I would like to comment on the UFO activity reported from the Grampians area of Victoria, Australia.
I live in the north of New South Wales, and have been corresponding with Paul Norman (deceased) of the Victorian UFO Research Society regarding the continuous activity in this location. This activity was brought to our notice early this year. We heard that video footage had been taken and sent to the USA for analysis. The exact location was not disclosed at this point in time.
I had my first viewing of this footage at the August UFO Conference in Sydney, where I was a guest speaker. Paul Norman showed several minutes of the footage from the Grampians Mountains ‘UFO’s’. Having done extensive video analysis of UFO footage myself, I was interested to see what all the fuss was about. Basically, the footage showed distant bright illuminations way out of focus, and forming the notorious “Airy Disc”. It was impossible to judge what these illuminations actually were, or what the source of light may have been.
The location where these lights were, is supposed to be rugged bushland, with little or no population. Yet no Topographical maps have been accessed even to this day so as to establish roads, farm houses, fire trails or points of interest that may attract human activity to the area in question.
Just recently, the guy who took the video footage and is apparently the main skywatcher to the Grampian illuminations, sent me a 2 hour video of the footage he had taken over the last few months hoping I could add weight to this ‘UFO hot spot’ now being compared to the Norwegian Hessdalen project conducted by the Østfold College Norway.
The footage showed some of the layout of the land at late dusk, but mostly taken in the darkness of night. Infrared was sometimes used which only brightened the illuminations and did not show colour. Most still badly out of focus.
In visual analysis of the footage as a first stage subject familiarity run, I noted the distant horizon of approx. 15 km and kept it in alignment with closer mountain ridges so as to see just how far the illuminations moved in relation to these features. Throughout the whole sequence, no illumination moved above the distant horizon line. This means that to date, the illuminations are classified as ground based illuminations, not aerial illuminations.
There are a couple of good short sequences which show the illuminations moving close behind tree trunks. Two bright illuminations follow the exact same path on two consecutive nights. Could this indicate a road or track? Someone really needs to drive into this area to check it out. The land has areas of clear felled trees, now grassland and grazing cattle so access is possible.
It appears that the patrons associated with the Victorian UFO group lack the knowledge and necessary photographic equipment in order to gather the necessary photographic evidence, and are unwilling to venture into the midst of the area where these ‘lights’ are seen with nightly regularity.
A Newspaper reporter visited the location, took still photographs using time exposure, one showing two illuminations leaving curved motion trails. Curved in different directions ruling out camera movement. The Journalists came away unable to explain what they had observed.
So something strange just may be occurring in the Grampians of Victoria, but very little valuable photographic evidence has resulted in the several months of this event so far. Just how long it will continue is anyones guess.
It is either a true UFO event, and a special one at that, or human activity, or a combination of both.
It needs a dedicated team of researchers to spend a full week or two there.
I will keep you informed if you are interested.
Barry Taylor (UFO Researcher)