Tag: Bill Chalker

Australian Kelly Cahill’s UFO Abduction Story Still Stirs Passions

Article by Matt Neal                                  September 26, 2020                                  (abc.net.au)

• August 7, 1993, Kelly and Andrew Cahill were driving through Narre Warren IN the Gippsland region of South Australia (east of Melbourne, Victoria) to a friend’s house. Along the way, Kelly noticed five or six large orange spheres lined up in a row inside a some kind of horses’ paddock enclosure. When they arrived at their destination, her husband and friends, and eventually even Kelly, laughed it off.

• But driving home on the same road at about midnight, Kelly and Andrew again saw the same lights ‘hanging above the road’. “I could then see that the orange lights were really windows (on a craft that she assumed was a horses’ paddock) . . . I could make out figures standing behind the portals,” writes Kelly. Then the object flew off ‘at incredible speed’, then again, they saw the object with the orange windows sitting to the side of the road. Kelly says that it was then that the couple’s memory went blank. Their car had travelled several hundred meters down the road without them knowing.

• In the days and weeks that followed, Kelly claimed to find strange marks on her body, including a small triangular wound below her bellybutton. She began experiencing stomach pains and night ‘visitations’ from tall black-hooded figures with glowing red eyes.

• Later, through hypnosis, Kelly learned that her husband had pulled the car over to get a better look at the ‘brightly lit object in the paddock’. Further up the road, another car had parked, its occupants standing at the edge of the field. A tall thin figure appeared in front of the (craft) and Kelly heard in her mind the being’s thoughts: ‘‘Let’s kill them’’. More beings appeared, unleashing an energy force that knocked Kelly to the ground as she screamed to her husband: ‘‘They’ve got no souls! They’re evil! They’re going to kill us!’’

• Bill Chalker of the UFO Investigation Centre in Sydney contacted Kelly Cahill. Chalker alerted a Melbourne group of paranormal investigators called Phenomena Research Australia [PRA], led by then-director John Auchettl. Auchettl interviewed Kelly many times and examined the scene of the alleged sighting near Eumemmerring Creek. He placed an ad in local newspapers in an effort to find the occupants of the second car. Remarkably, they got a response. The story from the second car was identical to Kelly’s account, but went even further, detailing experiences inside the mystery craft where they were strapped to a table and examined by the beings. The other woman also had strange marks on their bodies including the same triangular wounds near their navels.

• The PRA discovered that a third car driven by a local lawyer was witness to the ‘Eumemmerring Creek Encounter’, whose story lined up with the other witnesses. The researchers began prepping an exhaustive 300-page report that promised to reveal the truth.

• Eventually, the Australian media got wind of the story. Kelly appeared on current affairs TV show Today Tonight, and her story ran in newspapers and magazines. By 1996, Kelly was a big name on the UFO conference circuit. With every appearance, Kelly unveiled new tidbits from PRA’s forthcoming report. She published a popular book. But by 1998, Kelly had disappeared from the scene. Still, none of the other witnesses –including her now ex-husband Andrew – came out publicly to back her story. And the PRA’s extensive report was nowhere to be found.

• Aside from a brief moment of interest in 2016 when Kelly’s case was mentioned by Fox Mulder on The X-Files reboot, the Eumemmerring Creek encounter was lost to posterity. In 2020 there was still no PRA report. Auchettl hinted that ‘it was possible the PRA’s report might still come out, but not soon’. Auchettl said that “the case was so good”, however, that the report “is worthy of release.” “[But] we won’t release it [now] because once we release our report, then we become the focus of the case,” as they could not locate the witnesses to the encounter. “[S]o if we release anything, all the focus is going to be on us. We’ll get hammered.”

• Auchettl said that when Kelly and her husband began to ask for information to be taken out of the PRA report, and they refused to allow the publication of medical and psychological reports to back up their stories, the original 300-page report was whittled down to an unusable ‘100 pages or so’. Also, when Kelly went to the media and other UFO groups in early 1994, it ‘‘muddied’’ the case.

• The Sydney investigator, Bill Chalker, still believes Kelly’s story but regrets handing the case over to PRA in 1993. “There was a lot of bad blood that’s passed between them and me as a consequence of their role in this case,” said Chalker. “I’ve seen a lot of information that suggests [the investigation] was carried out … but unfortunately they didn’t [want] to share the material.” “This was an extraordinary lost opportunity.” “It was frustrating that such a promising case was caught up in a situation where the group involved (PRA) chose not to make their data available.” Chalker said that UFO enthusiasts had a right to feel disappointed by PRA keeping their research secret. “I can understand the reaction from various members of the UFO research community.”

• As for Kelly Cahill, she dropped off the radar around 1998. In the early 2000s, she called Chalker and sent him ‘three large archival boxes’ of files, and left the country. She is now back in the Latrobe Valley in Gippsland, the same region that her ‘‘encounter’’ happened. She did not respond to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s request for an interview. “She really wanted to …put all this behind her,” says Chalker. When she realized that she was going to be the only one that was going to go public on this, and that the PRA wasn’t backing her up, she felt less confident about being the constant contact point on the case, and backed away from the media spotlight.

• While it’s unclear how Kelly Cahill feels about it all today, for a lot of UFO enthusiasts her case is either the one that got away or, worse, another one that never really was.

 

If her story is to believed, on August 7, 1993, Gippsland woman Kelly Cahill saw a UFO and beings from another world.

As detailed in her in 1996 book Encounter, Ms Cahill’s case had all the hallmarks of the classic alien abduction story of the era – lost time, strange spaceships, bright lights, inhuman creatures and inexplicable marks on her body.

But her story had something other alien visitations didn’t – independent witnesses who could potentially back up her story.

Along with her then-husband Andrew, who was in the car with her on that fateful night on Melbourne’s south-eastern fringes, there were reportedly four other people in two separate cars who would be able to verify her otherworldly claims.

Kelly Cahill’s drawing of the beings

Because of its multiple witnesses, the incident was hailed as the “holy grail” of alien abduction stories by UFO

                  Kelly Cahill

researchers and enthusiasts.

It was the one with the potential to provide definitive proof, once and for all, that the truth was out there.

Cult TV show The X-Files even referenced the case in an episode.

But 27 years on, the truth about the so-called Eumemmerring Creek encounter is anything but clear.

A detailed report into the claims was never released, the other witnesses never came forward publicly, and Ms Cahill disappeared from public view.
So was her ‘encounter’ a missed opportunity, or just another UFO hoax?

 

‘Hooded figures with glowing eyes’

              Bill Chalker

According to Ms Cahill, she and her then-husband Andrew were driving along the Belgrave-Hallam Road in Narre Warren on that fateful winter’s night in 1993.

They were en route to a friend’s house when Ms Cahill saw in a paddock a row of five or six large orange lights on a ‘distinct circular shape . . . like nothing I had ever seen before’, she wrote in her book.

When they arrived at their destination, her husband and friends, and eventually even Ms Cahill, laughed it off.

But about midnight, driving home on the same road, she and Andrew apparently saw what she believed to be the same lights ‘hanging above the road’.

early Kelly Cahill interview

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UFOs Around the World: Australia

by Robbie Graham                  September 23, 2018                    (mysteriousuniverse.org)

• This installment of “UFOs Around the World” brings us to Australia. Robbie Graham interviews Bill Chalker, a veteran UFO researcher and author in Sydney, about the historical development of Australia’s Ufology movement.

• Edgar Jarrold was a foundational figure in Australian ufology with his 1952 group, the Australian Flying Saucer Bureau, and his publication, The Australian Flying Saucer Magazine. By the end of the 1950s, individual state groups began their rise with people like Peter Norris, Stan Seers and Dr. Miran Lindtner. Judy Magee and Paul Norman became prominent and Colin Norris provided a focus in South Australia.

• In the 1970’s, the efforts of Vladimir Godic and Keith Basterfield encouraged a number of the state groups to adopt the generic group name of UFO Research and a scientific investigation focus and spark the rise of a national focus, ultimately leading to the Australian Centre for UFO Studies operating from 1980. By the nineties, most serious researchers abandoned the smaller research societies in favor of the national ‘UFO Research Australia’ led by Vlad Godic and Keith Basterfield, and later Robert Frola and Diane Harrison’s Australian UFO Research Network.

• According to Chalker, ten Australian UFO cases illustrate the complexity and nature of the UFO phenomenon ‘down under’.
1. August 31, 1954 – Sea Fury case, near Goulbourn, NSW, Australia – UFO confirmed by naval pilot, radar, and ground witnesses
2. July 23, 1992 – Peter Khoury “Hair of Alien” DNA case, Sydney, Australia – abduction by female Nordic blonde of “hybrid origin”
3. June 27, 1959 – Father Gill UFO entity sighting, Boianai, Papua New Guinea – multiple witness sighting of animate entities on a UFO with intelligent interactions
4. September 30, 1980 – George Blackwell’s Rosedale UFO landing, Rosedale, Victoria Australia – compelling array of physical evidence
5. August 8, 1993 – Kelly Cahill’s abduction experience, Narre Warren North, Victoria, Australia – multiple witness UFO encounter with physical evidence
6. January 19, 1966 – George Pedley’s Tully UFO nest encounter, Tully, Queensland, Australia- daylight close encounter with UFO take off leaving physical evidence
7. April 4, 1966 – Ron Sullivan’s experience, Burkes Flat, Victoria Australia – UFO encounter, physical traces, bent light beams, possible related fatality
8. April 6, 1966 – Westall school daylight UFO landing” encounter, Westall, Victoria, Australia – multiple witness daylight landing, physical traces
9. 1977-78 – Gisborne UFO abduction milieu, Gisborne New Zealand – UFO and abduction milieu, entities, multiple witnesses, multiple abductions
10. May to August 1973 – Tyringham Dundurrabin UFO, NSW, Australia – intense UFO flap, multiple witness, physical effects, paranormal dimensions

• After some 44 years of official ‘Defence’ handling of UFO matters, albeit grudgingly and decidedly un-scientific, the Australian Defence Department officially washed their hands of the UFO/UAP matter in 1996 and is no longer accepting civil reports, following the lead of its major defence partners—the US and the UK. Currently, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) and Air services Australia (ASA) accepts UFO reports from civil aviation flight crews. Australia’s Department of Defence accepts reported military UFO cases. The Aussie government has taken stock of the UK approach which in recent years has become more open with their UFO files.

• The Australian UFO Research Network (AUFORN), which is similar to MUFON in the US, is the most recent of the national UFO investigation organisations in Australia. But this slowly lapsed following the closure of the national UFO magazine, the “UFOlogist.” MUFON in Australia has had a rather ad hoc history in recent years. Its most recent reincarnation appears to be playing out under the umbrella of the Internet site Australian UFO Action. The proliferation of Internet and social media sites has made detailed UFO investigation by experienced researchers more difficult and problematic than in the past.

• “I have extensively researched high strangeness close encounter cases and hundreds of so-called abduction and contact cases,” says Chalker. “I’m an advocate of open scientifically based investigations… but far greater mainstream support is needed.” “Less politicized scientific investigations need to be the norm rather than the exception.” “Greater networking, sharing and cooperation is needed.” “I am optimistic rather than pessimistic about the future of UFO research.”

 

Over the next several weeks, I’ll be conducting interviews with leading UFO researchers from countries around the world in an effort to paint a picture of global UFOlogy today. This week, our global UFO trek takes us to Australia, and to Bill Chalker, a veteran UFO researcher based in Sydney with a background in chemistry and mathematics. He has contributed to such publications as Rolling Stone and Reader’s Digest and has written chapters for books including UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiryand all three volumes of Jerome Clark’s The UFO Encyclopedia. He is the author of The OZ Files (1996) and Hair of the Alien (2005) and Coordinator of the Sydney-based UFO Investigation Centre (UFOIC) and the Anomaly Physical Evidence Group (APEG).

RG: Who have been the defining figures in Australian UFOlogy over the past 70 years (for better or for worse), and why?

BC: Edgar Jarrold is generally seen as a foundational figure in Australian ufology with his 1952 group, the Australian Flying Saucer Bureau, and his publication, The Australian Flying Saucer Magazine. More controversially, it is his departure from public ufology that helped spawn Gray Barker’s version of the “men-in-black” saga with his colourful book, They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers (1956). South Australian ufologist Fred Stone tried unsuccessfully to take over Jarrold’s national reach. By the end of the 1950s, individual state groups began their rise with people like Peter Norris (the Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society, later VUFORS), Stan Seers (the Queensland Flying Saucer Bureau, now UFO Research (Qld)) and Dr. Miran Lindtner (the Sydney based UFO Investigation Centre (UFOIC) which I continue today). Judy Magee and Paul Norman became prominent in the Victorian group. Colin Norris provided a focus in South Australia, until the efforts of Vladimir Godic and Keith Basterfield during the 1970s encouraged a number of the state groups to adopt the generic group name of UFO Research and a scientific investigation focus. The 1970s also saw the rise of a national focus, following Dr. Allen Hynek’s 1973 visit, ultimately leading to the Australian Centre for UFO Studies operating from 1980.

                      Bill Chalker

It limped into the nineties a pale shadow of its former self. Most serious researchers had long since abandoned it in favour of the national networking vision established by ACOS and the earlier ACUFOS manifestation and UFORA, and because ACUFOS had lost direction and credibility with what was seen as the uncritical promotion of dubious material by its final incumbent co-ordinator. Vlad Godic led a revived national focus with his UFO Research Australia Newsletter and with Keith Basterfield, the UFO Research Australia organisation, which ended with Godic’s untimely death. The national focus was effectively re-empowered with Robert Frola and Diane Harrison’s Australian UFO Research Network (AUFORN). Robert Frola also focused on a national newsstand magazine—the Ufologist—which continued for two decades. While the Internet helped break down a lot of the barriers of a big country like Australia, it effectively energised individuals and state orientated groups. For example the blogs of Keith Basterfield, Paul Dean, and myself in terms of the individual approaches, and in terms of state orientated groups—UFO Research Qld, UFO Research NSW, and Victorian UFO Action (VUFOA). Other organisations and individuals provide alternate focuses such as my own low profile networking continuation of UFOIC, Moira McGhee’s INUFOR (Independent Network of UFO researchers), the Campbelltown based UFO-PRSA (The UFO & Paranormal Research Society of Australia), Rex and Heather Gilroy’s Blue Mountains UFO research, John Auchettl’s rather secrecy obsessed group PRA (Phenomena Research Australia) and Damien Nott’s Australian Aerial Phenomena Investigations (AAPI).

RG: What do you consider to be the most compelling Australian UFO incident on record, and why?

BC: I prefer to put forward my own list of “top ten” regional Australian cases, rather than one single case, as the list better reflects the complexity and nature of the UFO phenomenon. Despite various efforts to explain away some of my listed cases, they have stood up well. You can explore the details of each case, in part, through entries about each on my blogalong with a whole lot of other cases.

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