Excerpt from the book: “In Plain Sight” by Ross Couthart July 23, 2021 (nzherald.co.nz)
• In late 1991, Annie Farinaccio of Exmouth, Australia was attending a party at the US Naval Communication Station Harold E Holt.
Article by National Post Staff August 21, 2020 (nationalpost.com)
• On August 19th, Russian cosmonaut Ivan Vagner was aboard the International Space Station (ISS). While passing over Antarctica and Australia, Vagner was recording video of the aurora australis — the southern lights. But he managed to catch something else, too. A one-minute video appears to show potential UFOs.
• Visible in the video footage are the glowing curve of the Earth and the green of the aurora moving across it. Then a string of four to five lights arranged in a diagonal line appear at the horizon. As the video was shot in a time-lapse, the flash of “objects” that quickly appear and disappear in the video actually lasted some 52 seconds. The objects “appear flying alongside with the same distance,” Vagner tweeted.
• The mission is Vagner’s first aboard the ISS. According to NASA, his work on the station involved maintenance on its orbital plumbing system as well as “exploring ways to improve Earth photography techniques.” He is working alongside Anatoli Ivanishin, also of Russia, and American commander Chris Cassidy.
• Russia’s space agency Roscosmos added to Vagner’s tweet with the note: “An interesting and at the same time mysterious video made by cosmonaut of Roscosmos Ivan Wagner … from the International Space Station.” The video was submitted to Roscosmos for experts at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences to review.
A one-minute video captured by Russian cosmonaut Ivan Vagner aboard the Interna-tional Space Station (ISS) appears to show potential UFOs, Global News reports.
While passing over Antarctica and Australia, Vagner was recording video of aurora australis — the southern lights — but he managed to catch something else, too.
Space guests, or how I filmed the new time-lapse.
The peak of aurora borealis when passing over the Antarctic in Australia’s longitude, meaning in between them. However, in the video, you will see something else, not only the aurora. pic.twitter.com/Hdiej7IbLU — Ivan Vagner (@ivan_mks63) August 19, 2020
Visible are the glowing curve of the Earth and the green of the aurora moving across it. The “space guests” Vagner refers to appear from nine seconds into the video and last until the 12-second mark, a string of four to five lights arranged in a diagonal line.
Since the video was shot in a time-lapse, the flash of “objects” which quickly appear and disappear in the video actually lasted some 52 seconds. The objects “appear flying alongside with the same distance,” Vagner wrote in further tweets. “What do you think those are? Meteors, satellites or … ?”
It’s unclear precisely when the footage was captured or whether Vagner observed the phenomenon at the time, as he filmed.
1:35 minute video of UFOs over Antarctica (‘Pravda Report’ YouTube)
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.
Article by Bee Heim August 19, 2020 (filmdaily.co)
• In 1978, Frederick Valentich was a 20-year old Australian who was training to become a commercial airplane pilot. He had 150 hours of flight time and was allowed to fly at night. But it was not an easy road for Valentich. He consistently failed his commercial license examinations. He also had been involved in a couple of air incidents – straying into controlled airspace above Sydney, and twice deliberately flying into a cloud, which was illegal in his aircraft.
• On the evening of October 21, 1978, Valentich was attempting a training flight over the Bass Strait, between the Australian mainland of Victoria and Tasmania, piloting a Cessna 182L light aircraft. The exact path of the flight was approximately 125 miles from Moorabbin, Victoria to King Island, Tasmania. At 7:06pm Valentich radioed Melbourne Flight Service to let them know that an unidentified aircraft was following him. The Service informed him that radar was showing no traffic near him at the time.
• Valentich insisted that a craft with four bright landing lights was flying 1,000 feet above him. He described the craft as shiny, metallic, and with a green light on it. He kept reporting the craft’s movements for five minutes, saying that he believed that the pilot of the craft was “toying” with him. He described the craft as “orbiting” around his plane. Then Valentich reported engine trouble. Officials asked him to identify the other aircraft. The only thing Valentich could say, and these were his final words before he was cut off by a metallic, scraping sound, was, “It isn’t an aircraft.”
• The authorities assumed that Valentich’s Cessna crashed. An air and sea search was conducted in the area where Valentich last reported his coordinates, but nothing turned up. The matter was turned over to the Australian Department of Transportation, but its investigation came up empty as well. Witnesses reported seeing planes landing or flying overhead, but no one saw a crash. Eventually, Valentich was presumed dead and the case was closed. Five years later, in 1983, an engine cowl flap from the same kind of plane Valentich was flying washed ashore on Flinders Island. Serial numbers on the parts were in the ‘same range’ as Valentich’s Cessna as well.
• Valentich was actually a believer in UFOs and worried about running into one while out flying, according to his father. A Victorian farmer would later claim that he saw a UFO on his property the next day, with Valentich’s plane sticking out of the side of it “leaking” oil. A Victorian UFO group, following up on the lead in 2013, could not identity the farmer,
• Forty years since the incident, the case has never been solved, although it continues to fascinate and haunt people. Was it a real UFO encounter? Or did Valentich make a mistake before crashing? It looks like we may never know.
Is there such a thing as a real UFO? Well, that’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? There have been plenty of stories of UFO sightings and claims of alien abductions over the years. Very few of those, however, are as spine-chilling as the case of Frederick Valentich, who claims to have seen a UFO before disappearing off the face of the Earth. Y-I-K-E-S, am I right?
Did Frederick Valentich truly see a real UFO before mysteriously disappearing? What happened the night 
that young pilot disappeared? Will the mystery always remain unsolved? Or is there a chance to know once and for all if aliens truly took Valentich back in the 70s?
Who was Frederick Valentich?
Born in 1958, Valentich was training to become a commercial pilot at the time of his disappearance. He had 150 hours of flight time and was allowed to fly at night. Despite working to become a commercial pilot, Valentich failed all five commercial licence examination subjects. Before he went missing, Valentich failed three more commercial licence subjects.
The 20-year-old Valentich had also been involved in a couple of air incidents. He strayed into controlled airspace above Sydney, which he was let off with a warning. Twice, Valentich flew into a cloud deliberately, which prosecutors were considering pressing charges against Valentich for.
The final flight of Frederick Valentich
On the evening of Oct. 21, 1978, Valentich was attempting a training flight over the Bass Strait, which is between the Australian mainland and Tasmania. To make this flight, Valentich was piloting a Cessna 182L, which is a light aircraft. The exact path of the flight was approx. 125 miles from Moorabbin to King Island.
Any hope of this being a routine training flight, however, went out the window at 7:06pm when Valentich radioed in. He contacted the Melbourne Flight Service and let them know that an unidentified aircraft was following him. The Service, however, said that there was no traffic near him at the time.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.
Article by Abdulla Abu Wasel June 8, 2020 (entrepreneur.com)
• Fifty years ago, outer space was reserved for the most powerful of nations and the most dominant of governments. Today, it is private commercial industry that is inching us closer to the cosmos. There is a growing interdependence between what is happening in space and what is happening down below on Earth. The commercial space industry, with its multi-million-dollar rockets and satellites, is now worth about $400 billion. Space commerce is increasingly playing a part in our everyday lives.
• The International Civil Aviation Organization governs ‘air’ altitudes. So where does ‘space’ begin? The international community has not been able to agree on a common definition. Australia is the only country in the world that defines space as anything beyond 100 kilometers above the ground. While nations may own the ‘air’ over them, ‘space’ is for everybody. No nation can own property in space, and no nation can make any territorial claim in space. You need consent to fly over another country’s airspace. But if you are in ‘outer space’, you can fly over any country without consent, and even legally engage in espionage.
• With the establishment of the United States’ Space Force, we will likely see the rules of war extended into outer space. The language in the Outer Space Treaty about the use of outer space for exclusively peaceful purposes needs interpretation. ‘Peaceful purposes’ only prohibits the aggressive use of military force. So non-aggressive military force is okay? Has the establishment of the U.S. Space Force made the militarization of space perfectly legal?
• At the end of the day, the Space Force is about building political constituency for orbit, while investing in spacecraft that can defend and attack, if necessary. This represents a great deal of money for private companies, with almost half-a-dozen government defense agencies already pumping millions of dollars into space startups to build everything from radar networks to high-tech materials.
• The majority of the money to be made in space lies in satellite-provided services, and these services are likely to surge the space economy. The significant increase in satellites, far beyond the 2,300 operational satellites in space now, will bring a multitude of costs and benefits. We have seen venture capitalists directing millions of dollars towards small satellite companies with big aspirations, such as Spire, Capella Space, Hawkeye360, and Swarm.
• These space economy companies vary in their business models, from communicating with internet devices to tracking radio signals in order to gather radar data, and imaging every angle of the Earth. This all depends on the cost of building and operating the spacecraft needed to accomplish the work that they desire. SpaceX and Boeing are in the final phase of their private space transportation service in cooperation with NASA. Soon, both companies will have permission to start flying wealthy space tourists and corporate point men into space.
• On June 3rd, NASA launched astronauts into space from U.S. soil for the first time since 2011, and took them to the International Space Station via Falcon 9, a vehicle that was purchased from SpaceX. For $250,000, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic will take tourists to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere in space. But NASA’s aim is the Moon. Since ice water was discovered on the Moon, starry-eyed space seekers would like to see NASA establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon rather than hiring private companies to build rovers, landers, and spacecraft to carry scientific instruments to the Moon.
• But, as we have seen, the commercial economy benefits greatly from scientific advancements gleaned from space exploration, such as transistors, solar panels, and batteries. It has brought forth the smartphone revolution, the evolution of broadcast media, telecommunications, commerce, and the internet as a whole. The new era of space exploration may be one small step for man, but it is one giant leap for the private sector economy.
The commercial space industry is heating up– 50 years ago, outer space was reserved for the most powerful of nations and the most dominant governments, but today, there is a democratization of space. Commercial industry is inching us closer to the cosmos, and in the process, there is a growing interdependence between what is happening hundreds of miles up into space and down below on Earth. Currently, the space market is worth approximately US$400 billion, and the commercial space industry, using multi-million-dollar rockets and satellites, is increasingly playing a part in our everyday lives. Although you may have been hearing about this phenomenon in recent years, this launch into the new world has been ongoing for decades.
This brings about the question of property rights. Where does space begin, and if there is a dispute in space, who decides it? Australia is the only country in the world that defines where space begins; defining it as 100 kilometers up. However, where the air ends (and the air law regime, which is governed by the International Civil Aviation Organization), and where space begins is a matter that the international community have not been able to agree on. People either want to set limits- set a height based on kilometers like Australia has done, or they take the approach of the United States who look at it as a use, i.e. what did you use, are you launching a rocket that is intended to go into orbit, or are you just launching a plane that is going to go high into the air. This is important, because nations own the air over them. Right now, space is for everybody. No nation can own property in space, and no nation can make any territorial claim in space.
You need consent to fly over another country if you are in the airspace, but on the flip side of that, if you believe that you are in outer space, you can fly over any country without consent, and even engage in espionage legally. Espionage is one part of the political military contest, but how else is space dealt with from a military perspective? With the recent establishment of the United State’s Space Force, we will likely see the same rules of war extended into outer space. The language in the Outer Space Treaty about the use of outer space for exclusively peaceful purposes is beautifully aspirational language, but the devil is in the interpretation: what does it mean to use space for peaceful purposes? The way that this has been virtually explained is that peaceful purposes only prohibit the aggressive use of military force, and as long as you are not engaged in naked aggression, then you are peaceful in your use of outer space.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.
Listen to “E179 Alien Territory: The Rise of UFO Tourists” on Spreaker.
November 21, 2019 (national geographic.co.uk)
• UFO-themed tourism has become big business. From Roswell, New Mexico to Sri Lanka, Chile, Russia, Japan and Australia, tourists are booking UFO hot spots for their vacations.
• After the “Storm Area 51” Facebook challenge that went viral this past summer, the Area 51 military facility where many believe spaceships, alien artifacts, and even the remains of alien bodies are stored has become another “must see” for the UFO tourist. Nate Arizona seized the moment and started an Area 51 guided tour where he brings clients to the gates of Area 51, under the constant scrutiny of security cameras and “cammo guys” wearing mirrored sunglasses and driving white SUVs. “Don’t worry,”says Nate. “[A]s long as we don’t enter the base proper, we’ll be absolutely fine.” Nate’s ‘Paranormal Tour of the US Southwest’, which also takes in the nearby Extraterrestrial Highway and the town of Rachel, Nevada, eight miles from Area 51, recently became one of Airbnb’s official ‘experiences’, and bookings are landing quickly.
• Airbnb’s head of Adventures, Caroline Boone, says the company is “delighted” with the demand for Nate’s paranormal tours. But it is the committed conspiracy theorists that’s driving the current trend — causing a rise in bookings both in Rachel and other UFO hotspots. Cody Theising, the manager of the ‘Little A’Le’Inn’ in Rachel, says that she has also seen an uptick in bookings. “There’s definitely been an increase in business out here in the last couple of years. We’re seeing a lot more tours… coming through.”
• Armando Martinez from Denver says he ‘absolutely loved’ Nate’s Nevada tour. Armando thinks paranormal tourism is growing for one simple reason — more people are believing in it. “Improvements in technology, particularly mobile phones, means there’s far more evidence of the paranormal being collected. There’s so much documentation out there now that you have to really step back and re-evaluate things, and tours like this are great for that kind of perspective.”
• Roswell, New Mexico is the site of perhaps the most famous UFO crash in July 1947, and what many believe is the mother of all government cover-ups. UFO tourism has kicked into hyperdrive of late and the ‘grey dollar’ is being spent as never before. Dennis Balthaser runs extraterrestrial-themed tours in Roswell, twice daily, five days a week. “By the end of this year I’ll have cleared 300 tours,” says Dennis who books visitors from the UK, China, Australia, South Africa and Japan, as well as most US states.
• Other UFO hot spots in the US include the Pacific Northwest, where the National UFO Reporting Center received three times the annual average of reported UFO sightings in 2018; Kecksburg, Pennsylvania where a car-sized, acorn-shaped metal object covered in hieroglyphics fell to earth in a fiery blaze in 1965; and Sedona, Arizona which hosts some of the most frequent UFO sightings in the world.
• In 2008, Chile opened a UFO Trail near the town of San Clemente, an ET hub that’s generated hundreds of sightings. Arguably the best way to experience it is with one of the local horse-riding operators, which carry telescopes in their saddle bags and teach you about the stars while discussing the Earth-bound craft that supposedly came from them. These extra-terrestrial sightseeing expeditions typically end with an intergalactic debate over pisco sours around a campfire.
• Sri Lanka’s UFO tourism focuses on ‘alien mystery tours’ in the North Central Province. Japan’s own UFO tourism capital is Asuka, a tiny village famed for its mysterious carved granite monoliths including the Rock Ship of Masuda, a 15ft-tall, 800-tonne block with a straight central ridge and two one-metre square holes cut from it.
• The self-proclaimed UFO capital of Australia is Wycliffe Well, locate in the Northern Territory where there is a recorded UFO sighting every couple of days, on average. Visitors can stay in cabins at the Wycliffe Well Holiday Park where the walls are covered in newspaper clippings of UFO sightings. Stay more than 48 hours and you’re ‘guaranteed’ a sighting of your own.
• Russia’s answer to Area 51 is the remote village of Molyobka, 600 miles east of Moscow. Here in the foothills of the Urals, locals have reported seeing a range of phenomena, including hovering lights, strange symbols written across the sky, and even translucent beings. There are persistent rumors of people developing enhanced intelligence or superhuman powers after visiting the area.
From the gate, Area 51 looks deserted. It would be so easy to simply step over the dotted line in the road here, to enter America’s most mysterious military installation. But Nate Arizona knows better.
“Don’t even think about it,” warns my previously jovial guide, brow furrowing under his neon-coloured bandana. “You’d be face first in the dirt with a gun to the back of your head before you knew what was happening.”
For alien enthusiasts, this is ground zero. The secret air force base in Nevada has been at the centre of extra-terrestrial speculation since the 1940s. Many believe UFO wreckage from the infamous Roswell Incident of 1947 is hidden inside this perimeter — along with the remains of its intergalactic pilots. Others speculate that the facility is dedicated to the reverse engineering of recovered alien technology, or even time travel. Whichever way you cut it, an awful lot of people believe that if the truth is out there, it’s probably in here.
The ‘Storm Area 51’ Facebook joke, which went viral earlier this summer (with two million people signing up for the mass invasion of the facility in order to ‘see them aliens’) put this highly classified military base firmly back in the public eye. But another trend has been growing out here too: that of UFO tourism.
Nate’s own tour, which also takes in the nearby Extraterrestrial Highway and the tiny town of Rachel — a hub of purported paranormal activity — recently became one of Airbnb’s ‘experiences’, and bookings are landing faster than the Martian invasion force in HG Wells’ classic sci-fi novel The War of the Worlds.
“People get very excited about coming out to Area 51, but once we arrive at the gates, they realise how serious the whole thing is,” says Nate as we march along the perimeter, looking for a better vantage point. “The US government didn’t even officially admit this place existed until 2013, after all. There are motion sensors and cameras everywhere, and they follow your every move. Don’t be under any illusion — there are multiple guards watching us right now.”
Those guards are what ufologists call ‘camo guys’ — the real-life equivalent of the Men in Black from the Hollywood film. I’ve heard these defenders of the Earth drive unmarked white SUVs, sitting sphinx-like behind mirrored sunglasses as they trail visitors from a discreet distance. Sure enough, as we approach another gate, Nate spots a white SUV parked on a bluff, which flashes its headlights as we approach.
“The camo guys are just letting us know they’re there,” says Nate. “Don’t worry — as long as we don’t enter the base proper, we’ll be absolutely fine.”
Under these watchful eyes, we continue our exploration, Nate pointing out satellite towers, barracks and even a bizarre mirrored pyramid visible within the perimeter. As we pass, mounted cameras grind and whir in our direction and the inscrutable SUV maintains its vigilant watch.
Shadows slowly lengthening, we finally retreat to Rachel — a dusty, one-horse town a bumpy, eight-mile drive from Area 51. At its only motel, the appropriately monikered ‘Little A’Le’Inn’, manager Cody Theising says they too have seen a noted uptick in bookings as UFO tourism has taken off.
“There’s definitely been an increase in business out here in the last couple of years; we’re seeing a lot more tours like yours coming through,” says Cody, as I sip one of the Little A’Le’Inn’s signature ‘Spiced Abduction’ cocktails next to a sign that reads ‘Earthlings Welcome’.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.
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.
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.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.
by Ally Foster July 29, 2018 (news.com.au)
• On October 21, 1978, 20-year-old Australian, Frederick Valentich, rented a single engine plane out of Victoria’s Moorabbin Airport with plans of heading to Tasmania’s King Island. Airborne, he noticed that he was being followed by another aircraft. Then something zoomed overhead. Valentich radioed Melbourne Airflight Service Controller, Steve Robey, to ask if there were any known aircraft in the area. Robey replied that there was “no known traffic” in the area.
• Then Valentich reported that the mystery aircraft was “playing” with him. “It seems to me that he’s playing some sort of game,” he said. “He’s flying over me two, three times, at a time at speeds I could not identify.” Valentich describes it as long, metallic and with a green light. The UFO vanishes before suddenly reappearing on his other side. At this point, Valentich says his final words: “It is hovering and it is not an aircraft.” His radio cut off and he, and the aircraft he was piloting, were never seen again.
• An extensive search was conducted of the water and any surrounding land but Valentich nor any indication of a crash site was ever found. The incident gained worldwide attention with many, including his father, believing that he had been abducted by a UFO.
• Others believed that Valentich faked his own death or was flying upside down and the lights he saw were actually his own reflecting on the water before he crashed. It was later discovered that Valentich was obsessed with UFO’s and had watched numerous movies and collected articles on the topic.
• Forty years later, all that remains of Frederick Valentich’s infamous flight is a plaque at Otway lighthouse commemorating his strange disappearance.
“IT IS hovering and it is not an aircraft.”
These are the last words anyone ever heard Frederick Valentich say before his radio cut off and he, and the aircraft he was piloting, were never seen again.
On October 21, 1978, a 20-year-old Valentich rented a single engine plane out of Victoria’s Moorabbin Airport with plans of heading to Tasmania’s King Island to catch seafood.
But things took a terrifying turn when he noticed he was being followed by another aircraft.
It has been 40 years since the young Aussie pilot disappeared over the Bass Strait and in that time no one has come any closer to finding out what happened to him.
The only clue left behind was a radio conversation between him and Melbourne Airflight Service Controller, Steve Robey.
It was 7pm when Valentich radioed in to ask if there were any known aircraft in the area, just after something zoomed overhead.
Robey informed him that there was “no known traffic” in the area and inquired as to what type of plane it was.
“I cannot affirm. It is four bright, it seems to me, like landing lights. The aircraft has just passed over me at least a thousand feet above,” Valentich said.
As the transmission went on things got even more unnerving, with Valentich reporting that the mystery aircraft was “playing” with him.
“It seems to me that he’s playing some sort of game,” he said.
“He’s flying over me two, three times, at a time at speeds I could not identify.”
The conversation continues with the controller trying to get more information about what the object actually is.
Valentich describes it as long, metallic and with a green light.
At one point the aircraft vanishes before suddenly reappearing on his other side.
It’s at this point that Valentich says his final, terrifying words: “It is hovering and it is not an aircraft.”
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.
by Anna Levy February 11, 2018 (smh.com.au)
• In the 1960’s, at the peak of UFO culture in Queensland, Australia, one of the premier UFO magazines in Australia was UFO Encounter. Copies of publications such as these, from as early as 1957, are still held today in the State Library of Queensland. State Library of Queensland library blog post writes that publications like UFO Encounter provide “fascinating insight” into the Australian niche UFO community. “No matter what your views on aliens and flying saucers, these periodicals provide a distinctively Queensland perspective on examining the unexplained”.
• Luke Roberts was born and raised in central Queensland. He says that Queensland is UFO central and a bit “eccentric” in its extraterrestrial leanings. “It’s an unusual place,” says Roberts, “Even my Catholic mother was always fascinated by UFOs.”
• “In the earlier days, it was a very nuts-and-bolts… [we were] focused on the hardware of UFOs, spacecraft shape, what are they made of, how do they work, what are their propulsion systems were like. These days the subject has evolved again, where people are starting to think more about consciousness and… having contact through dreams, through meditation, [or]… an out of body experience.”
• Roberts grew up to create his alter ego, Pope Alice (pictured above), a manifestation of extraterrestrial consciousness who fell to earth thousands of years ago to become an extraterrestrial spiritual leader helping people realize that we’re not alone in the universe and to help humanity to raise its own consciousness. Roberts has traveled the world performing as Pope Alice, and created a new belief system called “Raëlianism”. Raëlians believe life on earth was created by a technologically advanced species of extraterrestrials. The library also collects Pope Alice costumes.
A banana grower drove his tractor along a narrow track at the edge of a sugar cane farm in Tully, north Queensland on January 16, 1966.
The weather was calm, the morning sun high in the sky. The tractor passed over the track with its usual rumble, but beneath it the banana grower detected a faint hiss. He leant forward to investigate, assuming his tyres had a leak, but his eye caught something else instead.
A saucer-shaped object, silver-grey and about 25 feet in diameter, rose before him. The object ascended slowly from the nearby lagoon to the treetops before tilting slightly and speeding away to the south-western horizon.
The man ran through the thick reeds and sword grass surrounding the lagoon, forcing his way through the undergrowth until he could see the water. A large whirlpool had formed, devoid of all plant life. Over the next few hours, the dead reeds below the eddy rose to the surface, forming a “nest” within which there lay a perfect imprint of an inverted saucer.
This was the infamous Tully Saucer Nest, which sparked a national fascination with all things extraterrestrial. It also prompted an independent investigation by a number of UFO organisations, which published their findings in periodicals such as Light and The Australian Flying Saucer Digest. The incident marked a peak in Queensland UFO culture.
The State Library of Queensland has gathered these publications from as early as 1957, when the public was just growing wise to the world of UFOs. These magazines, newsletters and artifacts depicted Australia’s closest alien encounters, as well as the lives and times of UFO enthusiasts in Queensland.
UFO Encounter was one such publication. The newsletter, produced by the second-longest-running UFO group in the world, UFO Research Queensland, featured reports of recent sightings, think-pieces on historical “ufology” and theories about current world governments and their brushes with the supernatural.
Association president Sheryl Gottschall said Queenslanders reported about 100 UFO sightings and encounters each year, with more than half of all sightings coming from the Gold Coast. She said the UFO community’s focus had shifted over the years in response to purported incidents such as the Tully Saucer Nest.
“In the earlier days, it was a very nuts-and-bolts organisation, it was focused on the hardware of UFOs, spacecraft shape, what are they made of, how do they work, what are their propulsion systems like – not a whole lot of thought was going into who was driving the things,” she said.
“These days the subject has evolved again, where people are starting to think more about consciousness and people are reporting having contact through dreams, through meditation, when they’re having an out of body experience.”
Mrs Gottschall said Brisbane was a hotspot for UFO spotters, with more than eighty people turning up to UFO Research Queensland’s January meeting.
“At various stages, we’ve had three UFO groups just in Brisbane,” she said. “People are reporting things from seeing lights in the sky doing strange things that they know planes or helicopters or drones don’t do, to other things like seeing a light go from horizon to horizon in two seconds flat.
“I can’t say for sure that [these things] are not of this world, that they’re extraterrestrials possibly from another planet, but certainly they are not of our ordinary reality.”
State Library of Queensland project coordinator Myles Sinnamon wrote in a library blog post that publications like UFO Encounter provide “fascinating insight” into the niche community.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.
by Brett Tingley October 11, 2017 (mysteriousuniverse.org)
• Mysterious booms from the sky are occurring with increasing frequency.
• Authorities are at a loss for the source or explanation.
• In Queensland, Australia, such a boom has been heard twice in two months. The entire population heard it.
• An Australian man went exploring for the source of a recent boom and found a smoldering crater. But there was no sign of a meteorite.
Mystery booms seem to be occurring with increasing frequency lately, with booms being heard just this week in North Carolina and Michigan. In both cases, authorities have been left baffled by what might be behind these earth-shaking noises which seem to emanate from the sky itself. This unexplained phenomenon is host to a wide variety of explanations including gas escaping vents deep within the Earth, anomalous meteorological events, sonic booms from tests of secret military aircraft, UFOs of course, and meteorites exploding in the atmosphere. While most of these eerie thunderous noises go unexplained, a recent mystery boom in Australia might have a simple, cosmic – and terrifying – explanation.
The boom was heard by residents throughout the Cairns region of Queensland, Australia marking the second time in two months that southern Australia has been rocked by anomalous explosions in the sky. The boom occurred on Saturday, October 7th and was reportedly so loud that it shook houses in the area. Without an official explanation being offered from authorities, the Cairns Post took to Facebook to ask readers if any readers might know anything about the source of the boom:
Who heard the ‘explosion’ last night? People all over #Cairns have reported hearing a whopping great big bang about 10.30pm but its source is still a bit of a mystery. Ergon has confirmed they had no issues in Cairns overnight and the police, firies and ambos are in the dark as well. Can you help us get to the bottom of it?
One Cairns man might be able to. John Romanov allegedly went out exploring for the source of the boom, and just so happened to come across a smoldering crater in some woods near Edge Hill State School. Romanov sent the Cairns Post a video of the “crater,” which appears to be filled with ashes without any sign of a meteorite whatsoever. Could this explain the mystery boom, or has this guy merely found someone’s illegal trash burning pit?
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.