1947
05.02.47 PORT AUGUSTA, SA 0900hrs (DO)
(Source: Adelaide Advertiser 7 Feb 1947 copy provided by Darryl Tiggeman of Adelaide.)
Strange objects reported in sky.

“While working in the yard at the Commonwealth Railways workshop yesterday morning Mr Ron Ellis and two workmates claim to have seen five strange objects in formation pass across the sky from north to south. The objects were white or light pink and shaped like an egg. Mr Ellis said that he could not give an accurate estimate of the size of the objects, but they were casting shadows and judging by his experience with aircraft in the RAAF during the war he considered they were about the size of a locomotive. Although the objects kept on a direct course at a height of about 6000 feet they appeared to be quivering he said. Owing to their great speed they were out of sight within a few seconds.

Any question of the phenomenon being an optical illusion was dispelled by the fact that a few minutes later both Mr Ellis and his companion gave an identical description of what they had seen. Their description was verified by another member of the workshop who said he had also seen the objects.”

A follow up article on 8 Feb 47 in the Advertiser was titled “Objects in sky not meteorites”

“Commenting yesterday on a report from Port Augusta that several men working in the yard at the Commonwealth Railways Workshops at about 9am on Wednesday had seen five strange egg shaped objects in formation pass across the sky at a height of about 6000 feet the Government Astronomer Mr G F Dodwell said that the phenomenon did not fit in with anything astronomical and was a complete mystery to him. Mr Dodwell discounted the probability of the objects being meteorites. He said that meteorites being so small and traveling at such high speeds did not cast shadows whereas the report stated that the objects had cast shadows about the size of a locomotive. The presence of falling meteorites would have been accompanied by a deafening roar. AURA