Close Encounters of an Australian Kind

Keith Basterfield, author of UFOs: the Image Hypothesis, investigated the Mundrabilla incident, and has recently provided an Australian perspective on UFO abductions.

J. Allen Hynek's list of the terms used by investigators includes 'nocturnal lights', 'daylight disks', and 'close encounter' classifications of various types: CEl, CE2, and CE3. These classifications originally implied that there was no interaction between the objects seen and the people who reported them. However, some accounts involve physical time losses and face-to-face contact with UFO occupants, so a new classification was later added: the CE4. This classification mostly corresponds to cases where observers claim abduction by aliens.

But firstly, are there any early accounts of UFO phenomena from Australia, which has been occupied for 40,000 to 50,000 years? The evidence is slight. So far, the only possible early encounters may be inferred from the legends of north western Aboriginals which mention sky beings who live in the clouds. A probable landing site in the Kimberley Ranges is particularly revered by local tribes. One of the Kimberley tribes has a ceremony where initiates are taken to physical trace sites and told of small human figures with long necks from the sky.

More recently, in 1960 a much publicised Tasmanian UFO sighting reported how a dark grey cigar shape some 30 metres long and five smaller objects had been seen moving in and out of a rain squall. The report of the episode concluded that the objects were 'astronomical'.

Also from the RAAF files: an early-morning disc eight metres across was reported in 1963 when it descended to about 25 metres from the ground and then headed off, accelerating to high speed. The concluded this had been a 'weak' tornado, which produced no damage in its path.

The reports we know about suggest that there is a vast difference between what the RAAF sees and what reasonable people report.

From another report at Rosedale (Vic) in 1980, a UFO was seen over a water tank by a farmer on a motorbike. Ground markings were found nearby as a circle of dead grass. Twelve months later regrowing vegetation within the marking still showed clear differences from surrounding plants. There are plenty of other examples from Australia. Once again from a during July 1982 in Hampshire Forest, an object 'like an army helicopter' was seen some six metres above the ground and 20 to 30 metres off. From the RAAF files the same object was observed 10 kilometres above by a Mirage pilot sent to intercept it after a radar observation. They reported the object as being a high-altitude balloon.

The Mundrabilla incident of a few years ago received much media publicity. The Victorian UFO Research Society (VUFORS) interviewed the Knowles family shortly afterwards.

The Knowles described how the UFO shot over their car and lifted it off the road. Their voices changed in pitch, the family dog in the car went crazy, and the car started shaking. The news media described the incident as a 'UFO attack' and reported that the car was covered by strange dust. Police scientists took samples of the dust, but only found salt crystals and fine soil particles covering the vehicle. A spectacular media event was found to have simple, mundane answers.

The more unusual UFO incidents involve abductions by aliens, and Australia has its fair share of these.

Hynek's early 'close encounter' classifications did not allow for UFO abductions. In an abduction, people are removed from their environment and taken On board a craft, and may be physically examined. Accounts from the US describe aliens conducting genetic experiments, or planting devices into bodies to monitor people. Similar kinds of accounts started being reported in Australia, particularly after the publicity given to the Valentich case.

On 21 October 1978 Valentich, a civilian pilot, was to fly from Moorabbin in Victoria to King Island in Bass Strait and back again. His plane was filled with five hours of fuel for the 69-minute trip, as is normal. Valentich disappeared over Bass Strait and a Department of Transport search was immediately mounted. He was subsequently declared lost without trace. News media suggested he had been abducted by a UFO as records of the communication between pilot and aviation control mentioned a strange lit object over the plane, just before it disappeared.

The earliest Australian abduction claim comes from some years previously. In 1972 Maureen Puddy of Victoria claimed she had been abducted by a UFO on several occasions. Under hypnosis she recalled how on the first occasion there had been a blue light on the ground around her car and an object hovering above. The object was four or five times larger than the car and soon moved away. Some three weeks later while travelling the same stretch of road the same events occurred. 'The car took control of itself., there was no sound, but she heard a voice. Later, Mrs Puddy revisited the area in broad daylight with two members from VUFORS. These 'witnesses' described how Mrs Puddy suddenly said she could see a male entity before her and lapsed into unconsciousness. She became alarmed and started to cry, although the UFO investigators with her could see no visible cause for her distress.

This kind of incident suggests that there may be another type of UFO encounter, one where vivid hallucinations attend a particular state of subconsciousness.

There are two similar incidents from South Australia. In one a woman in her early 30s started to cry unreasonably after watching an episode of the US TV series Unsolved Mysteries. She sketched an 'alien' face and recounted a range of abduction accounts since the age of nine. The second woman, known as Susan, aged 30, described a series of abductions since the age of 10, involving small humanoids. These included an account of how she had been placed on a table for a physical examination. Susan had also experienced poltergeist activity, and said that as a result of one of her abductions she had had a child which had been taken away. She had also had a device implanted in her head, so dental X-rays were taken. One dental X-ray showed two objects in the upper mouth area as two long black streaks and two small rectangles.

Full-face X-rays were then made which showed nothing unusual, so a third set of front-face X-rays were obtained. These were also clear, and the dentist concluded that the initial 'objects' X-rayed had been an anomaly or photographic artefact.

In overseas abductions studies, such 'non-physical' accounts of aliens have been attributed to a number of other possible sources. These include fantasy-prone personalities (a diagnosis very popular about 10 years ago and similar to reports of phantom pregnancies). Or they may indicate a particular personality type; that is, the causes are psychological.

At present UFO investigators face a major challenge to find out exactly what is involved.