RAAF DARWIN UFO PAPERS 1974-1990 UNCOVERED

The Project has previously examined RAAF Darwin file 5/4/Air part 1 covering the years 1960-1968. Browsing the National Australia Archives (NAA) RecordSearch revealed  no listing for 5/4/Air parts 2-5 but strangely there was an 5/4/Air part 6/7! However, because it covered the years 1974 to 1990 it was not available under the Archives Act and an FOI request had to be made. Interestingly, on the file was a memo dated May 1984 making mention of six closed parts of file 5/4/Air , presumably parts 1-5 & 6/7!. A hard copy of  file 5/4/Air part 6/7 has been made available to the Project. Reports on the file included:

• 16 Oct 74 – a group of reddish “tailed” lights travelled rapidly across the sky which were seen from Darwin across to Western Australia
• A then “restricted” memo dated 16 Oct 1981 which contained “As you are aware, the recent re-entry of a meteorite near Marble Bar at the same time as Cosmos 434 was due to re-enter, caused considerable confusion. The statement by the Perth Observatory that it was nuclear powered, created great, and unwanted, media interest.” “…JIO have access to information concerning nuclear powered satellites and know well in advance of any likely re-entry of a nuclear powered satellite.” It went on to state: “The RAAF UAS investigation/reporting chain is to remain unchanged. Investigating officers are, however, requested to refrain from putting a possible name to any suspected space debris re-entry…Investigating officers are to classify the reports as “probable space debris” or “probable meteorite”…..”
• One of the few reports seen on RAAF files involving a reported close encounter and effects to the witnesses’ environment. On 18 Apr 1979 at about 1850 hours near Katherine NT two people reported seeing a “space ship” hovering 100-130m above a remote road. “The object was oblong with round corners and was about quote the length and width of three road-train dogs unquote. A dog in this context is a trailer (deleted) states that the object was surrounded by a green haze, had a very bright light shining vertically down and other lights which appeared to be flashing. The object suddenly and noiselessly disappeared.” On 3 Mar 1982 the couple in a caravan, after awakening from sleep noted an unusual smell. The caravan was filled with a light green mist. A bedside clock was showing an incorrect time. A black footprint also was found on a shower wall at a height of 76cms and was the man’s footprint. How it got there is unknown. Paragraph 7 of the memo stated “As background, the Katherine area has been the source of several recent UAS reports from reliable observers. The most recent, which is still under investigation by this unit, was originated by a mature, experienced NT Police Air Wing pilot. The second observer was a police officer from Katherine. Other police personnel from Katherine have also experienced, but not officially reported, UAS events.”
• A fireman from Humpty Doo NT who was 2-3kms south of Finnis River  on 25 Oct 1983 at approximately 1130z reported driving along when the vehicle’s lights, cassette player and other electrics suddenly ceased operating. The vehicle was brought to a stop and manipulation of controls failed to rectify the situation. The driver opened his door upon which all electrics returned to normal. No UFO was noted
• On 1 Jan 1984 two police officers from Hermansburg Police Station via Alice Springs initially saw two very bright white oval lights with no visible beams go behind sand dunes. The topography would preclude surface vehicles speeding.
•  In Apr 1983 a student reported an oval shaped object blue on top and red beneath, which made a buzzing sound as it moved away. Some time after the sighting the same student reported glimpsing a “ghostly figure, the figure had a pear shaped head and cats eyes.”
• On 31 May 1984 a commercial pilot near Wittenoom WA while driving from Tom Price to Rio Tinto Gorge at 1900hrs made a report. A hand written note on one sheet of paper includes “Complete VHF failure, whole area, trouble for two weeks/coincides with, cosmic conspiracy, CIA agent in US, anti-gravity tests.”
• A minute dated 13 Mar 1986 titled “Unexplained radar paint” spoke of being queried about low level traffic arriving from the north. A radar return was observed at thirty nm north at that time. The radar return was tracking towards Darwin. The civil controllers had been observing the returns from approximately 60nm. The return disappeared overhead Lee Point at 121715z…a sketch of the radar returns is shown at Annex A.” Visual observation located “lights similar to those shown by a high level overfly...There was no traffic at that time that could explain the returns.”
• In Feb 1990 a passenger on a civil airflight climbing out of Maningrida passing 2000 feet reported seeing a “fawn” or “khaki” jet looking aircraft passing below. Notes added “No Tindal, Amberley or Army aircraft were in the vicinity. Customs Coastwatch are continuing investigations. CAA is interested for possible air safety compromise.”

In short, this NT file has far more interesting reports, than many other RAAF files the Project has seen.

RAAF file AF84/3265 Part 2

Recently this file has been examined by the Project following an FOI request.  Among the papers are:

1. A minutes dated 5 Jul 1983 was titled “Unidentified high speed radar tracking Sydney radar” and was  for the Minister from the Chief of Air Staff. It stated that:

·        Tracks observed by RAAF and civilian controllers

·        Strong tracks consistent with aircraft

·        HQ Operational Command was instructed to use RAAF radars and have an interceptor aircraft available on stand by from 1 Jul 83

·        There was a high degree of confidence that the tracks were not due to aircraft or “other objects”

·        The cause was believed to be random atmospheric conditions and/or possible interference

·        Tracks seen only on Sydney radar but not at Williamtown or Armidale

·        The Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) issued a press release advising radar returns were due to interference or atmospheric conditions.

2. There was a series of UFO reports from Bendigo, Victoria between 20-24 May 1983. The RAAF took the unusual step of sending an officer out to conduct a field investigation. That investigator’s report of 6 Jul 1983 concluded that unusual atmospheric conditions played a part in the series of sightings. In addition, that of the two sets of photographs taken of unusual lights,  one set probably showed the star Procyon, “…however the source of light photographed in the north western skies by (name deleted), although possibly related to atmospheric conditions, remains ultimately undetermined.”

3. The file also contained a series of statements from several Victorian Police Officers who were involved in a series of sightings of at least one, possibly two, very unusual low level objects on the 22 Jul 1983 in the Rockbank area. One Sergeant of Police who personally viewed one object stated that “As the object passed by, I gained the impression of the shape of the object to be that similar to an inflatable life raft approximately 12 metres in length, with rounded sides, and a shallow body of approximately 2 metres in depth. A red flashing light, not rotating, was situated in about the centre of the undercarriage. There was no visible wings or tail similar to an aircraft, nor was there any sound similar to an aircraft or helicopter. The only sound audible was that of a very quiet wind noise.”

1996 Department of Defence (DOD) policy document

Courtesy of Adrian Ross of Canberra, the Project acquired a copy of a previously unknown “Defence Instructions (General) ADMIN 55-1,” dated 13 Jun 1996. ADMIN 55-1 concerns “Unusual Aerial Sightings Policy”.

Interestingly, as a DOD document it has “Single service filing instructions,” namely “This instruction should be filed as NAVY ADMIN 65-7; ARMY ADMIN 77-1 and AIR FORCE ADMIN 13-7.”

It sets out the Department’s interest, or rather lack thereof, in UAS reports and advises callers should be directed to civilian UFO organisations and provides a listing of known Australian civilian groups.

RAAF files AF84/3744 Part 1 & AF84/3265 Part 3

These files, also obtained under FOI, continue on from the 580/1/1 series and document a series of UFO reports in 1983 and are mostly low-weight nocturnal light observations.

RAAF files 580/1/1 Parts 28, & 30-32

These files, from the RAAF long running UFO reports series in the NAA, have now been released and digital images of these may be viewed at the NAA web site. The project has summarised the contents of these files, which mainly consist of very low-weight, nocturnal lights observations.

MT1131/1 A31/1/102

Just examined and released by the NAA, this file of 9 pages deals with correspondence from one R Baudish to the Department of Army in 1957. Baudish asked if there had been UFO reports in association with military exercises. The combined reply from the Department of Army, Navy and Air was there had been none.

AVROCAR

A two page file, A6059 23/441/7, consisted of a then “Secret” memo from the Australian Military Mission in Washington USA dated 28 Jan 1959 addressed to AHQ Melbourne. It was titled “Flying Saucer Avrocar” and started off by saying “The US Army has developed a “flying saucer.”” It goes on to describe the AVROCAR, well known to UFO researchers. The second page is a glossy photograph of the vehicle.

UFOs and the weather

PP956/1 45/38 is a 67 page file titled “Observations-General by outside authorities (including UFO)” and is just that, a file consisting of weather observations and a few UFO reports in the time frame 1972-1974. The UFO reports were of low-weight nocturnal lights.

What happened at Westall?

The NAA recently digitised file 694/7/22 Part 4. This is one file in a series belonging to the  former Department of External Affairs and concerns “Project Crowflight.” This Project concerned the flying of USAF (U-2 and RB57) aircraft from Victorian RAAF bases for the purpose of gathering information on radioactivity in the upper atmosphere.  Originally based at RAAF East Sale in 1960, the Project later moved to Laverton RAAF base in Melbourne and the Department of Supply airfield at Avalon outside of Geelong.

In a previous Revelations Newsletter it was suggested that perhaps the 6 Apr 1966 Westall, Melbourne incident may have had something to do with these aircraft, given that Westall was less than 20km from RAAF Laverton. With the release of Part 4 of the crowflight files, this now seems unlikely. These recently released papers reveal that USAF operations at Avalon ceased at the end of February 1966; at Sale in early February 1966 and at Laverton in December 1965.

Where to from here with the Project?

In previous Newsletters it was mentioned that the end is in sight, in terms of examining known Government files containing information about UFOs (the Project has now found 126 containing over 10,000 pages)  indexed through NAA’s RecordSearch electronic database.

However, RecordSearch only registers about 10% of the NAA’s  entire 60 million file collection, so in all probability there are other Government UFO files that have not yet been uncovered. The difficulty with these is simply that of finding them! As an example when looking for DSTO files in the NAA Adelaide, six AURA members waded through thousands of file titles and numbers on paper indices, which resulted in the location of just one UFO file.

For some time, the process has been underway, of locating and interviewing, still living individuals who may have had an important sighting or have knowledge of the bureaucracy which looked at UFO reports. As mentioned in the last Newsletter, Harry Turner, former JIB employee; and a former Woomera UFO witness and camera operator have already been interviewed by Dominic McNamara. Your assistance is sought with locating anyone still alive whom you think the Project should interview.

On the lobbying front, an analysis in a previous Newsletter suggested that the time to lobby was when a strong UFO event occurred; and who to lobby was the Government Department charged with UFO investigations. This was the Department of Defence (RAAF), but currently there is no Government Department with this brief. A general lobbying campaign of several of the Current Departments such as the CSIRO; Department of Science; Prime Minister’s Department, could be undertaken. However, without a specific focus, such as a strong UFO event or a Member of Parliament with a personal interest, AURA does not believe the expense of a lobbying effort is worthwhile at the moment, especially as the costs would need to come from the personal pockets of a few AURA members.  Instead, AURA will continue to pursue still living witnesses, as its priority for now.

Past Newsletters

The Project website at http://disclosureaustralia.freewebpages.org has an archive of all previous Newsletters. Here will be found a look at the roles of the CSIRO, the Department of Supply and the Department of Civil Aviation in the UFO phenomenon, as well as that of the RAAF.

Wondered about UFOs and Papua New Guinea? Official papers on the Valentich case? What types of reports did the RAAF receive? Was there a cover up? All these questions and more are examined in the series of Newsletters.

The contents of the Newsletters have been, and will continue to be, published in the “The UFOlogist” magazine

Australian UFO Research Association (AURA) meetings in Adelaide

Following two meetings held in Adelaide, AURA has been revitilised under the facilitation of Jeff Fausch. A business meeting, held in July, established a future direction for the group. AURA will also continue to be the South Australian link in AUFORN’s UFO hotline, and investigate South Australian reports. AURA may be contacted at: auraaustralia@yahoo.com.au or via PO Box 786, North Adelaide, Sth Aust 5006. AURA will continue to drive the Disclosure Australia Project, under the facilitation of Keith Basterfield and Dominic McNamara.

 Contacting the Project