no explanation for the depression or the light display.
(UFORAN 5:3, The Bent Headlight Beam Case Revisited, Bill Chalker, May-Jun 1984, pgs 17-29)
(*Project 1947, A Catalogue of Australian Physical Trace Cases, Keith Basterfield & Bill Chalker, updated October 1997 & February 1998)
(Maryborough Advertiser, 15 April 1966)
(AFSR no 5, July 1966, pg 12)
(AUFOR no. 10, Dec 1969, pgs 28-29)
(FS Vol. 32 no. 4, 1987)
(*UFOs: a report on Australian encounters, Keith Basterfield, pgs 44, 155-156)
(VFSRS, later VUFORS)
1966 Jan 19 [QLD] The Tully Saucer ‘Nest’
I12.
Euramo(18:00,145:5) CE2/FSA
QLD
At about 9.00 a.m. on 19th January, 1966, Mr. G.A. Pedley, a banana grower of Tully, Qld, observed a light grey non reflecting dull object, reported to be about 25 feet long and 8 feet deep, rise vertically then climb on an angle of 450 from a height of about 30 feet above marshland which was situated about 25 yards away from his position on his neighbour's property. There was an associated hissing noise which decreased as the 'object' rose. The apparent shape was described as 'two saucers, face to face', but no structural detail was observed. The duration of the observation was approximately 15 seconds and it disappeared in mid-air whilst moving away. A well-defined circular depression remained in swamp grass where the object was seen rising, measuring about 32 feet long by 25 feet wide. The grass was flattened in clockwise curves to water level within the circle and the reeds had been uprooted from the mud. There was no scorching of grass or surrounding trees and there was no smell of combustion.
RAAF files have an original police report: George Pedley reported his experience to Tully Police at 7.30 pm, on January 19th. At 7 am, January 20th George Pedley and Sgt. A.V. Moylan went to the site of the incident. Sgt. Moylan then contacted Townsville RAAF Base by telephone, on the morning of January 20th. Flt. Lt. Wallace advised Sgt. Moylan that he would forward a proforma questionnaire for completion by George Pedley. On Friday, January 21st, Flt. Lt. Wallace confirmed dispatch of two copies of the sighting proforma by mail that same day and also requested Sgt. Moylan obtain "a sample of the grass from the scorched area." At 3.30 pm, on the same day, Moylan returned to the site and took “a sample of the grass from the depression in the swamp grass at the site”.
The proforma was filled out by Moylan on dated 26/1/66. Sgt. Moylan dispatched the report and the sample on 26/1/66. In a covering minute paper, Flt. Lt. Wallace of RAAF Townsville confirmed that "there were no service or Civil aircraft operating in the area... at the time of the sighting..." Any additional information: Sgt. Moylan had written: "Observer reported this matter to Tully Police at 7.30pm on 19/1/66 and at 7am, 20/1/66 went with me to the site of the depression in the swamp. His version then included the information that the object rose vertically, appeared to dip slightly and then went off in straight climbing path. He then said...further that there was no smell of combustion and no scorching of grass or trees visible; that the flattened grass or rushes was quite green when he first saw the depression; on his return that afternoon the grass had turned brown. In this matter I formed the opinion that the depressed area in the swamp grass had been caused by a small helicopter and that the observer, in the early morning bright sunlight shining on the rotor may have mistaken the shape. His description of the takeoff lent some strength to my opinion. However there was cleared land to the east for about 200 yards where such an aircraft could have more safely landed instead of the position indicated by the observer, close to trees. Later I was informed by Wallace Evans of ...Tully, an electrician that he has seen similar markings in a swamp at Kurrumine Beach and is quite certain that it was caused by a whirlwind, sucking up water into a waterspout, uprooting the grass and laying it out in a similar pattern. At 3.30pm, 21/1/66 I took a sample of the grass at the site and have forwarded it under separate cover on even date." Flt. Lt. T.D. Wright, for Air Officer Commanding, Headquarters Operational Command, RAAF, Penrith, New South Wales (NSW), forwarded police Sgt. Moylan's report of George Pedley's UFO sighting and Flt. Lt. Wallace's covering minute paper to the Department of Air, Russell Offices, Canberra. His communication, classified RESTRICTED, was channelled to the Directorate of Air Force Intelligence (DAFI), and stated that, "This headquarters believes that the depressions of the swamp grass were caused by small isolated waterspouts." Enquiries to the Commonwealth Aerial Phenomena Investigation Organisation (CAPIO) and the Department of Defence (Air Office) have illicited similar responses to the willy-willy theory.
The owner of the property, Albert Pennisi believes interest in his lagoon, with carloads of people comming at the height of its fame plus the attention of the police and the air force, may have made whoever was visiting his farm shy off. "We had people from all over the world arriving: UFO researchers, police, the air force investigators were watching us 24 hours a day."
(*Project 1947. A Catalogue of Australian Physical Trace Cases, Keith Basterfield & Bill Chalker, October 1997 & February 1998)
(UFOs - The Case for Scientific Myopia, Seers, S., Vantage Press, 1983, Ch.4, The Tully Saucer 'Nests')
(The Encyclopedia of UFOs, NEL, 1980, Tully (Australia) 'Saucer Nests', pgs 370-371, Bill Chalker)
(International UFO Reporter, Winter, 1997-98 & Spring, 1998, Tully Saucer Nests of 1996, Bill Chalker)
(*UFOs: a report on Australian encounters, Keith Basterfield, pg 154)
(AFSR No 5, July 1966)
(UFOSH, pg 58)
(AFSR No 9, inside cover (pic) and pg 42)
(Sydney “Sun Herald”, 5 June 1966)
(RAAF: 5/2/1 Air(6) Penrith; Digital: 580/1/1 part 5, pgs 164-169,175)
(*UFOlogist Vol. 8 #1, 2004, pg 37; *Vol. 9 #3, 2005, pg 12; *Vol. 11 #2, 2007, pg 31, Revelations, Keith Basterfield, AURA)
(The Sunday Mail, 20 Jan 2002)
1965 Dec 4 [QLD] Nebo Examine Another Trace
I11.
Daunia Homestead via Nebo Wits:1M Roberts Trace
QLD
Mackay Tower was advised by Nebo Police that Mr Roberts had seen in scrub, ”a strip about 600 yards wide and 4 miles long in a straight line and veering into a clearing, which had been subjected to extreme heat…” There had been no bushfires.
A package of plant material was forwarded to the RAAF for chemical analysis. Page 126 contains a file note stating, “Contacted Mr Bretts (Dept. of Defence). He stated that the parcel was a sample of gum leaves with no abnormal characteristics." The official explanation was bushfire.
Three men, ex-WWII pilot Jim Tilse, veteran pilot Eric Judin, and Engineer John Burgess, were guests at the Retreat Hotel when they witnessed a strange luminous ‘machine’ resting near the ground some half a kilometre away. According to Tilse, “It was about three hundred yards from the hotel where we were staying. It had a bank of spotlights, twenty or thirty of them, along a circular platform. It was solid, metallic-looking, thirty feet or more in diameter. It was a black disk with banks of brilliant lights underneath it, hovering over trees, at seventy metres above the ground. It seemed to measure seven to ten meters across and only twenty-three or so centimetres through, with a 4.6 meter-high understructure. An area of the ground was illuminated by it. The object then approached and stopped, after which it retreated and approached twice more before finally leaving at high speed. Upon its departure, two of the witnesses, Burgess and Judin, said they heard a buzz of low-pitched hissing noise.
Tilse inspected the area next day, and said he found a circular impression. Tops of nearby trees were said to have shown signs of burning. The Nebo police report continues: “The impression was a perfect circle with a radius of twenty feet [six meters]. It consisted of flattened grass, but not burned; the centre was untouched. A distinct belt or ring, three feet two inches wide [95 centimetres], of less-flattened grass, encircled the area, making the total diameter of the impression twenty-sex feet four inches [7.9 metres].” A Constable of the Nebo police confirmed scorching on the treetops and on a section of nearby grass. The three witnesses were thoroughly cross-examined.
Residents called police to tell them they had observed a cigar shape lined with windows, which shone with red, white, orange and yellow lights and it had a red tail. It was some fifty metres long and only about ten meters above the ground.
A Willaston man was travelling on the Lyndoch-Gawler road going to Gawler near the Sandy Creek Hotel, when upon rounding a bend in his vehicle, he came upon a blood-red coloured object extending across the roadway. He applied the brakes and was within three metres of it when it rose suddenly from the road. After rising one hundred meters or so, it turned on its side and sped off, streaming vapour.
Described as eight metres across and four high, with a concave top and a flat base, it glowed blood-red when close to the ground and appeared to change to a light-red yellow as it gathered speed and flew off towards Two Wells. Researcher Hervey states that the sighting was reported to Police and that a CIB Special Branch officer interviewed the witness and as the Adelaide Advertiser reports “… He later reported the incident to the Weapons Research Establishment which was arranged for him to be interviewed by a member of the CIB Special Branch”.
Mount Gambier(37:50,140:47) 2130hrs 1-1.5mins Bushbridge CE1
SA
A seventeen year old apprentice mechanic encountered an object on one side of the road on which he was driving, said to be on the old Glencoe road, between Glencoe and Mount Gambier, 1.5 miles south of the Piggery. It was shaped somewhat like a bulldozer and when his car was six meters away from it, a bright light lit up on the object and dazzled him.
He pulled the car up, the object moved across the road, and he drove his vehicle under it. It was oval in shape, five meters wide and three high, with the lights on it being as bright as “the arc lights in electric welding.” It disappeared straight upwards but was seen again at the six mile post from the Mount. He was travelling at 50-60mph and the light followed him for about three miles. It disappeared soon after another car approached. The event was reported to Police by the youth’s father. The official explanation was meteor.
Police received a report of a bright light, changing in colour from red to white. The car had been followed for several miles and the light last seen hovering over a paddock.
Six people rang the Advertiser to report a glowing object changing colour as it moved low across the horizon in the north-eastern sky. The object is believed to be similar to one which had police mystified several months ago.
Northfield/Yatala/Adelaide/Joslin 1835hrs 5mins NO
SA
An object with square lighted windows “… revolving and hovering just under a layer of cloud” was sighted. There was no noise. Police received a similar report about a similar object hovering to the NE.
A man reported that a 3m diameter red light had paced his car. The object “appeared and stayed in front of his vehicle for fifteen miles.” Two police constables searched the area but found nothing.
Police received reports of a bright flashing white light in St Vincent Gulf, about 20 degrees north-west of Gleneld. Commercial aircraft in the vicinity were asked to look out for the light.
Three young men travelling by car related that they were followed by a saucer shaped object for some 50 miles. Occasionally it was so low that they could see portholes. A total of 92 exposures were apparently taken of the object using five cameras.
The men reported their observations to police, and then were interviewed by the RAAF who allegedly took away the cameras. Later the cameras were returned minus the films. Some researchers suspect the tale might be confused or connected with a similarly bizzare story around the area at a similar time in the media, involving stolen photos, a field of debris and vanishing figures.
(Australian Saucer Record (ASR) Vol. 5 No. 3, 1959, pg 13)
(*UFOs: a report on Australian encounters, Keith Basterfield, pg 140)
(Chalker Bill, Project 1947 Forum)
1951-1960 [WA/QLD] State Forces Assist RAAF
I0.
...
WA QLD
From Government UFO files, it is known that State Police forces assisted investigation of UFO reports on behalf of the RAAF. This was reinforced when a copy of file series number PP474/1 control symbol 5/5/Air was examined during the Australian Disclosure Project. The file contains papers which extend between 1951 and June 1960 and is a record of investigations conducted by RAAF Pearce in WA. Throughout this period there was continual use of WA Police Force resources to interview UFO witnesses in that state. A similar arrangement existed between RAAF Townsville and the Queensland Police force.
(RAAF: PP474/1 control symbol 5/5/Air)
(Ufologist 10/5 2007, pg 31)
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