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1979 Source: Sunday Sun © December 12th |
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| Larry Dulhunty was lying in the shade, out of the boiling afternoon sun, in the old mining town of Chillagoe, west of Cairns. He was lying on his back gazing at the bleached blue sky and thinking of nothing in particular. Then suddenly and aston- ishingly, a huge off white disc appeared high up in the sky. Dulhunty blinked once, twice. The disc refused to go away. Shouting to the other members of his travelling show who had been dozing | ||||
| in the afternoon sun, he leapt to his feet to watch the curious, almost fright- ening, spectacle. Six people were now looking toward the heavens, and as they watched in startled silence a small disc approached the large disc in a series of jerking motions.
"After about five minutes," recalled Dulhunty, "a small disc came out of the big disc and in three jerky movements, each one a bit faster, it shot away at terrific speed. "While this was happening a bus load of tourists had arrived and were standing outside the hotel, which was just across the road. "Seeing us looking up , they came over and asked: 'What are you looking at?' "I said: 'Flying saucers.' "Their faces all broke into silly grins, but when they looked up all you could see were mouths sagging open and nobody made any comment. They were all absolutely amazed." Strange things happen in the bush. At night you lay awake and hear the flap of leathery wings, the scream of unknown creatures, the rustling of grass, the snap of branches, all the nocturnal sounds that play on the keys of the imagination. But they can be explained. Other sounds and sight cannot. Lonely MOst ringers who have spent lonely nights on cattle watch, have heard or seen them. "I was going down to the waterhole at first light to fill the billy," a ringer said, "When out of the trees opposite shot a hug object. "I was so startled that all I can remember is this huge thing as big as a house, shooting straight up into the sky . "it scared the hell out of me. I wouldn't even go around the other side of the waterhole to see where it had been." Probably the most unnerving experience Dulhunty has had was in rugged and desolate country between the Kimberly's and the Northern Territory border. He was travelling at night with the show when he saw a light on top of a hill where no light should have been. He decided to look. "The reason I was curious," he said, "was that there wouldn't have been a black man within 100 miles, let alone a white man. "So I got some of the boys with the show and headed towards it. "We'd got about 100 yards when another light appeared, then another another. Inside 10 minutes thousands of lights were on the hill. "Looked at them I felt like I was dreaming and had lost contact with reality. "For a reason and I'll never know why I said: Boys, its just a bushfire. A breeze has sprung up and fanned the embers. "We went back to the cars and drove off. But of course it wasn't a bush fire and it was odd that I should say it was. "We talked about it after we had driven off. There was no breeze. We would have smelled a bush fire. "And when I went back in the daylight there was no sign that a bush fire had been through the area." |
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