Nexus - 0217 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

The vast Burragorang Valley, south of Katoomba in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. 1950s. Dozens of people who happened to be standing outside their homes over a wide area between Leura to the east and Blackheath towards the west several kilometres away, were witnesses to a brilliant orange-yellow glowing object which, coming from the south—that is from the Burragorang-Kedumba Valley area— sailed across the sky so low that, as it neared the Great Western Highway near Katoomba hospital, it came within a mere 200 feet of the ground. So brilliant was the glow from this object that the whole district seemed lit up by it. The object was too bright for anyone to detect its shape. It was travelling slowly across the area and within a few minutes people at Blackheath saw it before the object gradually gained height, dis- appearing northward. The official RAAF report? You'll never guess. "The planet Venus was very brilliant that night!" Another strange UFO, although not as brilliant as that just men- tioned, passed over Katoomba one night in 1970 going from north to south, and descending slowly into the Jameison Valley. The object appeared to ‘coast’ over the Jameison Valley farms until it appeared to vanish somewhere to the south. The object which was seen by some of the farm-hands was also seen by a good many Katoomba residents. It gave out a reddish light which emitted a small amount of glow over the houses as it began to descend towards the valley, and passed overhead a mere 30 m above the houses just before entering the Jameison Valley. UFOs are nothing new to the Blue Mountains. Large numbers of reported sightings of mysterious objects have been recorded hereabouts for many years, and I have it on good authority that such goings-on have been occurring in the area for generations. The presence of UFOs on the Blue Mountains did not reach the ears of the press until 1953 when there was a spectacular event over the skies of Katoomba during the May holidays of that year. For a period of over a week a mysterious greenish-reddish glowing object hovered over the night skies of Katoomba, making often aeronautical feats and attaining such speeds that were impos- sible for known aircraft. The object, which was seen by hundreds Furthermore, all further mention of their mystery fate was soon lost in the wall of official silence that descended on the whole issue. The Burragorang-Kedumba valleys are not by any means the only places where mysterious late-night, or even daytime, goings- on have been happening. Tourists looking out over the Grose Valley near Blackheath have reported having seen strange lights which have appeared to land in the valley or else have hovered over the forests to rise ver- tically into the sky. Murphy's Glen in the Blue Mountains National Park has been the scene of some unusual happenings. One night in 1977 a bush- walker, Steve Burrows, was camping in the glen when he observed mysterious lights flying overhead to descend among the trees of nearby forest. However, from a variety of reports it would appear that many of these lights have been seen coming from the region of Jameison Valley, and therefore we may suppose that they originate from the alleged secret base in the Burragorang. On Thursday 30th July 1970, a Mr Phillips was standing on a lookout above Leura Cascades which overlooks the Jameison Valley, when directly ahead of him there suddenly appeared a strange object of a brilliant, shining silver colour from behind Mount Solitary. The time was 5.30 pm with a clear sky. The object, which was about 10 km away across the valley, was judged by Mr Phillips to be 4 or 5 degrees east of due south and about the same angle above the horizon. The object emitted no noise. It was quite large, as big as a large aircraft, and appeared to Mr Phillips to be without any navigation lights whatever. The strange craft was shaped like a ball. The ball was a sphere, the top being joined to a cylinder; the conical section between them appeared to follow an exponential curve. This strange object, after remaining motionless for half a minute after its appearance, suddenly moved off at a terrific speed, then, soaring upwards into the sky, disappeared from sight. About the same time that Mr Phillips saw his UFO, another and quite spectacular UFO event took place in Katoomba which revived old memories of the occurrences thereabouts of the early NEXUS*41 DECEMBER 1993 - JANUARY 1994