Oz X-Files : “authenticated sighting”, “appear to be inexplicable”, USA “very interested"

With the permission of the National Archives of Australia (on behalf of the Commonwealth Government of Australia), I've uploaded searchable PDF files containing over 10,000 pages of Australian UFO documents to a directory at the link below. Some highlights from that collection are given in the post below.



With thanks to several members of ATS for their assistance during the last couple of months (particularly ArMap, Keith Basterfield, Giuliano Marinkovic and Kronz), the collection can be downloaded from the “WeTransfer” website at the link below:
preview.tinyurl.com...



I’ve also uploaded the same material to the link below (and, unlike the above link, it will remain active after 6 May 2013). Unlike the above link, the link below allows you to download single files (in case you only want to view a sample file or download a specific reference). By going to "Folder actions" on the top left of the screen and selecting "download folder", you can download all of these Australian UFO files with a single click from the “Skydrive” website. Due to Microsoft’s rules in relation to large downloads, those using the link below to download the entire collection need to enter (or create) details of a free Microsoft account.
sdrv.ms...

In short, use the Wetransfer link above if you want the entire collection and it is before 6 May 2013. Use the Skydrive link above if you only want a single file or it is after 6 May 2013.

These documents were downloaded from over 75 different files on the website of the National Archive of Australia, using the Wget software and a short (but very useful) batch script written with help from of a couple of AboveTopSecret.com members (particularly Armap and Kronz). The relevant script is posted in Section L below because I think it will continue to be useful as and when further relevant files become available on the website of the National Archive of Australia. (The script may also be useful for some other potential projects…).

The website of the National Archives of Australia has images of many documents relating to UFOs. However, that website can be a bit slow and doesn’t allow the content of the UFO files to be browsed rapidly or searched. The PDF archive that I’ve uploaded should, therefore, make it easier and quicker to browse material as well as enabling the documents to be searched.

Most of the relevant files were found using the National Archives search facility and also a very useful guide made available by the Australian ufologist Keith Basterfield and the AUFORN group. I've developed a table originally created by Keith Basterfield to make a document which includes some details of the relevant files (and links to each file on the National Archives website). I've included that document (with the kind permission of Keith Basterfield) in the folder of material at the link above.



Keith Basterfield has also very kindly also allowed me to put online a 121 page guide he has written about the Australian files:
www.box.com...

I’ve also uploaded a copy to the link below:
sdrv.ms...




As I’ve said once or twice before, I think that ufology could benefit considerably from making more underlying documentation easily available in a searchable format.

Once downloaded, the entire directory of Australian files at the links above can be read or searched quickly and easily (together with, if you wish, various UFO magazines/journals, other official documents, UFO books, academic dissertations relating to UFOs etc) using a method I’ve previously outlined in another thread: FAST searching of major free online collections of UFO journals (or just browse/download them).

I wonder how many members of the UFO community are familiar with the content of these documents, including:

(1) A report produced for the Australian government by the same Professor in Melbourne University’s Physics Department in 1954, which concluded that (if the intelligence reports in a book by Donald Keyhoe were authentic) “then the evidence presented is such that it is difficult to assume any interpretation other than that unidentified flying objects are being observed ... it is highly improbable that such objects have a terrestrial origin”. See Section E below on the Turner report.

(2) Criticisms of the Australian government statements on UFOs by a scientist that worked for the government (the same one that had earlier been the in Melbourne University’s Physics Department in 1954), which included noting that an identification list of all sightings made between 1960 and 1965 contained “15 identifications of Venus, not one of which is valid. In every case Venus was in a totally different part of the sky or not even above the horizon”. That scientist commented that “this off-hand unscientific attitude to identification did not escape the notice of the press or various scientists”. See Section H below on the Turner criticisms.

(3) One government Minister (R G Casey) at one point considered some UFO reports “unexplained on any rational hypothesis”. See Section F below on the results of a “personal” investigation by one government Minister while in office.

(4) A letter dated 1st April 1957 from the Director of Air Force Intelligence to the Director of the Joint Intelligence Bureau which states that many UFO reports “cover such mundane things as meteorological and astronomical phenomena” but went on to say “others appear to be inexplicable”. See Section G below.

(5) A letter from the US Embassy in Australia to the Australian Directorate of Air Force Intelligence stating “my headquarters is very interested in receiving reports of all unusual sightings not only in this area but all over the world”. See Section C below.

(6) The file devoted to one incident includes a document written by Captain Adams (the Director of Naval Intelligence) referring to the case as “a well authenticated sighting”. See Section D2 below in relation to the Sea Fury / Nowra incident.

This post is in several sections, namely:

SECTION A : THIS BRIEF INTRODUCTION

SECTION B : BACKGROUND - UFOS OVER OZ

SECTION C : USA “VERY INTERESTED” (1953)

SECTION D : SIGHTINGS BY “OUR HIGHLY TRAINED SELVES”
SECTION D1 : THE MEN FROM THE MINISTRY
SECTION D2 : THE SEA FURY / NOWRA INCIDENT (1954)
SECTION D3 : FLIGHT LIEUTENANT SCOTT’S SIGHTING (1952)

SECTION E : THE TURNER REPORT (1954)

SECTION F : MINISTER’S “PERSONAL” INVESTIGATION (1954)

SECTION G : SOME REPORTS “APPEAR TO BE INEXPLICABLE” (1957)

SECTION H : IT WASN’T VENUS (1971)

SECTION I : REVEREND GILL SIGHTINGS (1959)

SECTION J : THE VALENTICH DISAPPEARANCE (1978)

SECTION K : MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS

SECTION L : SCRIPT FOR DOWNLOADING

SECTION M : CONCLUSION

SECTION N : REFERENCES

SECTION O : POSTSCRIPT

SECTION B : BACKGROUND - UFOS OVER OZ

For a quick overview of Australian ufology, some of you may be interested in:

(1) A relevant Wikipedia entry:
en.wikipedia.org...

(2) The documentary “Oz Encounters : UFOs in Australia”, which can be found online:


Some other Australian incidents are the subject of other documentaries, including the Westall UFO incident covered in the documentary below:


The Westall UFO sighting is the subject of a Wikipedia article and various thread on ATS. See the links below:
en.wikipedia.org...
www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Many of the highlights from the Australian files on UFOs have been written about over the years by various researchers, particularly two Australian ufologists: Keith Basterfield and Bill Chalker. I can recommend the material by both of these researchers for those interested in looking into relevant issues in more depth. Their names will be familiar to some of you, but they don’t get mentioned online as frequently as they deserve so it may be worth my giving a few relevant references and links. There is a tendency in the English-speaking UFO community to focus on the work of American researchers. Also, they have (generally...) avoided sensationalism. Researchers that make more sensational statements gain more attention – whether their work deserves it or not. (As for some of the dedicated non-sensationalist researchers from non-English speaking countries such as the members of the AFU, well, you can forget about most of them since you’ll rarely hear anything about them despite their Herculean efforts…).

(1) For some of Keith Basterfield’s work, see:

a. His regularly updated blog at:
ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.co.uk...

b. Various issues of the Disclosure Australia newsletter, available on the AUFORN website at:
www.auforn.com...

c. His 121 page guide to the Australian files (mentioned above) which can be downloaded from either of the two links below:
www.box.com...
sdrv.ms...

(2) For some of Bill Chalker’s work on government files, see:

a. The relatively detailed discussion in Chapter 17 (pages 373-422) of the recent excellent (albeit extremely frustrating…) book “UFOs and Government – A Historical Inquiry” (edited by Michael Swords and Robert Powell).

b. His detailed article “UFOs Sub Rosa Down Under” (1996), available online on various websites, e.g. :
www.project1947.com...

c. In numerous other articles online, some of which are available on the AUFORN website at:
www.auforn.com...

d. His various blogs, particularly
theozfiles.blogspot.co.uk...

e. A “Binnall of America” podcast in which he was interviewed, at:
www.binnallofamerica.com...

f. His book “The Oz Files”, which is now out of print and rather expensive.

g. Some of his lectures on Youtube:






Incidentally, Bill Chalker participated in a survey by the Fortean Times in 2007 of various researchers of the ten cases from 1947 onwards that interested them the most. Bill Chalker referred to the following 10 cases, with an indication that the list represents his “personal 'top ten' regional Australasian case list”
1. 31 August 1954 : Sea Fury case, near Goulbourn, NSW, Australia
2. 23 July 1992 : Peter Khoury “Hair of Alien” DNA case, Sydney, Australia
3. 27 June 1959 : Father Gill sighting
4. 30 September 1980 : George Blackwell, Rosedale, Victoria, Australia
5. 8 August 1993 : Kelly Cahill’s abduction experience
6. 19 January 1966 : George Pedley’s UFO nest encounter
7. 14 April 1966 : Ron Sullivan’s “bent headlight beam” experience
8. 6 April 1966 : Westall school daylight UFO landing encounter.
9. 1977–78 : Gisborne UFO abduction milieu
10. May – August 1973 : Tyringham Dundurrabin intense UFO flap

Since the top cases in this list are not in chronological order, and since the list begins with Bill Chalker favourite case, the order of the cases may reflect Bill Chalker’s views as to their respective evidential merit. Some documents in relation to the first and third sightings are included below.

SECTION C : USA “VERY INTERESTED”

In a letter dated 20 July 1953 from the Assistant Air Attache at the US Embassy in Australia wrote the USA to the Australian Directorate of Air Force Intelligence, Lt Colonel George Uhrich wrote that “as I mentioned to you when I was in your office on 18 May, my headquarters is very interested in receiving reports of all unusual sightings not only in this area but all over the world”. He set out the information that was desired, concluding by stating that “statements should be recorded in as great detail as possible”.

A copy of the relevant letter is in File A703 554-1-30 Part 1 (Barcode 637518) at pages 299-300, shown below:

SECTION D : SIGHTINGS BY “OUR HIGHLY TRAINED SELVES”

UFO files are often highly amusing (see, for example, the documents on the FBI toilet seat upset). The Australian UFO files are no exception. They are full of entertaining conflicting views and inconsistencies.

One example that I found particularly entertaining when reading through the files was in relation to a document dated 1 March 1968 in which Wing Commander Pembridge wrote that “the investigation of unidentified flying objects is understandably a tedious task” but it was necessary “to determine whether Australian airspace has been violated” and, due to “intense public interest in this matter”, it was “unfortunately” necessary to “go a bit beyond security considerations, if only to reassure those more gullible than our highly trained selves”:




(A copy of this document is in File A703 554-1-30 Part 2 (Barcode 12055824) at Page 206)

I found this amusing given the other documents in the files indicating that “our highly trained selves” had their OWN sightings…

Whether the Wing Commander was referring to sightings by members of the Australian ministry and/or pilots/aircrew and/or members of the armed forces, the Australian files contain various reports from such individuals.

Finding multiple examples of reports from people that fall within one of those groups is fairly trivial. Finding reports from people that are both pilots/aircrew and members of the armed forces is only slightly more challenging. I’ll give a couple of examples below, i.e. the Sea Fury case (1954) and the sighting of Flight Lieutenant William H Scott’s (1952).

Heck, even finding reports which are from pilots/aircrew that were ALSO members of the military AND ALSO members of the ministry isn’t very hard. Indeed, consecutive pages of one file contains details of two sightings by such individuals.

SECTION D1 : THE MEN FROM THE MINISTRY

Page 179 of File A703 580-1-1 Part 4 645645 contains the following memo by Squadron Leader Brandli of the Technical Branch of the Department of Air:


The previous page of the same file (i.e. page 178 of File A703 580-1-1 Part 4 645645) contains the following memo by Flight Dawson on Department of Air minute paper:



I’m not suggesting that these sightings by “our highly trained selves” were extraterrestrial spaceships. Indeed, the sighting by Dawson sounds like a sighting of a fragmenting meteors (such as those discussed in the memo below, which appears at page 348 of File A703 580-1-1 Part 4 645645):



I simply find it highly amusing to see frequent examples of members of different groups/professions talking about the gullibility of other groups (as opposed to their own group...) and appearing to believe that there is an absence of sightings by those within their own group when in fact a glance at relevant files would demonstrate that many such people have had their own sightings and/or hold the relevant “gullible” views.

(I’ll be returning to this theme in a rather lengthy item on sightings by astronomers that I’ve been researching for the last couple of years).

Section D2 : The Sea Fury / Nowra incident (1954)

In a confidential document dated 1st October 1954, Captain Adams (the Director of Naval Intelligence) referred to this case as “a well authenticated sighting”.

As part of a survey by the Fortean Times in 2007 of various researchers of the ten cases from 1947 onwards that interested them the most, Bill Chalker included this sighting as the first case in his list. Bill Chalker wrote about this incident in his item at the link below:
www.project1947.com...



This incident was the subject of a thread by Chadwickus on ATS in 2010 at:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

One of the files on this case (File MP926-1 3079-101-1 (barcode 3173603)) includes various press reports as well as a report by the relevant pilot and also a radar operator (Petty Officer Keith Jessop).


The Lieutenant’s report appears in that file at page 16:



For ease of future quoting, I’ll transcribe that report below:

INCIDENT ON NIGHT CROSS COUNTRY AT 1900K
31st AUGUST, 1954.
I have the honour to submit the following report
concerning an incident which occurred on 31st August during
a night cross country flight from R.A .N. Air Station , Nowra.

2. The route was Nowra - Young - Temora - Yeas - Nowra,
and the briefed height 13,000 feet.

3. At 1858 I made the following position report to Civil
Air Radio Canberra, "Ausnav 921 contact Yass at 13, 000 feet
estimating Nowra at 1920”. This was acknowledged by Canberra,
and, when South West of Goulburn, I changed over to 143. 64 m/cs,
723 Squadron exercise frequency, and contacted Nowra.

4. After contacting Nowra at approximately 1910, I noticed
a very bright light closing fast from “One o'clock". This bright
light crossed ahead of me and continued to a position on my port
beam where it appeared to orbit. At the same time I noticed a
second and similar light at "Nine o'clock”, which made a pass
about a mile ahead of me and then turned in the position where
the first light was sighted .

5• I contacted Nowra and asked if they had me on radar,
hoping they would confirm that other aircraft were in the
vicinity. They replied that they had 3 echoes and advised me to
turn 180 [degrees] (Course), to be identified if I required a homing. At
this stage the two bright lights reformed at "Nine o'clock",
from me and disappeared on a North Easterly heading .

6. I saw no other lights and was only able to make out a
vague shape with the white light situated centrally on top. Their
apparent crossing speed was the fastest that I have ever exper-
ienced, and at the time I was indicating 220 knots.

The brief report by radar operator Petty Officer K E Jessop is in that file at page 17:




In a confidential document dated 1st October 1954, Captain Adams (the Director of Naval Intelligence) referred to this case as “a well authenticated sighting”. In another document the same day, he wrote that investigation had shown that the pilot was “an entirely credible witness” and was visibly “shaken” by his experience. See pages 11 and 12 of that file, below:





Press reports in relation to this case appear in that file at pages 4 to 9. They include the following.













Keith Basterfield has given some additional details (including referring to other files on this case) on his blog in posts at:
ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com.es...
ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com.es...

From Bill Chalker’s comments at the link given above, it seems that the Australian television series “The Extraordinary” included an episode that interviewed the pilot and the radar operator (and Bill Chalker). Unfortunately, that episode does not appear to be available online at present.

Section D3: Flight Lieutenant Scott’s sighting (August 1952)

At page 135 of File B5758 21-1-387 Part 2 (Barcode 3083715), there is a document relating to a sighting by W Scott “Chief Test Pilot” on 14th August 1952:


I’ll transcribe the note below, for ease of future quoting:

“W. Scott,
Chief Test Pilot,
G.A.F.

DATE OF SIGHTING - AUGUST 14TH, 1952.

TIME 1200 APPROX.

Flight Townsville - Amberly at height of 35000 - 36000
feet, in Vampire, near Rockhampton when looking east toward coast saw
large circular light at a lower height which could not be estimated
due to bad ground haze, colour of ordinary incandescent light globe.

After observing for approximately 1 minute a number of
small lights ( 6-10) appear to come from main light. The smaller lights
appear to surround big light for about 2 min. then disappeared. After
a further 2 min. the big light also disappeared.

SECTION E : THE TURNER REPORT (1954)

Several Australian UFO files include documents by and about O H “Harry” Turner. He became involved in government UFO investigations while a Professor in Melbourne University’s Physics Department when he offered to carry out a statistical analysis of reports. He produced a report in 1954. He later pursued his interest in UFOs when he worked for the government and was rather critical of the Australian Air Force’s statements on UFOs (see the section below on the Turner criticisms). At all stages Turner seems to have been rather more inclined than most government scientists to accept that some UFO sightings were probably due to extraterrestrials.

Turner’s 1954 report appears in File A703 554-1-30 Part 1 (Barcode 637518), at pages 260-276. The main section of the report is shown below.

After referring to reports in Donald Keyhoe’s book “Flying Saucers from Outer Space”, Turner concludes (in paragraph 8 of his report) that if the intelligence reports in that book were authentic, “then the evidence presented is such that it is difficult to assume any interpretation other than that unidentified flying objects are being observed ... it is highly improbable that such objects have a terrestrial origin”.










Subsequent comment within the Department of Air (e.g. at page 250 of that file) indicate that other officials thought that Turner’s report was overly reliant on Keyhoe’s book. Enquiries with the US Air Force resulted in an understanding (recorded at page 254 of that file) that “his book is written in such a way as to convey the impression that his statements are based on officials documents, and there is some suggestion that he has made improper use of information to which he had access while he was serving with the Marine Corps. He has, however, no official status whatsoever and a dim view is taken officially of both him and his works”. (The words “a dim view” are underlined in the relevant Australian document):





Bill Chalker comments on these documents in the book “UFOs and Government – A Historical Inquiry”. At page 379 of this book, he expresses the view that there was “conscious or unconscious misrepresentation on the part of the US Air Force”. Chalker suggests that “While Keyhoe may have slightly overstated his USAF data, the intelligence reports quoted by Keyhoe and used by Turner to support his conclusions to DAFI were authentic. Eventually the USAF admitted that the material Keyhoe used was indeed from official Air Force reports”.

Turner’s views on Keyhoe’s books were, um, not universally held. An extremely different view of the material in Keyhoe’s book was expressed by in correspondence with one Minister (R G Casey) during a “personal” investigation by the Minister – see below.

SECTION F : MINISTER’S “PERSONAL” INVESTIGATION (1954)

While “Minister for External Affairs”, R G Casey appears to have taken a wide view of the scope of the relevant “External Affairs” – conducting his own investigation into UFO reports (albeit in letters headed “personal”). Relevant documents appear in File M1148 Flying Saucers 1954-1955 3215027.

A Wikipedia entry on R G Casey can be found at:
en.wikipedia.org...



Casey wrote quite a few letter to various diplomats and scientists, seeking to establish views held about UFOs by various people and governments. For example, in one letter dated 15th November 1954 (below, page 30 of the relevant file) Casey sought “discreet enquiries at the top end of the USAF” to find out what the USAF “have to say about it in private, as apart from the obvious ‘attitude’ that they have to observe vis-a-vis the public”:



In November 1954, the Minister was privately expressing the view that it seemed to him that a proportion of UFO reports are “not explainable on any rational hypothesis” (below, page 32 of the file):



It seems, however, that he was disabused of his “rather romantic conception” (his words, at page 20 of the file) as a result of correspondence with Dr E G Bowen, chief of the division of radiophysics at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization:



The relevant letter from Dr Bowen appears at pages 21-25 of the file. I think it is worth reproducing in full below:











Various other relatively detailed sceptical views, not related to the Minister’s enquiries, can be found in the Australian files. I think it is worth highlighting:

(1) A skeptical article by Professor H H Bolotin of the University of Melbourne which clearly influenced Australian public statements. The article appears in File A703 554-1-30 Part 3 (Barcode12055850) at Pages 120-139. Some parts of that article (particularly pages 128-134) were used as the basis for parts of some public statements about UFOs by the Australian government. That article included the following to (supposedly) show it was improbable that aliens could travel to Earth:







(2) An address given in February 1965 was also used as the basis of various public statements about UFOs. Copies of that address appear repeatedly in the Australian UFO files, including in File A703 580-1-1 Part 4 645645 (at pages 30-34, where a reference to a “ufo” is annotated with the remark “uninformed fanciful observations”) and a better copy in File E1327 5-4-air part 1 7061046 (at pages 70-76):

SECTION G : SOME REPORTS “APPEAR TO BE INEXPLICABLE” (1957)

A letter dated 1st April 1957 (but not, it seems, an April Fool’s joke...) from the Director of Air Force Intelligence to the Director of the Joint Intelligence Bureau states that many UFO reports “cover such mundane things as meteorological and astronomical phenomena” but went on to say “others appear to be inexplicable”.



(A copy of this letter appears in File A13693 3092-2-000 (Barcode 30030606) at page 57).

SECTION H : IT WASN’T VENUS (1971)

The scientist that wrote the report in 1954 referred to above, i.e. O H “Harry” Turner, reappears in later Australian UFO files relating to the late 1960s / early 1970s.

It appears that at some point between 1954 and the late 1960s Harry Turner began working for the government, but continued to pursue his interest in UFOs.

File A703 554-1-30 Part 2 (Barcode 12055824) provides, at page 104, a summary of Turner’s Turner involvement of in 1954 and again in 1968-1969. That later involvement includes attending an “unofficial meeting” in the office of the Director of Air Force Intelligence on 24th August 1973 with Dr Hynek and Dr Duggin, discussed in a document in File A703 554-1-30 Part 3 (Barcode 12055850) at Page 140:



File A13693 3092-2-000 (Barcode 30030606) contains various memos from, and about, Harry Turner during this later period. A memo dated 27th May 1971 by Harry Turner on Department of Defence Minute Paper (below, page 6 of that file) attached two documents. One of those documents included criticisms (at pages 16-17 of that file) of the Australian Air Force’s statements on UFOs. Turner referred to an identification list of all sightings made between 1960 and 1965, noting that it contained “15 identifications of Venus, not one of which is valid. In every case Venus was in a totally different part of the sky or not even above the horizon”. He commented that “this off-hand unscientific attitude to identification did not escape the notice of the press or various scientists”.






Bill Chalker’s discussion in the book “UFOs and Government” refers to his having obtained various documents from Harry Turner. He states that only some of those documents appear within the file referred to above. Unfortunately, those additional documents do not appear to be available online.

SECTION I : REVEREND GILL SIGHTINGS (1959)

One of the more famous sightings covered by material in the Australian UFO files is the series of sighting involving Reverend W B Gill and a group of his native Papuan parishioners on the evenings of 26th, 27th and 28th June 1959 at Boianai mission, Papua New Guinea. (Commonly referred to as “the Father Gill sightings”).

Reverend Gill talks about the sightings in this video:


As part of a survey by the Fortean Times in 2007 of various researchers of the ten cases from 1947 onwards that interested them the most, ufologist Greg Bishop indicated that this case was “his favourite unexplained case”. This incident featured in the results of a survey in 1965 by Jacques Vallee of the opinion of various UFO groups as to the most significant UFO sightings. This case featured in a list of 5 cases which APRO nominated as part of that survey. This incident is Case 15 in my article on the Top 100 UFO cases based on frequency of discussion in UFO literature, since it was referred to in 92 of the books covered by that article.

This incident has also featured in lists by various UFO researchers of the top UFO cases, including the following:
(a) a list of the ten “best” case published by Ronald Story in his book “UFOs and the Limits of Science” (1981).
(b) a list of cases produced by Thomas E Bullard as part of a survey by the Fortean Times in 2007 of various researchers of the ten cases from 1947 onwards that interested them the most.
(c) a list of cases produced by Bill Chalker as part of a survey by the Fortean Times in 2007 of various researchers of the ten cases from 1947 onwards that interested them the most.
(d) a list of cases produced by Hilary Evans as part of a survey by the Fortean Times in 2007 of various researchers of the ten cases from 1947 onwards that interested them the most.

There is a thread on ATS started by ziggystar60 in 2008 in relation to these sightings:
Waving at the aliens - The Papua New Guinea UFO sightings

This is not the time or the place for a detailed examination of these sightings, but I thought it worth briefly highlighting some relevant documents in the official Australian UFO files.

File A703 554-1-30 Part 1 (Barcode 637518) includes quite a few relevant documents.

Documents appearing at pages 198-213 of that file include material written by Reverend Gill and relevant sketches.










Other documents in the same file include a report on a relevant official investigation (at pages 182-185 of that file):










A letter from the Ministry to a UFO group in 1960 (at page 166 of the same file) stated that “although it is not possible to reach any positive conclusions, we do not believe that the phenomena observed by the Reverend Gill and his party were manned space vehicles. An analysis of bearings and angles above the horizon does suggest that at least three of the lights were planets, e.g. Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. Light refraction, the changing position of the planets relative to the observers and the unsettled tropical weather could give the impression of size and rapid movement”.

SECTION J : THE VALENTICH DISAPPEARANCE (1978)

Another famous sighting covered by the official Australian documents is that involving pilot Frederick M Valentich.

Valentich disappeared after reporting encountering a UFO while flying a Cessna 182 (call sign Delta Sierra Juliet) across the Bass Strait from Melbourne to Hobart, Tasmania on 21st October 1978.

This incident is the subject of a Wikipedia entry at:
en.wikipedia.org...

This sighting has been covered in various UFO documentaries, including this one:


His disappearance also is covered in the footage in the videos below (made available by Diane of AUFORN)



This incident came fifth in an online poll conducted in March/April 2006 by Paul Kimball of “the UFO case with the ‘best evidence’ ever”. As part of a survey of various researchers of the “most evidential” UFO case, British ufologists Robert Rosamond and John Spencer produced a joint response which discussed this incident. This incident is Case 35 in my Top 100 article based on frequency of discussion in UFO books, since this case was referred to in 62 of the books covered by that article.

ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com.au...

There is a thread on ATS in relation to this sighting started by OzWeatherman in 2008:
What Happened to Frederick Valentich? Possibly the scariest UFO case ever

There is also a thread on ATS started by Kandinsky in June 2012 about the release of the Valentich case files:
Valentich Case Files Finally Released

Due to the existence of those threads, I’ll just highlight some of the relevant files extremely briefly.

File A9755 4 (Barcode 3533427) includes various relevant newspaper reports (at pages 10-16) including the following:





More substantial are two files devoted to this incident, namely:
(1) the 315 page File B1497 V116-783-1047 (barcode 10491375); and
(2) the 217 page File A4703 1978-1205 (Barcode 11485989)

The former includes an aircraft accident investigation summary report, maps, correspondence, press reports and other material. Since highlights from this file are given in Kandinsky’s thread at the link above, I’ll just post a few pages from the file:

Page 37 of 315:


Page 38 of 315:


Page 39 of 315:


Page 47 of 315:


Page 53 of 315:


Page 125 of 315:

SECTION K : MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS

Other material that caught my eye when reading the files included:

(1) Material on Nazi secret aircraft research : Pages 80-82, 165 of File A705 114-1-197 1948052

(2) A sample blank report form (1974) : Pages 22-27 of File A703 554-1-30 Part 3 (Barcode 12055850)

(3) Material on a special branch investigation in relation to a UFO group, prompted by allegations that the group had been taken over by communists.

(4) Material on Operation Close Encounter (1983) in File a9755 8 (Barcode 3533443) generally, particularly pages 9-14.

SECTION L : SCRIPT FOR DOWNLOADING

With kind assistance from other members of ATS (particularly Armap and Kronos) in www.abovetopsecret.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow">another thread, I downloaded the relevant files from the website of the National Archives of Australia using Wget in association with the batch code below:

@echo off
:beginning
cls

set cnt=1
set /p url= What is the base URL (i.e. before the number that changes)?
set /p end= How many pages are in the relevant file?

:downloadloop
echo %cnt%
wget64 -O "C

ownloadswgetimagesimage-%cnt%.jpg" "%url%%cnt%"
set /a cnt=%cnt%+1
if %cnt% GTR %end% goto finishquestion
goto downloadloop
:end

:finishquestion
set /p finished= Have you finished downloading (yes/no)?
If "%finished%" == "no" goto beginning

:close

I've uploaded a copy of the code, a batch file and Wget64 (since I use WIndows 7 64 bit) to the link below:
www.box.com...

The above code was fine for quickly downloading the default (fairly low resolution) images from the website of the National Archives of Australia, but ATS member Giuliano Marinkovic recently pointed out to me that there are higher resolution images. Those higher resolution images (used to create the PDFs in the collection at the link in the OP) are available to download if the URL ends with “&T=p”.

I presume I can just define a suffix ("suf") and then change the URL in the wget line of the code to include the suf variable (e.g.: wget64 -O "Cownloadswgetimagesimage-%cnt%.jpg" "%url%%cnt%%suf%"), but I'm not sure of the format for defining the "suf" variable given that it includes an equals sign.

For example, the default (low) resolution images are stored at URLs like this one:
recordsearch.naa.gov.au...

High resolution image are at the same link, but end with T=p rather than T=r, e.g.:
recordsearch.naa.gov.au...

I tried adapting the above code to add a suffix using the line below but that didn't work:
set suf="&T=p"

It's been a couple of decades since I last tried doing this sort of thing in a batch file, and I suspect I needed to use some sort of symbol and/or code number in place of the equal sign within the "&T=p". I looked at the ASCII encoding in URLs and think the relevant definition of the suf variable should be something like:
%26T%3dp

As a quick and dirty fix (which was good enough to download all the files…), I simply changed the definition of the "suf" (suffix) variable so that it required a user input. I could then just type &T=p as the suffix each time I wanted to download a file and the code worked. I could live repeatedly typing that suffix rather than worry too much about the correct way to define the variable within the batch file itself. I am a lawyer after all, not a software engineer. Quick and dirty works for me...

The revised code, used to download the higher resolution images, is set out below:

@echo off
:beginning
cls

set cnt=1
set /p app= Input suffix
set /p url= What is the base URL (i.e. before the number that changes)?
set /p end= How many pages are in the relevant file?

:downloadloop
echo %cnt%
wget64 -O "C:\Downloads\wgetimages\image-%cnt%.jpg" "%url%%cnt%%app%"
set /a cnt=%cnt%+1
if %cnt% GTR %end% goto finishquestion
goto downloadloop
:end

:finishquestion
set /p finished= Have you finished downloading (yes/no)?
If "%finished%" == "no" goto beginning

:close

This code is likely to be useful as and when further files are identified. The further files can then quickly be downloaded and converted to searchable PDFs and added to the existing collection.

SECTION M : CONCLUSION

Once downloaded, the entire directory of Australian files at the links above can be read or searched quickly and easily (together with, if you wish, various UFO magazines/journals, other official documents, UFO books, academic dissertations relating to UFOs etc) using a method I’ve previously outlined in another thread: FAST searching of major free online collections of UFO journals (or just browse/download them).

The PDF files in the current collection do NOT include all the Australian government’s UFO documents. I’m sure I’ve missed some that have been made available on the website of the National Archives of Australia. Probably more significantly, there are various Australian files which are clearly relevant to ufology which are listed on the website of the National Archives of Australia but not currently made available on that website in digital form.

Keith Basterfield has made available a document listing relevant files, whether currently available in digital format or not (i.e. wider than the table I posted in the OP). Keith Basterfield has kindly given me permission to make that document available. It can be downloaded from the link below:
www.box.com...

Interestingly, the National Archives of Australia has a scheme under which members of the public can request that particular files, but there is a (fairly modest) charge associated with such requests.

I understand from Keith Basterfield that the normal cost for digitising per NAA file is 16.50 Australian dollars (about £11 Sterling, US$16.90), and it usually takes 30 days from request to it becoming available.

Keith Basterfield has paid for several files to be digitised by the National Archives of Australia. I’ve seen references to one or two other researchers also taking this step, to a lesser degree. Keith Basterfield has previously made appeals for others to join the efforts to pay for digitising files, but few have taken up the challenge.

I don’t know whether to find it sad or amusing that many UFO groups clamour for various governments to release their files on UFOs (organising petitions or hearings), but few of those UFO groups can be bothered taking up offers by some governments to make UFO files available if modest copying charges are met. One might be forgiven for suspecting that the people behind some UFO groups don’t really want answers but are instead more attracted by the publicity which they gain from organising petitions, press conferences and hearings. Those of you that know me will probably guess, correctly, that on balance I favour being amused by this…

Collating UFO material from different sources in the last few years has made it increasingly obvious to me that there is a lot of low-hanging fruit ripe for the picking if people could be bothered. With just a bit of effort (I’m talking hours of work, not days or weeks), and a bit of co-ordination, it would be possible for members of ATS to add dramatically to the material freely available online in relation to numerous UFO cases within a fairly short span of time. Oh well…

SECTION N : REFERENCES

Relevant references are given in the body of the article above, but I think it worth repeating just a few links:

PDF archive of Australian UFO files:
preview.tinyurl.com...
sdrv.ms...

National Archives of Australia website:
www.naa.gov.au...

References to discussion of the Valentich disappearance listed in a table at:
www.isaackoi.com...

References to discussion of the Father Gill sightings listed in a table at:
www.isaackoi.com...

SECTION O : POSTSCRIPT

For a bit of light relief, I thought I’d post a link to Christopher Kenworthy’s “UFO Wave” art project:


Christopher Kenworthy has disabled the comments section on the relevant Youtube page, so those unfamiliar with that collection of videos may not be aware of that (as I posted at the time) in 2006 Christopher Kenworthy admitted that they were a hoax (or rather an "immersive artwork") funded by the Australian Film Commission:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Of course, the fact that the videos were admitted to be a hoax 7 years ago doesn’t stop them continue to circulate on the Internet without any reference to that confession...