Australia’s most intriguing UFO cases

This is from an article published on my website at weirdaustralia.com. 

From the mid-19th century through to modern times, Australia has had its share of compelling UFO reports. Let's take a look at some of the most intriguing Australian UFO encounters thought the years. 

Perhaps Australia's most celebrated UFO case is that of the mysterious disappearance of 21-year old Frederick Valentich over Bass Strait in the early evening of 21 October 1978. 

Valentich boarded a hired Cessna aircraft and taxied down the runway at Melbourne’s Moorabbin Airport planning to fly the Cessna across Bass Strait to King Island, pick up some friends, and perhaps some crayfish, and then return to Melbourne to meet up with his girlfriend.

He never made it to King Island.

Unfortunately, we do not know exactly what happened to Valentich over Bass Strait that night. All we have is the radio transcript between himself and Melbourne Air Traffic Control. 

Today, that radio transcript lies at the heart of Australia’s greatest UFO mystery.

From the radio transcript of Frederick Valentich’s last communication:

Delta Sierra Juliet – Melbourne. Can you describe the … er – aircraft?

Delta Sierra Juliet … as it’s flying past it’s a long shape’ [open microphone for three seconds] (cannot) identify more than that. It has such speed [open microphone for three seconds]. It is before me right now Melbourne.

Then …Delta Sierra Juliet – Melbourne. It seems like it’s (stationary) or (chasing me). What I’m doing right now is orbiting, and the thing is just orbiting on top of me also … It’s got a green light, and sort of metallic (like). It’s all shiny (on) the outside.Delta Sierra Juliet. It seems to me that he’s playing some sort of game. He’s flying over me two – three times at a time at speeds I could not identify.

And then, the final transmission made by Valentich:

My intentions are – ah … to go to King Island – Ah, Melbourne, that strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again [open microphone for two seconds] it is hovering and it’s not an aircraft.

Delta Sierra Juliet.Delta Sierra Juliet – Melbourne [open microphone for 17 seconds. A strange pulsed noise is audible during this transmission.] This noise was also described as ”metallic, scraping sounds”.

No trace of Valentich or his plane has ever been found.Read more about the mysterious disappearance of Frederick Valentich and the UFO sightings that preceded it.

Airships of 1909

During the winter of 1909, much of southeast Australia was abuzz with reports of mysterious lights flying through the skies, leaving witnesses baffled as to what they were and from where they had come. Some thought them planets, others thought them lanterns attached to kites, while one witness thought they might be “Japanese airships”.

Following sightings of similar mysterious lights in the skies above New Zealand, reports soon appeared in newspapers across Australia of similar unknown lights observed in the heavens. One such sighting appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald.

“A good deal of excitement was occasioned tonight by the appearance of a mysterious light or an illuminated body to the south-east of the town [of Moss Vale]. Quite a number of people gathered in the main street, and speculation was rife as to the meaning of the strange illumination. Above the large light some large body was distinctly visible, as the rays of light were reflected upon its surface.”

Soon, these strange lights were seen in the skies across the Southern Highlands of NSW as well as much further afield.

On 19 August, The Mercury reported that: “Goulburn has had a week’s display, during which the light has, according to report, been observed to move ‘up and down and sideways,’ and once gave a pyrotechnic exhibition, several stars falling about it.”

The flight capabilities of those mysterious “airships” of 1909, according to accounts, certainly appeared to defy what was possible back in those early days of manned flight.

Read more about the airships of 1909.

RAAF pilot reports flying saucers: The Sea Fury Incident

On 16 December 1954, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the Nowra Naval Air Station went on alert to watch for unidentified flying objects after a RAAF pilot had reported two flying saucers 3 months earlier on 31 August.

“Officers at the station said this today during an inspection of the station by the Minister for the Navy, Mr J. Francis.“

Apart from admitting that the objects had been seen, naval officers told journalists accompanying Mr Francis that investigations into the incident were ‘secret’. The station still has not established the nature of the objects seen three months ago,” the Herald reported.

The pilot who reported the UFOs was flying a Sea Fury at night in the Goulburn area.

He said the objects were lighted. They travelled faster than his aircraft [220 knots] and passed him, flying close to his aircraft at about 15,000 feet. While inflight the pilot reported the objects to the Nowra station by radio.

Radar operators then tracked the Sea Fury and did locate two other objects in flight. Inquiries later established that there were no aircraft flying in the area at the time. 

Gosford UFO sucks up water from bay

On New Year’s Eve 1994, police switchboards suddenly lit up with reports of an unidentified illuminated object flying over the waters around Gosford on the Central Coast of NSW. 

According to Sergeant Bob Wenning, callers reported seeing a “huge ball-shaped object with bright lights on the bottom”. To many of the witnesses, it appeared as though the illuminated craft was sucking up water from the bay with beams of light shining down from the object, penetrating the water. 

Some thought that these beams were turning the water to steam, while others described the water frothing.

Following the many frantic reports received that night from a wide cross-section of the community including prominent local citizens, doctors, teachers, nurses and lawyers, police were despatched to investigate. They soon found themselves chasing a “strange metallic craft” back and forth across the bay.

The police would later report that whenever they came within 50 metres of the UFO, or when car headlights shone near it, the “craft would turn off its own lights and shoot up skywards, out of sight”. 

One officer compared the swift movements of the craft with “if you had a torch beam and whipped it around”.

During the night of the sightings, residents reported their pets acting strangely, with many hiding and cowering and dogs howling for no apparent reason. Police also reported that as the UFO reports flooded in, local parties previously well behaved, suddenly erupted into antisocial behaviour.

Read more of Australia's most intriguing UFO cases here.