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The woman later related her tale to stockmen who laughed at A few weeks after this incident, many townspeople saw two her. But then, wide-scale acceptance in the wake of the great UFO __ bright, silvery, glowing objects flying high over Tennant Creek ‘flaps’ of the late-1940s and 1950s onward was yet to come. from west to east around midnight. Several geologists exploring likely mineral deposits in the Ord One night in 1974, onlookers reported seeing three identical River district east of Wyndham in mid-1982 claimed to have seen, objects flying high above the Earth along the Gulf of Carpentaria in broad daylight, no less than six shining silver saucer-shaped coast, following the coastline from Burketown in Queensland to craft flying in formation inland from the coast and heading south Limmen Bight and beyond. : at phenomenal speed. In 1984, three campers saw a 30-metre-wide silvery object from Several ten-metre-wide, circular, deep-burnt depressions were _ two kilometres away as it landed on the summit of a tall hill in the found in the South Esk tableland area south of Halls Creek in July Bulman Gorge area of Arnhem Land Reserve. As the men 1982. Was there a link between these ‘saucer depressions’ and the — approached the craft, it began to rise into the air and then proceed- Ord River sighting? ed vertically until it was lost in overhead clouds. The Northern Territory continues to be the scene of many UFO One morning around 2 am, Peter Acton was driving his car on reports, including the ‘close encounter’ of Terry Downs, a part- the Stuart Highway from Tennant Creek to Bonney Wells when he time stockman, dingo-shooter and prospector, One day in 1982, suddenly realised he was being paced by some overhead craft Terry, then 39 years old, was camped in the Giles Creek area near emitting a yellowish-white glow. Mystified, he stopped. It was Victoria River, south of Victoria River Downs, when he saw a___ then that he looked out of his driver's window to see above him a blinding silver shining object appear at low level from behind hills yellowish-white glowing circular craft, 20 metres across, its glow and land rapidly with a deafening roaring sound about 200 metres _ illuminating the lonely landscape around the vehicle. Peter was from his four-wheel-drive Land-Rover. Rocks and dust seemed to dumbfounded. explode in all directions as it landed. "The craft just hovered silently above me. I could not detect Terry had been fossicking some distance from his vehicle. any windows or other features. Then the glow faded and the craft Panicking, he threw aside his gold dish and tools and ran for the _ rose silently into the air and coasted off across the hills to the east. cover of nearby rocks. When he next looked, the craft had "I drove on toward my destination at Wauchope only to find the become airborne a few yards above the ground and had moved to __ road blocked by a couple of trucks loaded with cattle, the drivers hover above his Land-Rover. The object was about 10 metres talking together on the roadside, looking across the plain at three across and, as he could see by now, saucer-shaped. strange lights moving erratically among the hills in the distance. | Before he knew it, the craft was hovering right above him, joined them and related what had just happened to me. It enveloping him in a hot draught. appeared the craft that I had met up with was probably one of "I was too dazed to make out any markings or features if any, those in the distance. The men told me the lights had followed and the object then picked up speed and flew off across the coun- _‘ them as they were heading south together along the highway but tryside to the north-west at low level, vanishing into the hills," he kept clear of their trucks, flying parallel with them on their right- said later. hand side about one kilometre distant before crossing the highway at great speed ahead of them, heading north-west to where they were now,” he told me later. Many Northern Territory UFO reports have concerned objects seen close to the Queensland border. That state is a rich source of ufological material stretching back generations, and it is to these reports that we now turn. "It was hovering about half a mile above trees and looked _ something like a big straw hat in appearance." That was how workers at the Nestlé chocolate factory at Gympie, north of Brisbane, described the large object they saw over the town early in June 1978. Three employees on their lunch break first sighted the object when they walked outside to sit in the factory grounds. It was then that they sighted the mys- terious object toward the north-west of the factory and about two miles away. They later said it was about the size of a house. Raising the alarm among other factory workers, the factory grounds were soon filled with other employees watching the strange craft. Then, moving off toward the north-west, the object increased speed until it was soon lost from view. A few days later, farmers in western Queensland also reported having seen the same object. About the same period as the Gympie UFO mass sighting, Mr Lionel Fifield was driving with two friends on the Moggil Road in the St Lucia area of Brisbane. The time was about 2 am when they spotted two blue-red lights moving in a zig-zag fashion across the sky from the east (Kenmore district) toward St Lucia. The lights hovered, then began to fade, then slowly brightened again and resumed movement. The lights stayed in the sky, moving about until around 6 am when they finally disappeared. Queensland seems singled out from all the vast expanse of Australia as a major area for unidentified-flying-object activity Author Rex Gilroy on a 1992 field trip, exploring more of Australia's mysteries. The woman later related her tale to stockmen who laughed at her. But then, wide-scale acceptance in the wake of the great UFO ‘flaps’ of the late-1940s and 1950s onward was yet to come. Several geologists exploring likely mineral deposits in the Ord River district east of Wyndham in mid-1982 claimed to have seen, in broad daylight, no less than six shining silver saucer-shaped craft flying in formation inland from the coast and heading south at phenomenal speed. Several ten-metre-wide, circular, deep-burnt depressions were found in the South Esk tableland area south of Halls Creek in July 1982. Was there a link between these ‘saucer depressions’ and the Ord River sighting? The Northern Territory continues to be the scene of many UFO reports, including the ‘close encounter’ of Terry Downs, a part- time stockman, dingo-shooter and prospector. One day in 1982, Terry, then 39 years old, was camped in the Giles Creek area near Victoria River, south of Victoria River Downs, when he saw a blinding silver shining object appear at low level from behind hills and land rapidly with a deafening roaring sound about 200 metres from his four-wheel-drive Land-Rover. Rocks and dust seemed to explode in all directions as it landed. Terry had been fossicking some distance from his vehicle. Panicking, he threw aside his gold dish and tools and ran for the cover of nearby rocks. When he next looked, the craft had become airborne a few yards above the ground and had moved to hover above his Land-Rover. The object was about 10 metres across and, as he could see by now, saucer-shaped. Before he knew it, the craft was hovering right above him, enveloping him in a hot draught. "I was too dazed to make out any markings or features if any, and the object then picked up speed and flew off across the coun- tryside to the north-west at low level, vanishing into the hills," he said later. 44 * NEXUS FEBRUARY-MARCH 1996