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al > “1 a DISCLOSURE AUSTRALIA The Journey So Far DISCLOSURE AUSTRALIA But the substance of this article isn't to The Journey So Far weigh up the absolute arguments for and . against the existence of UFOs; it's to pre- by Debbie Payne © 2004 sent enough viable evidence in the form of going to try to give you a glimpse __ those who are uninformed or sceptical. It's through a very small window into not about the analysis of what we have the Australian Government's files on UFOs. found so far because once we have collated What has to be understood is that the infor- enough data from the files we've ha mation beyond this window is so extensive __ released, then the analysis will be the focus that it would be impossible for me to pre- of our future efforts. We estimate this sent even a fraction of what has been dis- _ whole process could take a couple of years. covered, let alone explain it to you. But by following this methodical procedure, The hardest part in writing this paper was _ I think that it will strengthen the resolve of deciding on which files to discuss, sol tend- established and committed researchers that ed to focus more on the ones that stood out their work is both viable and important to for various reasons. What I would like to _ the understanding of the overall phenome- suggest is that you log on to the National non. Everyone in some way contributes a Archives of Australia (NAA) website _ piece to the jigsaw puzzle and the picture is (http://www.naa.gov.au) and view these becoming clearer. files, just as AURA—the Australian UFO What we have done during the first stages D:= the course of this article] am _ raw data to challenge the belief systems of Research Association—has done. of the Australian Disclosure Project is to find out exactly how many records exist in The Australian Disclosure the Australian Government sector about The Collins Dictionary defines UFOs and to what extent the government "disclosure" as "a revelation" and "to pursued, and indeed still pursues, this issue. disclose" as "to make known, to allow to be These pages can now be viewed publicly seen". Over the last four or five years _ by anyone and mulled over, dissected, fol- Australian UFO researchers, like their lowed up, researched and individual conclu- counterparts overseas, have been discussing sions reached. We are showing you what's and debating the concept of "disclosure". there. It's up to you to decide what to do Many of you no doubt will be familiar with with the information. However, whatever the US Disclosure Project headed up by Dr your conclusions, these records certainly Steven Greer and the enormous amount of — give you a starting point for all kinds of work his team has done in this direction. research into this subject. Our search began about a year ago with our own local knowledge and the on-line records of the National Archives of Australia. Currently the on-line record search will only give access to around 10% of what is registered with the Archives, but at least it was a place for us to start. At one stage we punched in "Reports on Flying Saucers"; to our surprise, this search term, unlike searches we did on the term "UFO", produced around 20 files. In these 20 files there were around 5,000 pages of informa- tion, but we had no idea about what they contained or to what extent the government had documented them. I can only tell you we were more than encouraged after view- ing the first few documents. Imagine what it will be like when the remaining 90 per cent can be accessed. Who kept UFO files? You will see from the list below that there were numerous resource channels open to us, including: * RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force); ¢ CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation); ¢ Department of External Affairs, includ- ing Department of Territories; ¢ RAN (Royal Australian Navy); * Department of Supply (a federal depart- ment, now defunct), at Woomera; ¢« DSTO (Defence Science and Technology Organisation) at Edinburgh Air Force Base, which was formerly the The Australian Disclosure The Collins Dictionary defines "disclosure" as "a revelation" and "to disclose" as "to make known, to allow to be seen". Over the last four or five years Australian UFO researchers, like their counterparts overseas, have been discussing and debating the concept of "disclosure". Many of you no doubt will be familiar with the US Disclosure Project headed up by Dr Steven Greer and the enormous amount of work his team has done in this direction. 58 = NEXUS by Debbie Payne © 2004 www.nexusmagazine.com DECEMBER 2004 — JANUARY 2005