MAY 2002
04.05.02 ADELAIDE (PARALOWIE), SA (CE1)
(Source: Sunday Mail 5 May 2002 copy from Darryl Tiggeman of Adelaide 2004)
More than 30 reports received, first from Paralowie of bright lights in the sky. AURA

04.05.02 ALBURY, NSW 1800hrs (NL)
(Source: Filer’s Files #21 - 2002, MUFON Skywatch Investigations George A. Filer, Director, Mutual UFO Network Eastern May 22, 2002)
Tonight at just after 6:00 PM on May 4, 2002, my husband and I were driving down our street and saw a large orange light that looked like what I thought was the planet Mars. We have been looking to see the planets align and have been seeing big bright stars that we are gathering to be the planets that are aligning, but this one was different in the fact that it was a bright orange! There was a small but bright white star just above this bright Mars-like planet. Then I said "Look-its moving!" My husband looked up from the road and said "What...Mars?" with a tone of disbelief in his voice, as I would have also if I were him. I said "No. The little white star above it is moving!

04.05.02 MILDURA, VIC 1800hrs (NL)
(Source: Filer’s Files #21 - 2002, MUFON Skywatch Investigations George A. Filer, Director, Mutual UFO Network Eastern May 22, 2002)
The Victorian UFO Research Society (VUFORS) is currently investigating a report made by two police officers in the northern Victorian city. The Sunraysia Daily newspaper reports, Police sighting of UFO in the Sunraysia Daily, on May 18, 2002. "We’ve just seen a UFO," was the radio call received at the Mildura Police Station during the early hours of yesterday morning. Two officers on a routine patrol through Apex Park were stunned to see a silver shape hovering above the river at 5:00 AM this morning. "Mildura divisional van crew members Kate and Greg were patrolling Apex Park when their jaws dropped at the sight of a very brightly lit up UFO hovering over the river," A police spokesperson said. "It appeared the UFO spotted them at the same time as it shot off in the direction of Gol Gol. "They attempted to give chase, but it had gone in the blink of an eye." "One of the officers commented over the air ‘we’ve just seen a UFO’ and received the reply. "One of the officers had seen a similar sighting in the same area several months ago that was the source of much mirth and humor among her colleagues," he said. VUFORS

12.05.02 LURNEA, NSW 2100hrs (NL).
(Source: UFO research South West Sydney)
After receiving an email report to the website, I interviewed the witness and clarified the following details.

S. said that he had never forgotten an event that happened a few years ago and, with an increased interest in the subject of UFO sightings, made a typical search for UFOs on the web. After reading from the UFOSWS site about the encounter of Lazlo Novak in June 1999, S. stated he saw the same kind of thing back in 2002.

On 12 May 2002, S. was at his home in Lurnea, NSW, celebrating his 23rd birthday. At around 9.30 pm, S., along with three other witnesses, observed three orange lights in the sky travelling in a tri-formation. He said that the lights were approaching from the eastern horizon and travelling west toward the Blue Mountains. When first observed, the lights were about 45-degrees above the eastern horizon. The formation took just 20 seconds to cross the entire sky. The formation disappeared over the Blue Mountains skyline. As they watched the area where they disappeared over the west, they reappeared travelling east. The formation now crossed back again toward the eastern skyline. Once again, about 20 seconds is all it took for the static formation of lights to cross the entire sky and disappear into the eastern skyline.

All four witnesses stayed there a while to see if they would reappear but there were no other sightings. They discussed the options of meteors, satellites, aircraft etc. but all agreed they were not any such thing. There was no noticeable sound emanating from the object(s).

S. estimated the apparent size by comparison. S. stated that each light was “like that really bright star you see in the evening sky ... as big and bright as that but they were orange”.

This, of course, sounds like a comparison to the planet Venus in which case the lights were obviously bright and unmistakable.

The orange lights never deviated from the tri-formation.

None had seen anything quite like it before. They wanted to report the sighting and telephoned the Sydney Observatory who were not interested and passed them onto the media. S. called Channel 7 who at first dismissed them as drug users but then apologetically called back half an hour later saying that the same sighting had been reported by three other callers. Larraine Cilia UFOSWS

14.05.02 LAUDERDALE/KINGSTON, TAS 0524hrs CE1.
(Source: Tasmanian UFO Investigation Centre)
Did something pass over the Kingston to Lauderdale locations on the morning of May 14th? Were the two reports to the Centre connected? Mr R had taken his dog for an early morning walk on Lauderdale beach. This was a practice he had done for many years despite the weather conditions, on this particular day it was fine. He had been to the southern end of the beach and was returning northwards when he noticed about 25 m ahead on the beach a distinct circle of white light. The light was about 10-12 m across and seemed to be connected to a beam in the sky. Mr R looked up at once and briefly saw a stationary object above the trees and houses to his left (west to south-west). At once the object moved over the beach ahead and as it did so the circle of light disappeared. The object went out over Frederick Henry Bay and seemed to disappear. Mr R had the impression the UFO turned away from him and the light source was no longer visible. No noise was noticed during the 6 second sighting.

The object was described as a ‘torch like shape’ with a rounded dark area at the front and light from inside along the body of the object, it looked to taper towards the rear. No flashing or individual lights were noticed. The witness gave an apparent size of about 3 moon widths. A stunned Mr R continued on up the beach, he recalls passing another early walker who asked if had seen the object lit up like a house and making a faint ‘sizzing sound’. Mr R some time after the sighting tells that he has not met the other witness and does not know who it was.

Meanwhile at almost the same time a Kingston witness reported a strange light source in their garden. The bright light lit up an area on the patio outside the house. The strange thing was that the sun umbrella on the patio looked to be spinning and flapping. The bright area of light flickered for a moment, and then went out. The witness thought it may have been the moon and wind causing the strange impression, however, inspection revealed the moon was not out and it was all calm outside. Case remains unexplained. Keith Roberts TUFOIC

17.05.02 NEW NORFOLK, TAS 2115hrs (NL)
(Source: Keith Roberts Tasmanian UFO Investigation Centre)
Another one of those lights that at first appears to be attributed to a mundane astronomical explanation but then departs in a manner that cannot be explained. Two New Norfolk witnesses noticed a bright light in the south-west sky, it looked bright white and changed colour to red and orange. It remained stationary in the sky for about three to four minutes whilst under observation. However, the disappearance of the lights was more spectacular. It just shot off towards the north-west, zipping across the top of the skyline and out of sight in a matter of seconds. The case remains unexplained.