Westfall UFO Event – Melbourne, 1966
Event Covered
Westfall UFO Event - Melbourne, 1966
Event Type(s)
Publisher
The Dandenong Journal
Publication Date
1966-04-14
Author / Reporter
Not Attributed
Article Summary
On the morning of 6 April 1966 (around 11:00 a.m.), students and staff at Westall High School (now Westall Secondary College) in Clayton South, a southeastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, reported seeing one or more unusual objects in the sky while outdoors for sport or recess. Accounts described a round, silvery-grey or silvery-green disc- or dome-shaped object (sometimes with a slight purple hue and roughly the size of a car or larger), which hovered, moved, and then descended behind a line of pine trees into a nearby open area known as The Grange. Some witnesses said it was circled or pursued by several light aircraft. Students and others later reported finding one or more circular patches of flattened or disturbed grass at the site. School authorities were reluctant to discuss the matter publicly, and local coverage noted difficulty in obtaining interviews. Contemporary explanations proposed by officials and some investigators included a weather balloon released from Laverton or a high-altitude research balloon; later analyses have also considered a target drogue or other prosaic sources. The case remains one of Australia’s best-known mass UFO sightings, with witness numbers and details expanding in later retellings, documentaries, and reunions.
Additional Reference Materials
project1947.com/kbcat/kbwestall.htm
An Ongoing Mystery: The Westall Flying Saucer Incident | Kingston Local History
Westall 1966: Official files remain secret | Endeavour Hills Hallam Doveton Star Journal
The Westall UFO: What Did Melbourne Students See in 1966? – Historic Mysteries
Article Text
“Flying Saucer Mystery: School Silent What Was It?”
After more than a week of investigation, mystery still surrounds the reported sighting last Wednesday of a flying saucer near the Westall High School, Clayton.
Investigations of the report have been hampered by the reluctance of school authorities to permit interviews with eye witness students and staff members.’
Several children attending the school and at least one staff member are reported to have seen the unidentified flying object.
They are believed to have given corroborating descriptions of the object as “a round humped object with a flat base being circled by what appeared to be light aircraft.”
It was described as grey or silver grey in color, but it is not known whether the object appeared high or low in the sky or for how long it was observed.
One report said several children who saw the object collapsed and became ill with fright.
There have been a number of attempts to explain the sighting as a product of natural causes.
However, the Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society has taken the report so seriously that it has inserted an advertisement in a daily newspaper seeking descriptions from eye witnesses.
Vice-President of the Society, Mrs Judith Magee said yesterday that all attempts to obtain information from students or staff members at the school had failed.
“We only have second-hand reports of the sighting but we believe it could be an important one,” Mrs Magee said.
She said she and two other members of the society last Friday went to the scene of the sighting, and discovered “a couple of circular patches where the grass had been flattened.”
These could have been formed by an object landing or taking off.
Army report
However, Mrs Magee said strong winds had been blowing during the week, and these could have caused the grass to be flattened.
It was also reported that military personnel had been in the area on Saturday.
If this was the case, the area would have been heavily trampled, and further investigation of the flattened area would be useless.
An Army spokesman said yesterday there was no record of personnel in the area on Saturday.
Mrs Magee said she understood that children at the school had been instructed to talk to no one who asked questions about the sighting.
This was why the Society had made its independent appeal for eye-witness accounts.
She said she believed some of the children had also heard the sound of engines as what appeared to be light aircraft circled the object.
Department of Civil Aviation officials had checked for strange aircraft in the area, but none had been present.
A spokesman for the Bureau of Meteorology said a weather balloon equipped with a radar reflector and radiosond transmitter was released from Laverton last Wednesday morning.
Under the influence of strong winds, it could have drifted to the Clayton region.
This could have explained the reported sighting of a flying saucer, he said.
However, the Victorian Flying saucer research Society will continue its investigations.”
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