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The premise of Ancient Astronauts-that Earth has been visited in antiquity by intel ligent beings from somewhere else-has come aJ long way. It started some decades ago with 'trailblazers who pointed at circumstantial evidence, in effect askin.& the reader ''Who else but...?" kind of questions: who else but someone with a much more advanced knowledge could have built the Giza pyramids, and SO on. Scepticism, as we all know, remained. In my own writings, I felt tha~ we will not convince the sceptics, perhaps not even those inclined to 'believe', unless one begins to come up with answers to several simple but spe cific yet inescapable questions. If the Earth had indeed been visited in the past by ancient astronauts, • from where have they come here? • when have they come here? • why have they come here? and • did they come aiid go, did they leave, are they coming back? The evidence for my writings (six books by now} comes from archaeological discover ies, ancient writings and depictions, and the veracity of the Bible. Australia and New Zealand, at first glance, seem remote from the sites, be they in the Old World or the New World, where those discoveries have been made-. Yet, as will become clear in the course of this article, a major event involving ancient astronauts, their planet, their stay on Earth-and with the fortunes of the human race~had taken place right in your part of the world, literally next door to you! This major event-a great catastrophe, as a matter of fact-was the Great Flood, the Deluge, which is so vividly described in the Old Testament: On that dtry, all the fOUlltains ofthe great deep burst open, and the sluices ofthe heavens were opened... And the Deluge was forty dtrys upon the Earth. and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it was lifted up above the Earth. And the waters became stronget: and greatly increased upcm the Earth. and the ark floated upon the waters. The Deluge, memories of which exist in the tales ('mythologies') of all ancient cultures, has been thought of as a catastrophe caused by the unleashing of torrential rains. Teachers and preachers have embedded in our memory the vision of the opening of the 'sluices of heaven', following whicb it had rained and poured for forty days, until the face of the Earth was covered with waters; and only Noah and his ark were saved. But this is not exactly what the record at han-d-the biblical tale in the Book of Genesis-informs us. The catastrophe began not with torrential rains from above, but with an avalanche of water from 'down under': On that day, aft the fountains of the great deep burst open... And the waters did not just rise and rise as when it keeps raining; once the waters had swept over the face of the land, the Book of Genesis states: The w