Background

In August 1993, 27-year-old Kelly Cahill, her husband and three children were driving home after a visit to a friend’s house. After midnight the Cahills first noticed the lights of a rounded craft with windows around it. It silently hovered above the road. Different colored lights were clearly visible on the bottom of the object.

The following article was posted here, but has long disappeared. The article is reproduced here for archival and research purposes.

AN EXTRAORDINARY ENCOUNTER IN THE DANDENONG FOOTHILLS

by Bill Chalker, International UFO Reporter, Sept/Oct 1994, Vol 19, No 5

As a scientist I am always aware of the maxim that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. To date Mainstream UFO events have revealed some compelling evidence for their physical reality. The challenge for researchers has always been to determine if that evidence is consistent with an alien reality. Comparable evidence to support the reality of abduction events has been lacking Or relatively uncompelling.

In my two decades of research into Australian abduction claims, it has been difficult not to hold the position that abduction cases have perhaps told me more about the human condition than they have about UFOs. What follows, however, is a report On an affair which may amount to evidence for a reality behind abduction reports.

Kelly Cahill, a 27 -year-old housewife and mother of three children, is a pivotal figure in a remarkable episode which may have much to tell experiencers and researchers alike. She contacted me on October 4, 1993, seeking assistance in understanding a bizarre experience she underwent near the outer Melbourne suburban housing estate of Narre Warren North, in the foothills of the Dandenongs, Victoria, between Belgrave and Fountain Gate, during the early hours of August 8, 1993.

Kelly told me that apart from her husband with her in their car, she was aware of another vehicle farther down the hill from their own position. That car contained at least two persons, a man and a woman. She paid little heed to them at the time because she and her husband had their attention riveted on a massive UFO which had landed in the field opposite them.

Because Kelly lived in Victoria and I live in New South Wales, I passed details of Kelly’s experience on to John Auchettl of Phenomena Research Australia (PRA) and urged Kelly to contact him. PRA got on the case immediately .

By November 17 PRA had located the man and woman Kelly had seen that night. It turned out that the couple also had a friend (a woman) with them. These witnesses took Auchettl to the encounter site, to a spot consistent with Kelly’s description. The group’s drawings of the UFO and entities also closely coincide with Kelly’ s.

Here we have a striking situation. Two groups of persons unknown to each other have witnessed the same UFO encounter and entities. They also experienced missing time, and each group has been available to competent investigators. Independent witnesses have provided information which enable cross-checking and correlations to reveal a remarkable amount of similar information. The result is a compelling case for the reality of the strange events.described. The ontological status of the events is further strengthened by a range of apparently related physical traces, including ground traces, a magnetic anomaly, and effects on some of the witnesses.

What is perhaps even more extraordinary about this case is that the second group described seeing yet another car parked farther back down from them. In it was (it appeared) one male who seemed to be gazing fixedly toward the encounter site. So we have the situation of three cars present: Kelly and her husband in one near the top of a hill, the three-person group (Bill, Jan, and Glenda) another 150 meters down the hill, and the other car, with one visible occupant, about 25 to 30 meters farther back.

The first two cars were parked with their lights off. The other had its lights on. This circumstance may explain an apparent anomaly, in that Kelly was able to glance down and spot the second car, with what to her seemed only two persons (in fact three), but the group of three could not see Kelly, her husband, or their car. It was a dark and cloudy night. Evidently Kelly could see the second car only because it was backlit by the headlights of the third car.

From the trio’ s testimony, investigators could determine the location of this third car. The male was looking at the UFO’s position through a break in the vegetation cover. The trio’s evidence coupled with Kelly’ s allowed for triangulation of the encounter site with the UFO. The location was consistent with the anomalies discovered (to be discussed later). Unfortunately, this potential additional witness has yet to be found.

Typically witnesses to these sorts of events are known to each other, and such relationships often beg the question of whether the witnessed events have emerged from shared delusions or even collusion. Through Auchettl, Kelly became aware of the independent witnesses, but they knew nothing of her existence until quite recently. Kelly tried hard to persuade Auchettl to give her the other group’ s names, but he refused because he wanted to maintain the integrity of the testimony. Only when the investigation was completed did the three learn what Kelly had been saying. So far they have not attempted to contact her. PRA has uncovered no evidence of a previous connection between the Cahills and the other group.

After the encounter Kelly’ s recollection faded from conscious memory, despite animated discussions about it with her husband in the immediate wake of the incident. Her husband remembered at least the UFO encounter but not the entities and has not acknowledged the missing time. It was her husband’ s reference to the August 8 event at a barbecue on September 16 that led to Kelly’s initial confused attempts to reconcile this troubling situation. Kelly found this temporary amnesia along, especially since she has vivid memories going all the way back to age two.

Other events began to be seen in a different and bizarre perspective. These included a “dream” she had immediately after the encounter, upon getting home and going to sleep on August 8, and two “dreamings” in September. Each involved (apparently) the same entities as those encountered on the road. The latter two “dreamings” had a strange physical dimension. A further two “dreamings” followed, one on October 23 and the last during January 1994.

Alarmed, Kelly sought help with little success from universities and aviation authorities. The latter gave her two UFO contact numbers, one in Victoria and mine in Sydney.

After getting no satisfaction from the Victorian group, she contacted me, and after our preliminary discussion of her experience, the PRA investigation commenced.

What follows is the transcript of an interview Kelly gave to my associate Robb Tilley on March 21 of this year.

The details are consistent with those recounted to me on October 4, 1993, in numerous conversations with me since then, with the PRA investigation, and with a manuscript she is writing about her experience.

THE INCIDENT

My husband and I were driving to my girl friend’s place up in the mountains. It was her daughter’s . . . birthday.

It was just after dark, and we were nearly there, about half an hour from her place. It takes us about an hour and a half from our place. It was just after 7.

[The area has] little bits of field . . . and then you run right into a major shopping centre. . . .

My husband drives really fast. . . . I’m just busy looking out the window . It’s turned dark, and I look over towards this field as we are going past, and I see a ring of orange lights. It was the first time I ever thought I had seen something that wasn’ t normal. . . . I was going to shut my mouth. I thought, “No, he’ s just going to have a go at me.” But a couple of minutes up the road I said, “I swear I saw a UFO.” He said, “Don’t be stupid! It was probably a helicopter.” I said, “It wasn’t making any noise. It was just sitting on the ground. Anyway, after a few jibes at me, he forgot all about it, and we arrived at [my girl friend’s place].

When we were there, my friends bring up this conversation, about what I thought I had seen. Her father says, “You think you’ve seen little green men or something, . Kelly?” and all this sort of stuff. It was turned into a joke, and I just totally forgot about it.

We went out and played bingo. We came back. We had a bit of a problem about what time we left. As far as my husband’s concerned, because we got home at 2:30 in the morning, it means we must have left at one o’clock.

But that night I think we left at a quarter to 12. We got back from bingo at about 1 1, and we didn’t stay for very long because [my friend’s]daughter’ s boy friend had just . . . split up with her and had gone home with the new girl friend . . . and she was really upset and crying, and we didn’t want to stay. So we weren’t there for that long at all.

THE ENCOUNTER BEGINS

Anyway, we were driving back down the road in the same stretch. Both of us,just me and my husband . . . we both saw this ring, mind you … . in front of us, hovering above the road. It was just something sitting there. . . . I couldn’t tell what it was. We were at first far away, but as you got closer to it was sort of . . . well, it wasn’t like the orange light in the field. It was a round shape with some sort of glass around, or what looked like windows and lights around the bottom. Because it was dark, you couldn’t really tell at first. But as we got closer and closer, there was no noise or anything.

Even my husband’s going. “You’re right! That’s something. That’s very, very strange.” And I swear we saw people in there, and then just as I said to him, “I swear there’s people in there,” it just shot off to the left as fast as it could go. I mean it just disappeared. Within a split second it had gone.

We kept driving and about a kilometre ahead, all of a sudden, there’s this really, really bright light in front of us, and I’ve got my hand up, up above my brow, to look out the window, because it’s that bright, but I can’t see anything.

I said to [my husband], “What are you going to do?” He said, “l’m going to keep driving.” From there, that is the last we remembered until . . . I knew I was going to see a UFO, you know, I just knew, because of what we had seen, I’d seen it twice in one night and he had seen it once . . . and the adrenalin is pumping, the heart is thumping, I’m so excited. All of a sudden I’m sitting in the car, and I’m saying to my husband, “What happened?” And he says to me, “I don’t know. We must have gone around a corner or something.” By the time we got home, he was definite of everything, but at that time he didn’t know what happened either. I said to him, “I swear I’ve had a blackout,” because adrenalin just doesn’t disappear in a split second
like that. I mean your heart is going mad! And all of a sudden. . . .

One thing that really annoyed me was that I could smell vomit. I couldn’t figure out where the smell of vomit was coming from.

I argue about this half the way home until it started getting ridiculous, and I ended up just shutting up to stop all the fighting that was going to come out of it, you know, because we fight like cats and dogs. . . .

As we were getting close to our home, about 20 minutes away from where we live (there was no one on the road), I saw a figure standing on the side of the road a tall dark figure. It was only for a couple of seconds, and I didn’t relate it to anything until much later on at all. But it made me turn my head. I kept it in my mind, because it reminded me of a story I was told when I was a little girl about the headless horseman on the side of the road . . .because it was on the side of the road. It wasn’t headless or anything,just this tall black figure. I saw it for only a couple of seconds, and then I couldn’t see it anymore, but I thought I saw it.

POST ENCOUNTER FALLOUT

I get home. That night I actually had a dream about UFOs to top it all off, that something happened . . . but a whole lot of it went out of my head.

Kelly and her husband argued about what happened for part of the way home. They agree they saw a UFO but cannot agree on the feeling Kelly had of experiencing a blackout or missing time and seeing people. They also could both smell vomit. Each experienced unexplained stomach pain. For Kelly it was like a pain from severe muscle fatigue which radiated from her lower abdomen to the upper shoulders.

Later, after they got home, Kelly experienced menstrual bleeding and became quite ill. She had had her period only the week before. Eventually she entered the hospital with a womb infection. The doctors there said she must have been pregnant; either that, or she had had some kind of gynaecological operation. In fact, she had had neither in recent times. A strange triangular mark was also found on her abdomen along with a scar.

Kelly elaborated on these matters: But when I got home that night, that’s when I found the triangular mark below my navel, with what I thought was a little laparoscopy cut, and I also started bleeding that night. Three and a half weeks later I ended up in hospital… . . [The hospital] actually did a laparoscopy, another laparoscopy. This was not when I first went in. I went back in later, another six weeks after that, because I had a lot of pains in my stomach and just wanted to have it checked to see what it was. And I still had the triangular mark there. . . .

They just did a blooming laparoscopy cut right next to it. [There was] no comment whatsoever. . . . I have a letter from a friend saying that she saw it.

CONSCIOUS RECOLLECTIONS

Kelly’s recollections did not come from any hypnosis. Indeed she had only one session well after the main investigation had been completed. It failed to reveal anything of significance. Feeling that at best she had been only lightly under, she felt the session had been of little value.

With regard to the August 8 encounter, she recalls crossing the road to the paddock, seeing at first one tall black being with glowing red eyes, then many. These latter seemed to be approaching rapidly, as if gliding. The large group of tall black beings apparently were split into two groups, one focused on Kelly and her husband, the other one on the other people who had also crossed farther down the road. The rest of her recollection is largely confusing and fragmented. She experienced voices and blindness.

Kelly elaborated on how her memory came back: We went down to a girl friend’s place a little bit later, a few weeks later, and the subject of UFOs came up, and her husband was saying, “Oh, I don’t think they really exist.” It was my husband that said, “If you had seen what Kelly and I saw, you might change your mind.” I said, “What are you talking about?” You know, if I’d seen something, I’d have remembered it. I didn’t even remember that I had seen it hovering in the middle of the road. It had been totally blanked out of my mind. And I search my head for days, because I knew he wouldn’t say something if he didn’t mean it. He was telling me, “Remember, on the way home from [your girl friend’s], remember, it wasn’t making any noise?” And I was just sitting there. I couldn’t remember it.

And a few days later, all of a sudden I remembered it! It hit me! And .. . . then I remembered going into the light, and then I couldn’t remember anything else. A couple of weeks after that, this started to really bug me, because I remembered that light, and I remember arguing with him all the wayhome, but it was all I did remember.

I went up to [my girl friend’s]house again in October, this time for her other daughter’s . . .birthday, and again we went to bingo. On the way home from bingo that night, we went along the same road, and as we passed a certain spot I just got this incredible feeling of terror go through me, I mean absolute terror. All of a sudden I just started remembering, and by the next morning I had remembered just about everything that happened, except there’s still missing time that I can’t.

What we had actually done, we had driven . . . into the light, but the road curved, and the light we had thought was in front of us was actually to our right-hand side. It was in the field, and it was massive. . . . [Estimates put the possible diameter of the UFO at the “size of a house” or perhaps close to 5O meters.] So it was very big.Why I knew it was very big was because we could have driven for five minutes. The road sort of wound around this part.

You could have driven for five minutes and not had it out of your sight the whole time.

Kelly and her husband had a clear, uninterrupted view of a craft of enormous size. It was much larger than the UFO seen a few minutesearlier, and it was at ground level in the field at the bottom of a gully area.

I asked him to stop the car, and we both got out. I remembered leaning back in, actually on the floor, to pick up my handbag, because I didn’t go anywhere without my handbag. And that’ s one of the sort of things that triggered off a lot of these memories doing that. The other thing was telling myself, “You are conscious. This is real! This is happening! This is real!”. . . .

For a while it was just absolutely terrifying, but you can’t help it because it sounds really wacky. I mean this is not the way it’s supposed to happen at all. . . .

We crossed over the road. We jumped the gutter, and we walked up. . .I looked down the road, and there was another car-a light blue car-pulled up. Some people got out and went across the road. I only thought it was two, but it was actually three, but I didn’ t pay much attention. They must have been at least a hundred meters down the road from us. When you’ve got something like that in front of you, and you’ we got people down the road . . . well, I was more interested in what was in front of me than them, so I didn’t get any detail. . . .

I’m standing there, and we are looking at this thing [for about 3O seconds]. All of a sudden there is a black figure on the field. It’s about seven foot tall. . . . I knew it was really tall at the time.

For Kelly this was quite startling. She expected to see a human being, but this was not human. Kelly tried to use thought as a means of communication. She was immediately overwhelmed with fear. Its eyes seemed to turn to a red fire.

At the distance of about 150 meters, they possessed an extraordinary luminosity .

It started coming towards us, only slowly, and it had big red eyes. It sounds stupid, but it had great big round red eyes, like huge flies’ eyes and they were red like, not like a reflection of red, but like burning red, like . . . fluorescent stop lights, I suppose, that sort of real burning red.

All of a sudden I started screaming out [to my husbands. . . . Now this has really got me baffled because of the fact that a human being doesn’t know this, so I don’t even know how I came out with this, but I started saying, “They’ve got no souls.” And then I started screaming, “THEY’VE GOT NO SOULS!” Then all of a sudden there were heaps of them in the field, not just one, a whole heap of them, and they started coming towards us . . . faster than a man could run, and they were gliding off the ground. They got halfway across the field.

They split up. Some of them went towards the other people [two or three, Kelly thought]. and some of them [the rest]came towards us. Kelly found herself screaming to the other people down the road, “They’re evil! They’re going to kill us!”

The next thing I know, I felt this oomph! in my stomach, right across here like I was winded, but I was thrown right back, and I was on my back on the ground. I sat up, with my head between my knees. Here, I’m trying to stay conscious. I couldn’t see. My eyes. . . . It was all black.

.. . . I’m screaming out to [my husband]. . . .

Kelly speculated that her “winding” may have been caused by an electric fence present at the site. That may or may not be true. The fence may not even have been on at the time. Even if it was, the power may not have been strong enough to generate the effect she described. Nonetheless this possibly prosaic incident led her into confusion over whether the forces she was confronting were “good” or “evil.”

But the next thing I heard him saying, “Let go of me.” His voice was all sort of cracked up with fear, and I’d never heard that from my husband. He’s not frightened or afraid of anything. . . .

Then this male voice said, “We [don’t] mean you any harm.” And then he said, “Why did you hit Kelly then?” That’s the last I heard of [my husband]. No one else talked except me. I heard the male voice. Then I heard myself saying, “Oh, God, I’m going to be sick.” I’ve got my head between my knees, and I just felt, like, violently nauseous. Then I must have blacked out for a little while.

I don’t remember being sick. Then I remember hearing talk about being a peaceful people, and I started screaming out, I said, “Don’t believe them! They’re going to steal your souls!” I know it sounds so ridiculous now, but at the time I was hysterically terrified. . . . I had never felt terror like that. Not even in my worst nightmares had I experienced terror like that. . . .

Oh, there’s one thing I remember that he said: “I wouldn’t harm her. She’s my daughter.” Now when I first saw the-on the way up to [my girl friend’s]in the field, the first thing I did was pray. And I took it as sarcasm straight away. And it sounded like sarcasm. . . .

It sounded like there was even a small laugh after that. I don’t know-it just wasn’t good to me.

For Kelly, a strong faith in God often involved an ability to get answers to many of life’s situations, albeit sometimes in the most subtle and unlikely ways. For her the brief observation of a possible UFO on the way to her girl friend’s place on August 7 was perhaps a glimpse of one of life’s mysteries, perhaps even a lesson from God. So she made a silent prayer which began with “Father.” She thought for a moment, “Wait for me. I’ll be back down this way in a few hours.” To put this in context, it should be pointed out that Kelly had long been on a spiritual quest, anchored in a religious journey and a desire to understand the great mysteries.

Though she had little time for organized religions, she had a deep interest in the great religious works and had studied them, particularly the Bible, in great detail. Therefore, given her brief prayer for clarification of the nature of the UFO event on the way up to her friend, as well as the use of the word Father, she got a sense of “mockery” when she heard the voice saying, “She is my daughter.”

Anyway, I started screaming and going on about demons trying to steal people’s souls. . . . I like not to admit that it came from my mouth, but it did. . . . But I’m going to tell it the way it is.

Next thing I hear him saying, “Would somebody do something about .her?” And I felt a hand . . . touch my shoulder. It wasn’t hard. It was quite gentle.That’s when I absolutely cracked! I’m still sitting on the ground, and I couldn’t see a thing, but I made sure that my eyes were just fierce. . . . Something snapped in me. Before that I was crying. All of a sudden something snapped in me, and I got so angry . Then I started screaming out, “How dare you do this to these innocent people?” Like it was my fault. Because I was on a big spiritual search, and I really got the impression that it was my fault. And I thought, why involve other people?. . . I felt like, almost like there was a fight for me. Like it was something I had to do. . . .

Anyway, I started screaming out stupid things, told them to go back where they came from. Next thing I remember I was sitting in the car. I’ve still got missing time.

When she found herself sitting in the car, her last memory was of driving into the light.

THE DREAM OF AUGUST 8, 1993

Once she was home and asleep, the night brought a bizarre dream. This dream is of interest in that it emerged within hours of the encounter and it places Kelly back in the encounter. The subsequent “dreamings” do not have this quality about them. Nonetheless they were unusual in their own way, for reasons that will shortly be apparent.

In the August 8 dream she is on the side of the road with her head between her knees. She becomes aware that she can see again. A being is leading her husband down the slope onto the field. Throughout the dream she is unable to see the beings above the level of their elbows. Their limbs seem long and thin.

Inexplicably convinced that the being with her husband is female, she tackles it and then blacks out. In the dream she once again regains consciousness to find herself on the extreme right of the field with the UFO further down the field to the left. Before her on the ground is a still body, at first nonhuman, then changing to human. A middle-aged woman standing further down the field is screaming at her, “Murderess! Murderess!” She is overcome with grief with no awareness of having killed anyone.

Still in the dream, a hand on her shoulder leads her, and she follows obediently. Eventually Kelly becomes aware that she is in a small room, with only a small table and a being standing before her. The being tells her she did not kill anyone and they had to use her sense of morality to overcome her fear. Kelly has a profound feeling that she knows this being. On a table behind the being is a Bible, one of hers, which had disappeared a few weeks before. The being gives Kelly a strange choice which deepens her suspicion of the beings’ motives. She is told she can come but must leave the Bible behind. In the dream the being gives her this Bible.

The dream ends at that point. A few days after the encounter, her husband found the Bible in the car.

The “dreamings” mentioned earlier, first interpreted as something like a ghostly episode, take on a bizarre perspective when Kelly’s recollections flooded back. The first two preceded the point when more complete recall of the events of August 8 returned.

THE “DREAMINGS”

The first started with a presence which warns her to be calm. Then a frightening “sucking” sensation begins as if something is being taken from her. She comes out of the dream terrified and is confronted by a tall black figure in a floor length hooded cloak, about seven feet tall, with glowing red eyes. She screams, and the being disappears.

Initially Kelly interpreted the being as like a “soul vampire” or the Grim Reaper. At the time she did not place this incident in a UFO context, since the memories had yet to resurface.

In the second “dreaming” she experiences her legs being lifted and drawn out of the bed. She wakes and once again finds the same or similar being present, but this time the cloak obscures the eyes.

When after I did remember it, I had another dream, and these dreams seemed very physical. I know I’m dreaming, and I’ve got to wake up out of them. . . .

In this particular one, I felt as if my legs were being pulled off the bed, and it was like I was paralysed from my waist down, and my legs were being pulled over to the side; yet I could almost use the top of my body. Then I’m grabbing a pillow, trying to hit my husband, to wake him up. . . . I’m fighting this. I’m not going to let this thing drag me off the bed by my legs. Then I woke up and saw it standing there again! This time the hood covered the eyes, and it didn’t scare me. . . . I was still terrified, but it didn’t scare me quite as much, because each time it scared me, it was that same power like I felt out in the field that night.

When I was sitting on the ground, it was like something, almost like a frequency or a sound vibration or something. And it’s getting right into my head! And I couldn’t get it together. Like I was trying to get my logical thoughts together, not logical, almost conscious thoughts, and I was fighting it the whole time, which is probably why I seemed to remember more than my husband or even the other people.

The third “dreaming” occurred at a friend’ s place on October23 (see front cover). By then Kelly had experienced the flood of recollections. The two earlier “dreamings” took on an added significance, especially given the presence of the beings after Kelly had awakened from her “dreamings.” This time she wakes from a “dreaming” which seems to take the form of a “peak experience” (as psychologist Abraham Maslow calls it; Richard Maurice Bucke defined it as the sense of”cosmic consciousness”). She sees apparently the same creature as before; but unlike earlier manifestations, it is naked and leaning over her as if about to kiss her navel area. It is tall, with a head much larger than normal, long and thin arms, with an abdomen out of proportion to its thin frame, like a child’s stomach suffering from malnutrition.

Its skin is like gray-black plasticine. Kelly’s screams turn into an “uninterrupted stream of hysteria” and words.

In the morning she insisted that her husband check under the car. She had heard a distinct voice during the night urging such a check. He ignored her request, but their car subsequently suffered such a problem.

Numerous other “psychic” events and “electrical disturbances” followed. Frequently their car started up when no one was inside it. The vehicle had a kill switch which rendered these events even more startling and curious. Kelly thought she had developed enhanced psychic powers. The electrical events apparently ended in January 1994, as did many of the psychic incidents.

The fourth “dreaming” occurred in January of this year.

In the dream the bathroom light is blown. There is a sense of presence. Something persistently tries to grab Kelly’s right hand. Eventually she lets her hand be taken. Immediately she wakes up. Once again the creature in the black robe is standing by her bedside. It goes away. It turned out that the light had indeed blown and that diamond and sapphire rings .she wore on her right hand had disappeared. To date they have not
been found.

OTHER MATTERS

Other, earlier episodes, experiences, and issues of possible significance: . From July through September 1993 small orange fireballs, about the size of tennis balls, frequently hit the windows of the house. Kelly, her husband, and her mother witnessed the phenomena.

o About two and a half years earlier, at Lalor, Kelly had a peculiar dream in which she moved through a flesh-like hourglass apparatus. The same night she experienced a “vision” of opening their back door and seeing a light for a few seconds. Then she blacked out. Kelly experienced the same sense of power she felt in the field in August
1993.

o After the encounter and until July 1994, the Cahill house (built in 1949) had been the scene of fleeting observations of tall “shadows,” seen by both Kelly and her husband.

o A bad smell occasionally permeated the house and seemed to move around.

THE OTHER WITNESSES

If the August 8 encounter had revolved only around Kelly, it could be argued that the experience may have been some sort of psychological episode. But the presence of other witnesses – a married couple and their friend, plus a possible other observer in a third car-forcefully argues for a real encounter. Indeed, the PRA contends that the focus of the incident was not Kelly but the two other women.

As in Kelly’ s situation, the females in the other group seemed to play a dominant role. Bill, the male witness in the trio, appears, like Kelly’s husband, to have had only limited involvement. The two women consciously recalled onboard episodes. They remembered the UFO and the tall black beings. Their description did not feature the red eyes Kelly saw.

For the trio the experience apparently started when they approached the site. All three could hear a strange noise and suddenly felt ill. Bill thought he was going to faint. He lost control of the car and ran off the road, striking a pole. After checking for damage, they drove off. A few minutes later a speeding car with its high beams on shot past them. Then another passed. They came to a bridge with a sharp turn following it almost immediately. Farther along this section the trio stopped. As all this was going on, Bill’s vision was impaired. Obviously he had Some type of vision as he was driving, but he was unable to remember seeing the UFO. The two women with him recall the UFO clearly, and their descriptions closely match Kelly’s.

In some unexplained manner Bill was isolated from the central experience. He has conscious recall of smells and sounds and remembers that a lot of activity was going on. He does not recall seeing anything. He subsequently underwent hypnosis, which expanded his apparent recollections to seeming onboard components, but once again these were through the senses of smell and hearing only.

The two women did not think of theirs as an “abduction” experience. They felt as if they had exercised free will all through it. Yet the principal element of their onboard experience was a form of examination-not, however, visually remembered. Other parts of their onboard experience exist in visual images and conscious memory. Hypnosis in their cases appears to have only reinforced what they recall already.

The entities did not speak and provided very little information. Neither woman saw the other or any of the others while in the alien environment presumably aboard the UFO. Curiously, each was still aware of what was happening to her companion, ostensibly through psychic means.

The trio apparently did not have the complex background experiences described by Kelly. Their experience seem limited only to the August 8 encounter.

There is also some physical evidence. PRA found a possible related ground trace and low-level magnetic anomaly at the encounter site.

COMMENT

Kelly has gone on to write her own account of the experience and its difficult aftermath. In October 1994 John Auchettl and PRA, whose investigative thoroughness is to be commended, released a comprehensive report on the affair. In this emotionally explosive area it is easy for people to get caught up in less than satisfactory situations while they attempt to understand extraordinary experiences. I hope this event and the documentation that flows from it will be of some help to others in similar situations.

The victims of these experiences must not be unrealistically encouraged by advocates of an alien presence; nor, at the other extreme, should they be ridiculed by the sceptical among us. They should be helped to deal with their experiences, whether those experiences turn out to be prosaic or profound in origin. The second part of this report will review the PRA report and examine in detail the accounts of the other group of witnesses. It will also consider the physical evidence and provide reflections on the nature and meaning of this event.

Update (12/6/02) The Cahill case, PRA & openness:

It should be noted that the above “comment” in the 1994 IUR report was prepared on the assumption that the “PRA comprehensive report on the affair” was about to be released. Despite nearly a decade passing, John Auchettl and PRA have not released their report other than a few fragments of information.

As the researcher responsible for passing Kelly Cahill onto PRA in the first place, principally because I am NSW based and the incident occurred in Victoria, I have to say now that that decision was, in hindsight, a mistake.

My comment in my 1994 IUR report: “John Auchettl and PRA, whose investigative thoroughness is to be commended”, was based entirely on conversations with Auchettl and discussions with Kelly Cahill at the time (1993-1994), and in retrospect should have been qualified more accurately. While Auchettl & PRA may well have been thorough in their investigation, in reality there has been no way to absolutely verify this, because of their unwillingness to release their report and data on the case. PRA have offered some seemingly unusual and convoluted explanations for this lack of sharing.

I have long encouraged openness and sharing in UFO research (my web site is in part an expression of my position on this matter). My attempts to encourage PRA in this direction, from my perspective, have been very disappointing, and have instead lead me to not to refer cases to John Auchettl and PRA. Unless PRA changes their apparent lack of transparency and openness, researchers and witnesses should carefully consider the wisdom of cooperating with Phenomena Research Australia (PRA).

Regards, Bill

The post Kelly Cahill Abduction, Dandenong Foothills, Australia – August 8, 1993 first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

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Background

The witness submitted the following case to The Black Vault / TBV Investigations on 06/08/2019. The case was assigned to TBV Investigator Jim Kerr for investigation and analysis. Date, Time, and Location of Sighting: 12/29/2017 AT 8:00 PM. Cooroy, Queensland, Australia.

Witness Testimony

I’ve attached four photos (in sequential order) taken at a friend’s place one night.

The object was about three feet in front of me, moving slowly upward and away, and I’ve attached these particular photos because they were relatively clear. I literally have over a thousand photos of anomalies which neither Mary Rodwell nor Nancy Talbott can offer an answer for. I’d be happy to send you some if you’d like to see them. I personally would love an explanation! It drives me a bit mad knowing I clearly have evidence of something yet have absolutely no idea what it/they/them might be.

The Evidence

The witness submitted 4-photos. They are numbered 1-4.

Weather: Historical source from wunderground.com

Note: this historical weather information for 12/29/2017 at 8:00 pm was from Sunshine Beach Queensland Australia, which is located approx 15 miles from the town of Cooroy.

Temperature 77 deg, Dew Point 69 deg, Humidity 77%, Wind 9 mph from the north, Pressure 29.93 in, Precipitation 0.0 in, Condition partly cloudy.

Astronomical Historical Data from Stellarium

Searching the archives of Stellarium (a planetarium software that shows exactly what you see when you look up at night and day time sky), I was able to view precisely what celestial objects were visible to the witness from their location.

On 12/29/2017, at 8:00 pm, the moon was the brightest object in the sky. The moon was 10.6 days old and was 81.2% illuminated. This lunar information will be important for the analysis and conclusions of this investigation.

Analysis

I have over 40 years of experience as an amateur astronomer, photographer, astrophotographer, and videographer. I have experience in taking nighttime photography when the moon is bright, causing issues with lens flares.

In all four photos the witness submitted, the 81.2% illuminated moon can clearly be seen. Around the area of the moon, cloud cover can be seen that corroborates the weather information. All four photos show lens flares caused by the brightness of the moon.

My intent here is not to debunk or criticize the witness’ belief that she captured an anomaly. My intention is to help with nighttime photography. There are techniques, lenses, lens hoods that can eliminate lens flares due to bright objects in the night sky. Below are some helpful links.

Conclusion

Case File Status: Solved, lens flares caused by a bright moon.

References/Helpful Information

https://www.the-photography-blogger.com/lens-flare-night-long-exposure-photography/

https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/89104/how-to-avoid-light-flares-in-long-exposure-night-shots

https://photographylife.com/what-is-ghosting-and-flare

The post UFO Seen in Cooroy, Queensland, Australia, December 29, 2017 first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

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The following article was written by Bill Chalker, and is archived here for reference and background to this case.

The Boianai Visitants of 1959
by Bill Chalker

In 1959 Papua New Guinea was still a territory of Australia. June of that year saw the spectacular sightings by Father William Gill, an Australian Anglican missionary, and 37 members of his Boianai mission. Gill made notes about the experience, which the media obtained. Stories appeared in August, causing a sensation. I have had two extended interviews with Reverend Gill and was impressed with his quiet and certain manner in relating the events. What follows comes from his own account of the affair.

Only the day before the sighting, Gill had composed a letter to the Reverend David Durie, Acting Principal of Saint Aidan’s College at Dogura, to accompany a report regarding a UFO sighting made by Stephen Moi, an assistant teacher at Gill’s mission.

‘Dear David, Have a look at this extraordinary data. I am almost convinced about the “visitation” theory. There have been quite a number of reports over the months, from reliable witnesses. The peculiar thing about these most recent reports is that the UFOs seem to be stationary at Boianai or to travel from Boianai. The Mount Pudi vicinity seems to be the hovering area. I myself saw a stationary white light twice on the same night on 9 April, but in a different place each time.

I believe your students have also sighted one over Boianai. The Assistant District Officer, Bob Smith and Mr Glover have all seen it, or similar ones on different occasions again, over Boianai, although I think the Baniara people said they watched it travel across the sky from our direction. I should think that this is the first time that the “saucer” has been identified as such.

‘I do not doubt the existence of these “things” (indeed I cannot, now that I have seen one for myself) but my simple mind still requires scientific evidence before I can accept the from outer space theory. I am inclined to believe that probably many UFOs are more likely some form of electric phenomena, or perhaps something brought about by the atom bomb explosions, etc.

That Stephen should actually make out a saucer could be the work of the unconscious mind as it is very likely that at some time he has seen illustrations of some kind in a magazine, or it is very possible that saucers do exist, but it is only a 50/50 chance that they are not earth made, still less that they should carry men (more likely radio controlled), and it is still unproven that they are solids.

‘It is all too difficult to understand for me; I prefer to wait for some bright boy to catch one to be exhibited in Martin Square. ‘Please return this report as I have no copy and I want Nor, (Rev. Norman Crutwell) to have it. Yours, Doubting William Anglican Mission, Boianai. 27/6/59’

The events of the next day converted the Doubting William, as the next letter graphically indicates.

‘Dear David,
Life is strange, isn’t it? Yesterday I wrote you a letter, (which I still intend sending you) expressing opinions re: The UFOs. Now, less than twenty-four hours later I have changed my views somewhat. Last night we at Boianai experienced about four hours of UFO activity, and there is no doubt whatsoever that they are handled by beings of some kind. At times it was absolutely breathtaking. Here is the report. Please pass it round, but great care must be taken as I have no other, and this, like the one I made out re: Stephen, will be sent to Nor. I would appreciate it if you could send the lot back as soon as poss.

Cheers,
Convinced Bill’

As indicated by his notes, Gill saw a bright white light in the north western sky. It appeared to be approaching the mission and hovering about 100 meters up. Eventually 38 people, including Gill, teachers Steven Gill Moi and Ananias Rarata, and Mrs Nessle Moi, gathered to watch the main UFO, which looked like a large, disc-shaped object. It was apparently solid and circular with a wide base and narrower upper deck. The object appeared to have four ‘legs’ underneath it. There also appeared to be about four ‘panels’ or ‘portholes’ on the side of the object, which seemed to glow a little brighter than the rest. At a number of intervals the object produced a shaft of blue light which shone upwards into the sky at an angle of about 45 degrees.

What looked like ‘men’ came out of the object, onto what seemed to be a deck on top of it. There were four men in all, occasionally two, then one, then three, then four. The shaft of blue light and the ‘men’ disappeared. The object then moved through some clouds. There were other UFO sightings during the night. Gill described the weather as variable sky scattered clouds to clear at first, becoming overcast after. He estimated the height of the clouds at about 600 meters. The first sighting over the sea, according to Rev. Gill, seemed to be about 150 metres above the water all times. The main UFO was clearly visible and seemed mostly stationary during the twenty-five minutes of observation.

Astonishingly, the aerial visitor put in a repeat performance the following night, 27 June. Gill prepared another statement.

‘Large UFO first sighted by Annie Laurie at 6 p.m. in apparently same position as last night (26/6/59) only seemed a little smaller, when W.B.G. saw it at 6.02 p.m. I called Ananias and several others and we stood in the open to watch it. Although the sun had set it was still quite light for the following fifteen minutes. We watched figures appear on top four of them, no doubt that they are human. Possibly the same object that I took to be the “Mother” ship last night. Two smaller UFOs were seen at the same time, stationary.

One above the hills west, another over- head. On the large one two of the figures seemed to be doing something near the center of the deck, were occasionally bending over and raising their arms as though adjusting or “setting up” something (not visible). One figure seemed to be standing looking down at us (a group of about a dozen). I stretched my arm above my head and waved. To our surprise the figure did the same. Ananias waved both arms over his head then the two outside figures did the same. Ananias and self began waving our arms and all four now seemed to wave back. There seemed to be no doubt that our movements were answered. All mission boys made audible gasps (of either joy or surprise, perhaps both).

‘As dark was beginning to close in, I sent Eric Kodawara for a torch and directed a series of long dashes towards the UFO. After a minute or two of this, the UFO apparently acknowledged by making several wavering motions back and forth. Waving by us was repeated and this followed by more flashes of torch, then the UFO began slowly to become bigger, apparently coming in our direction. It ceased after perhaps half a minute and came no further. After a further two or three minutes the figures apparently lost interest in us for they disappeared “below” deck. At 6.25 p.m. two figures re-appeared to carry on with whatever they were doing before the interruption. The blue spotlight came on for a few seconds twice in succession.’

Gill has described how he and the mission people called out to the men, even shouting at them, and beckoned them to descend, but there was no response beyond what has already been noted. Two smaller UFOs higher up remained stationary. By 6.30 p.m. the scene had remained largely unchanged, and Gill records that he went to dinner. Subsequently critics were to question this, why would someone walk away from such an extraordinary sight? ‘I’m always asked this question,’ Gill has said, ‘either in puzzlement or with a sneer.

Having had about four hours of this sight on Friday night, we were not nearly so interested when it returned on Saturday night, especially after we were unable to persuade it to land. You must also keep in mind that there was nothing eerie or other worldly about any of this. It was all so ordinary, as ordinary as a Ford car. It looked a perfectly normal sort of object, an earth made object. I realized, of course, that some people might think of this as a flying saucer but I took it to be some kind of hovercraft the Americans or even the Australians had built.

The figures inside looked perfectly human. In fact, I thought they were human, that if we got them to land we would find the pilots to be ordinary earth men in military uniforms and we would have dinner with them.

At 7.00 p.m. the ‘No. 1 UFO’ was still present, although it appeared somewhat smaller. The group of observers went to church for evensong. After evensong, visibility was very limited with the sky covered in cloud. Nothing else was seen that evening. At 10.40 p.m., a very penetrating, ‘ear splitting’ explosion woke up people on the station. It sounded like it had come from just outside the window of the mission house. Gill felt it did not sound like a thunderclap. Nothing had been seen, but the whole sky was overcast. Other less compelling activity occurred the following night. Then it seemed the Boianai visitants had gone. But the controversy had just begun.

Reverend Gill was at the time of his sightings already scheduled to return to Australia. This presented civilian groups with an excellent opportunity to assess the credibility of the reports.

All investigators found Gill to be very impressive. This led one of the leading civilian groups, the Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society, to view the Gill reports as constituting the most remarkable testimony of intensive UFO activity ever reported to civilian investigators. They were unique because for the first time credible witnesses had reported the presence of humanoid beings associated with UFOs. The major civilian groups of the day, in a spirit of new found cooperation inspired by the significance of the Boianai observations, distributed copies of Gill’s sighting report to all members of the House of Representatives of Australia’s federal parliament.

A letter accompanied the report, signed by the presidents of the participating civilian UFO groups, urging members of parliament to press the Minister for Air for a statement about the attitude Air Force Intelligence had to the New Guinea reports.

On 24 November 1959 in federal parliament E.D. Cash, a Liberal member from Western Australia, asked the Minister for Air, F.M. Osborne, whether his department (specifically Air Force Intelligence) had investigated the reports. The minister’s reply did not address this question, but instead focused on the general situation, indicating that most sightings of UFOs were explained and ‘that only a very small percentage, something like 3 per cent of reported sightings of flying objects cannot be explained’. A representative of one UFO group was advised by the Directorate of Air Force Intelligence that the Department was awaiting ‘depth of evidence’ on the New Guinea sightings.

However, the department had not even interviewed Gill. Finally the Minister for Defence requested a report and the RAAF interviewed Gill on 29 December 1959, some six months after the sighting. Gill’s recollection of the visit is that the two officers from Canberra talked about stars and planets and then left. He heard no more from them.

As one might expect, Gill’s account was dismissed by the RAAF despite its extraordinary nature and the number of witnesses. The senior interviewing officer, Squadron Leader F.A. Lang, concluded:

‘Although the Reverend Gill could be regarded as a reliable observer, it is felt that the June/July incidents could have been nothing more than natural phenomena colored by past events and subconscious influences of UFO enthusiasts. During the period of the report the weather was cloudy and unsettled with light thunder storm. Although it is not possible to draw firm conclusions, an analysis of rough bearings and angles above the horizon does suggest that at least some of the lights observed were the planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars.

Light refraction, the changing position of the planet relative to the observer and cloud movement would give the impression of size and rapid movement. In addition varying cloud densities could account for the human shapes and their sudden appearance and disappearance’.

My own close analysis of the reports suggests that the RAAF ‘explanation’ of either known planets seen through fast moving cloud, or natural phenomena’ does not bear up.

Over the years there have been a number of ‘explanations’ put forward to account for the Boianai sightings, including astronomical misidentification, hoax, cargo cult effects, and that Gill had myopia and astigmatism. (In fact at the time he was wearing correctly prescribed glasses). None of these satisfactorily address the evidence. Dr Alien Hynek, and staff at his Center for UFO Studies, went to great lengths to investigate and research the affair.

Hynek and Alien Hendry, the the center’s chief investigator, concluded the ‘lesser UFOs’ seen by Gill were attributable to bright stars and planets, but not the primary object. Its size and absence of movement over three hours ruled out an astronomical explanation. My own discussions with Gill led me to the same conclusion.

Most recently there was an attempt at explaining the whole affair away by suggesting that Gill and the other witnesses were confused by a false horizon, and that all they had been watching was a brightly lit squid boat and crew too busy to do more than just wave at the people on shore. This idea is not tenable when one realises that Gill was certain that the object he saw was at a 30 degree elevation in the sky. A more radical attempt to dispose of the Gill case came from UFO skeptic Daniel Cohen in his book Myths of the Space Age.

The Boianai visitations are enshrined in a classic piece of Australian fiction. Novelist Randolph Stow’s 1979 book “Visitants”, which has the Boianai visitations as a backdrop to a striking story of confrontation and disintegration, emerged from Stow’s experience as a cadet patrol officer in Papua-New Guinea. He was an assistant to the Government Anthropologist. His novel opens with this sentence: ‘On 26 June 1959, at Boianai in Papua, visitants appeared to the Reverend William Booth Gill, himself a visitant of thirteen years standing, and to thirty-seven witnesses of another colour.’

The Boianai ‘visitants’ still stand as remarkable evidence for an impressive aerial anomaly and are regarded as some of the best entity reports on record. At the time of writing I spoke again with Gill. He still remains puzzled by what he saw and was pleased that an authority like Dr Hynek had independently interviewed him and some of the other witnesses and travelled to the site. While he accepts that the sightings remain unexplained, he questioned my characterization of some attempts to explain them as ‘silly’. He felt that these ‘explanations’ were serious attempts to bring understanding to the events. I think that attitude encapsulate the integrity of Gill and the reality of the affair.

In 1973 Alien Hynek visited Australia and Papua New Guinea and found six of the witnesses to the Boianai events. They all supported Gill’s version of what had happened.

…..based on Reverend Gill’s own written statement prepared on location in 1959 and interviews with Gill I undertook, in particular in 1978;

See also “Papua/Father Gill revisited”, International UFO Reporter, November and December 1977 (CUFOS) and Jerome Clark, “Close Encounters: History’s Best Case.”, Fate, February 1978. VISITANTS AT BLENHEIM: Dykes 1981, 34-38; Stott 1984, 123-126; Chalker 1992, 349-350

Philip Mantle Documents

These documents were obtained from Philip Mantle, and are used here with permission.

 Philip Mantle’s Case Files on the 1959 Papua New Guinea UFO Sighting [18 Pages, 2.2MB]

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Interview with Father William Gill

The post Father Gill & the 1959 Papua New Guinea UFO Sighting first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

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Well, it’s a photograph that’s too good to be true.

You’ve probably seen it. At the time of writing this case file, on August 13, 2015, the photograph had more than 690,000 SHARES on Facebook alone.  The tagline? It reads, “This photo was taken in Australia, get it out there as Facebook are trying to remove it.”

With a tagline like that, who wouldn’t LIKE it and SHARE it to their friends? I mean, Facebook was covering this up and it was on the internet, so, it HAD to be true, right?

Once it was shared to me like 2 or 3 thousand times, I decided to take a moment to investigate.

Here were my initial thoughts:

Clearly, the photographer was above ground, since the trees were below him. We can deduce he’s probably in a building (rather than sitting in an open sky crane in a lightning storm), so therefore, probably shooting through the pane of a glass window.  With the “UFO” having 4, equal cut, “slices” in it, it screamed (to me anyway) this was a chandelier or light on the ceiling of a room.

I have seen thousands of UFO photographs over the years, and many of them are usually photos taken through glass, and a mysterious object shows up in the frame. Yet, it’s the taking of the photo through glass that really is the issue. I felt that could explain this photo quite easily.

Looking out the window, many times, lit objects BEHIND your point of view can be seen as a reflection.  Most of us have that little thing called common sense to figure out, “Hey, that’s a reflection of a lamp.”  But, send out a low resolution photo of that reflection onto the internet, add a spooky tagline caption, and voila — you have a viral UFO photograph.

So, I wanted to prove or disprove my theory so I set out to Google’s handy dandy search engine to take a look at what I could find.  Well, someone beat me to solving this thing. And, it confirms what I thought.

With credit to the SKEPT!CAL blog, they made the discovery of a near identical looking lighting feature that actually can be yours for a little over $1,300!

Is this an exact match? It looks pretty darn close. Same spacing on the bottom, same or similar design on the side, and, of course, coloring looks just like a southwest/cowboy color to give that rustic feel.

They even take it one step farther, and find what is probably the exact location the original “UFO” photograph was taken.

The above photograph was taken at the Signal Mountain Lodge in Wyoming.  Quite a distance from the alleged location being Australia in the original post.  Here is a photograph from inside one of the lodges:

I guess that old saying, “If it looks to good to be true… it usually is” may apply to this one.

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Australia’s Curiositeaz Vintage Tea Room, in Perth, Australia, had shared this photo in July on 2012.

According to the owner, Dan Clifford, something had set off the motion sensor one night and this is what he found after reviewing the security footage.

The following was published by the Daily Record on 3 July 2012:

A CAFE owner has called in the ghost-hunters after claiming to have seen a spirit on his security camera.

Chills went down Dan Clifford’s spine when he checked his CCTV and saw what he’s convinced was a ghostly apparition hovering over a table set for two.

He summoned a team of ghost specialists, who said the sighting – said to be a figure of a woman – was the most striking evidence they had come across in almost 10 years.

Dan, 35, said yesterday: “The first time I saw the shadow moving on the camera my heart went nuts. I thought there was an intruder in the shop.

“But when I looked closer I realised it couldn’t be a live human being – I could see right through it.”

The CCTV image was taken in the dead of night after something set off a motion sensor. And Dan claims it’s not the only evidence of ghostly goings-on at his  Room in Perth.

He said: “Over the past few months, all the staff have experienced something.

“Some have heard voices. Others have witnessed chairs moving and one was pushed forwards and felt a chill right down their spine.

“We’ve also had a number of mediums stopping in because they felt something when they walked by.

“Some have told of feeling the presence of a woman, which fits with our newest image.

“I have always believed in the spirit world but I’d never experienced anything like this until we opened Curiositeaz less than a year ago. It’s all been very exciting.”

Dan has shown his CCTV images to ghost enthusiasts from Paranormal Investigation Scotland, and has talked to them about the other strange happenings at his cafe.

He has also fitted high-tech new cameras which takestill and moving images if sensors detect anything larger than a cat.

He said: “We are very interested to hear what the experts have to say about the recent sighting.

“We want to prove to any sceptics that we have not tampered with any images.”

A spokesman for Paranormal Investigation Scotland said: “This is the most convincing image we have seen in almost a decade, so we were keen to start looking into it.”

The experts will return to the cafe next month, with some of Scotland’s best-known mediums in tow. They’ll monitor the tea room overnight for signs of ghosts.

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The following case was submitted to The Black Vault:

I just wanted to share this sighting from Taree N.S.W. that was captured back on the 3rd of June 2013 from a lookout called Breakneck.

This object came down from the sky as a metallic sphere with a glow around it in front of two of us. The sphere seemed to open up like a seed and reveal an extremely bright glowing orange center.

These two photos were taken with a Canon Powershot 18.1 mp camera as we were moving to a better vantage point.

The object was a little shy as it promptly flew straight back up into the sky and disappeared into an unusual looking domed cloud. The shot taken before these shows a small dark circular mass in the same cloud. This was a fascinating capture for me as it was the first time I had ever witnessed a metallic sphere or orb open up and reveal what it did.

The entire sighting lasted probably 20 to 30 seconds from when it was first spotted in the cloud to when it disappeared back into the sky. The object was completely silent though there was a strange feeling involved that it was watching what we were doing .

https://www.facebook.com/damienjohnnott​

—

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The following was submitted to The Black Vault, and used with permission:

Busselton, Western Australia. Early 2012.

I was outside with my new camera and went to the beach to see if there were any birds to photograph. There was no one else there, and not really any birds. The light was fading as well as it was near sunset. I was looking south down the beach and saw a stationary object in the sky. It was impossible to judge the distance but I would estimate it was anywhere between 3-10 kilometers (~ 2-5 miles) away and about 1.5-3 kilometers (~ 1 mile) high off the ground.

It caught my attention immediately, as it was there in the sky, completely stationary, and I could see it with my naked eye (didn’t have binoculars with me). Completely stationary – as in, not hovering like how a helicopter would. You will see the shape of it on the photos. I don’t know how to describe it, other than it does indeed sort of resemble a helicopter but it more elongated and shows no signs of any rotors or other small bits.

I kept watching it for 10 minutes and occasionally taking photos. Even at max zoom I couldn’t get anywhere close to it. It didn’t move at all. There was no sound coming from it (not that I probably would have heard if it was that far away). I was quite excited and phoned my sister to come and see, and she was there in 5 minutes and agreed with me that it was weird and she hadn’t seen anything like it. Especially the impossibility of whatever it was to remain so stationary high up.

The sun was almost down at this point and it was then I noticed the craft/thing had lights on it. Red and blue lights. But it was too far away to distinguish where exactly on the craft the lights were positioned. The craft moved. I can’t remember the exact movements as it was too long ago. It was erratic and very fast. But very straight and angular. It moved like nothing we’d seen before. It suddenly zipped across the sky in a perfect horizontal line (estimated about 400 meters). It hung there stationary for a few seconds. Then suddenly dropped down about 500 meters in a perfectly straight line. It repeated this again about two more times, moving extremely quickly and in perfectly angular/straight directions. At about 1-2 kilometers above the ground it then dropped straight down.

My sister and I got in the car and drove us down the highway in the direction of where the craft looked like it had been above, but found nothing. As I said though it was impossible to accurately pin point how far away it had been. We continued down the coast going to some spots where we’d have a good view of the beaches from a headland. I was quite feverish with excitement at this point and ran out of the car through a restricted area by a lighthouse up to the top of the headland to get a view of the whole area. Nearly ran right off the cliff in doing so. But I was super excited about what we’d seen, and if I found a craft I was prepared to walk right up to it and give myself to the aliens or whoever was in there. I’d been somewhat of a UFO enthusiast a few years before, so that night for me was like a surge of excitement of the possibility of finding a UFO. Needless to say we didn’t see/hear anything further, and there was nothing about an unusual craft in the media – not surprisingly as it was near sunset and we were the only ones at the beach/vantage point.

Additional Photographs

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One of the most controversial radar visual reports of the fifties occurred on August 31st, 1954. The story leaked out in December, 1954, and made front page headlines.

The official navy file on the event remained classified until the Directorate of Naval Intelligence released a copy upon my request in 1982.

During his 1973 visit to Australia, Dr. Hynek was able to interview the pilot involved in this famous incident, which became known as the “Sea Fury” encounter.

Dr. Hynek made his notes on this interview available to me during my 1984 visit to the Chicago headquarters of his organisation, the Centre for UFO Studies (CUFOS). I, in turn, provided Dr. Hynek with a copy of the official file on the incident.

Lieutenant J.A. O’Farrell was returning to Royal Australian Navy Air Station Nowra after a night cross country in a Sea Fury aircraft. After contacting Nowra at about 1910 hours, O’Farrell saw a very bright light closing fast at one o’clock.

It crossed in front of his aircraft taking up position on his port beam, where it appeared to orbit.

A second and similar light was observed at nine o’clock. It passed about a mile in from of the Sea Fury and then turned in the position where the first light was observed.

According to O’Farrell, the apparent crossing speeds of the lights were the fastest he had ever encountered. He had been flying at 220 knots. O’Farrell contacted Nowra who in turn confirmed that they had two radar “paints” in company with him.

The radar operator, Petty Officer Keith Jessop, confirmed the presence of 2 objects near the Sea Fury on the G.C.I. remote display.

The two lights reformed at nine o’clock and then disappeared on a north easterly heading. O’Farrell could only make out “a vague shape with the white light situated centrally on top.”

The Directorate of Naval Intelligence at the time wrote that O’Farrell was “an entirely credible witness” and that he “was visibly ‘shaken’ by his experience, but remains adamant that he saw these objects”

In a recent interview, “Shamus” O’Farrell described the incident:

“I said, “Nowra, this is 921. Do you have me on radar?” “And a few seconds later they came back and said, “Affirmative 921. We have you coming in from the west. We have another two contacts as well. Which one are you.” “I said, “I think I’m the central one.”

And so they said, “Do a 180…for identification.” So I did a quick 180 and then continued on around and made it a 360 back to where I was going.

“They said, “Yes, we’ve got you. You’re the centre aircraft.” I said that’s correct. They then said to me, “Who are the other two aircraft,” and I said, “I don’t know. I was hoping you would tell me, because I didn’t think there was anyone up here. “They said, “Well there shouldn’t be, and they certainly shouldn’t be that close to you.”

“So the conversation went on like this and I was very pleased to be talking to somebody because it gave me a lot of reassurance. With that these two aircraft came in quite close to me and I could really see the dark mass and that they were quite big, but I couldn’t make out any other lights or any other form of an aircraft. With that they took off and headed off to the north east at great speed.

“I was about to press the button and tell them at Nowra that the two aircraft were departing when Nowra called me up and said, “The other two aircraft appear to be departing at high speed to the north east. Is that correct?” and I said, “Yes!”. And they said, “Roger, we’ll see if we can track them.”

They tracked them for a while and then lost them. “I came in and landed at 7.30 (1930) and when I got there there were quite a few people waiting for me. I thought it was a bit strange and so they came over, and they said, “You sure you had aircraft out there!” and I said yes.

The Surgeon Commander came over and spoke to me. He said did I feel sick, or was I upset. I said no. He ran his hand over my head to see whether I had any bumps. He had a look at me and decided I was okay. So then he said, “Perhaps you’d like to come to the sick bay after you’ve changed and we’ll do an examination.”

So after I was finished I went up to sick bay and he gave me a more thorough medical, and said, no, I appeared to be alright. I found out later, that at the same time, they checked to make sure I hadn’t been drinking before I took off and all that sort of thing.”

During this interview, Dr. Hynek’s involvement came up:

“This man (Hynek) – a professor – had made a study of thousands of sightings all around the world and he had decided my sighting was one of those that he had not been able to explain away by other means.

Any way I had a talk with him. He was a very interesting chap and he made the comment that there were about 13 or 15, I don’t remember, sightings that he was aware of over the years that were like mine and could not be explained away. The interesting thing he said was that all of these sightings had been made by professional people in aviation.

By that he meant they were military pilots, military air crew, civil aviation operators, air traffic controllers, and the like, or airline pilots. These were the ones he was now (1973) going around meeting the people themselves and investigating.

All the others he had written off and had been able to explain down to some other phenomena. It came to the point where he said, “Your sighting cannot be explained away.” And he left it at that. To this day I wouldn’t know where it came from or where it went.”

I have had the opportunity to talk extensively with Shamus O’Farrell. I was particularly interested in how the interview with Dr. Hynek in 1973 came about:

“It was done through Sir Arthur Tange, who was secretary of the Department of Defence at the time. Hynek contacted him direct… Sir Arthur Tange contacted me and said Hynek was coming out. He had written to him, through the US Embassy, to set up a meeting.

And the next thing I knew I had a telephone call one day from Sir Arthur Tange saying that Hynek was coming and he would like me to met him. I said, well, I haven’t got all the facts, there all a bit hazy. So he sent me the two Defence Department files over to read, to refresh it all.”

Bill Chalker: “That seems to indicate a high level of interest in Hynek’s visit at the time?”

“Yes, well, I don’t think so. All that happened was that it was more of a courtesy because he was a very important guy, Hynek, and they wanted to show him the courtesies etc. As far as Defence was concern it was dead and forgotten but they had not got rid of the files. They kept them.

Normally when files like that are written off they are either decided they’ll put them in Archives or dispose of them and destroy them. But they had done neither. They had remained in the JIO. They’d kept them. I don’t know what they had in mind about it, I never questioned it. I just used them as a means to refresh my memory.

“Later the guy who became the chief Defence scientist, John Farrands, was very interested in it too, and he had done a lot of early investigations in most of the reports when he was chief defence scientist and in the period just before he became chief defence scientist. He had a talk with me.

I was a friend of his. I used to meet with him at lunch. He went over it in great detail. He knew it all. He agreed it was something that couldn’t be refuted. No matter how hard they tried, and they tried very hard to knock it all back. They checked everything from medical, down to when was the last time I had had a drink…”

Bill Chalker: “That must have been a bit of a concern to you?”

“Well, I wanted to hush it all up. That sort of investigation made me look a bit of a fool. I was worried it wasn’t going to do my career any good. “(Apart from the radar witness) it locked in a sighting over the NDB (non directional beacon) at Narulan, at the same time. There happened to be a guy working on the NDB.

It was down at the time.

He had gone to repair it. He happened to look up at the time because he saw these lights fly overhead. Also the air traffice control officer in the tower at Mascot saw them approaching him. “It was all investigated by the then RAAF guy who did it and later it was also investigated by the Joint Intelligence Bureau.”

In 1993 I assisted The Extraordinary television programme with a recreation of the Sea Fury incident. Shamus O’Farrell, Keith Jessop and I were interviewed on the show. The case stands as one of the best unexplained radar visual UFO cases on record in Australia.

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The post Australian Sky Watch Group Takes Photos & Video of Strange Object first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

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Is it an alien spaceship or a top secret military plane? On Saturday, multiple UFOs were spotted flying at blazing speed over a sunny sky in Sydney. You can watch the 22-minute clip in this YouTube video.

A bullet-shaped UFO was seen flying over relatively clear skies over Australia around lunch time on Nov. 24. It appeared to leave a white trail suggesting that the object may have been a high speed military aircraft.

However, a round object can be seen zipping through the sky just minutes later. The second object, shaped like a flying saucer, did not appear to leave a white trail that airplanes typically leave at the rear.

The object also appeared to move at blinding speeds just above the clouds and possessed the ability to rapidly change directions. Aside from observers on the ground, a nearby pilot spotted the UFOs near Queensland, Australia.

Is it an alien spacecraft? Watch the video and you be the judge.

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by Rodney Stevens, Northern Star

A BALLINA man took this photo of an unidentified flying object at Broken Head in August but researchers from UFO Research NSW are reluctant to say it could be genuine.

Adam Frankham and his girlfriend went to the lookout and walking track at Broken Head on August 24 and he took two photos seconds apart, one showing a clear sky and the next showing an unidentified flying object flying above the ocean.

But Mr Frankham didn’t discover what he had captured until three weeks later when he downloaded the images from his phoneto his computer.

“We went for a bit of a walk up there to have a look and I stopped on the way up there to take a couple of shots like I usually do,” he said.

“We worked out it definitely couldn’t have been a plane because there was no noise at all, we couldn’t hear a thing.”

Mr Frankham said he spoke to a photographer in Ballina about the photo and he said he has seen many pictures like his over the years.

“One of his friends who actually drove from Byron that day and saw something very weird as well a bit later that day,” he said.

Seeing the unidentified flying object in the photo has changed Mr Frankham’s opinion on UFOs.

“I do believe that something could be there but I’m not really a believer, I have always looked and thought how do you know if that’s real.”

UFO Research NSW media manager Doug Moffett said as he was not a photo or video analysis expert he would not be prepared to declare the object in Mr Frankham’s photo as UFO.

“If an expert was to look at this photo and analyse it, at the end of the day all they would be able to tell you is what it isn’t,” he said.

After more than 20 years in the industry, Mr Moffett said he believed UFOs were mysterious because 60 years after the famous Roswell incident there has been little scientific research done into UFOs.

“There is no actual scientific research done on UFOs because the scientists think it’s a load of crap,” he said.

“And that’s why it remains in the mystery basket, not because there is no one who can analyse the photos, but because it has been rejected by scientists.”

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