OVERVIEW

Australia has a rich history of organised interest in the UFO subject.

While evidence exists for involvement of a number of government organizations, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) was "the official governmental examiner", undertaking a lengthy involvement from 1950 or earlier through to 1984, when investigations were downgraded, eventually being formally terminated in 1993. The RAAF involvement was generally ad hoc and driven by limited national security concerns and political expediency. Serious scientific investigations rarely got a look in, despite a classified 1954 report on Australian UFO reports by physicist Harry Turner giving support to a possible "extra-terrestrial origin" and calling for greater and more scientific interest.

The RAAF largely ignored the report. This approach was echoed throughout the whole history of RAAF involvement. They largely ignored the implications of provocative and unexplained UFO reports and promoted the conclusion that nothing had arisen from the few percent of unexplained cases that gave any firm support for the belief "that interlopers from other places in this world, or outside it, have been visiting us."

The RAAF investigations lacked the research-orientated perspectives that many civilian researchers have tried to achieve. Civilian investigations have a greater claim to comprehensively addressing the UFO mystery than have official investigations. By way of perspective, in one state the civilian investigations of the Tasmanian UFO Investigation Centre (TUFOIC) were more numerous and consistent than those of the RAAF on a national basis. While the RAAF dealt with more than 1,258 reports between 1960 and 1980, TUFOIC examined 2,131 reports from 1965 to 1980.

Civilian investigations took off in July, 1952, when in response to a huge wave of sightings at the time, and one of his own, during May, 1951, Edgar Jarrold began Australia's first civilian flying saucer organization - the Australia Flying Saucer Bureau (AFSB)- based in Sydney. During 1953, the Australian Flying Saucer Investigation Committee (AFSIC) was established in Victoria, and the Australian Flying Saucer Club (AFSC), which later became the Australian Flying Saucer Research Society, began in South Australia.

With the departure of Jarrold by 1955, state borders progressively lead to the formation of independent groups. These included the UFO Investigation Centre (UFOIC) during 1956 with Dr. W.P. Clifford and from 1958 with Dr. Miran Lindtner, the Queensland Flying Saucer Research Bureau (QFSRB - now known as UFO Research (Qld)), with Charles Middleborough in 1956 and with Stan Seers from 1957, and the Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society (VFSRS - now known as the Victorian UFO Research Society), with Peter Norris in 1957.

Various cooperative ventures were undertaken. During the sixties C.A.P.I.O. (Commonweath Aerial Phenomena Investigation Organisation) had limited success bringing Australian groups together. The Australian Centre for UFO Studies (ACUFOS), which started out as ACOS (Australian Co-ordination Section) faired better during the seventies and early eighties. It was a focus of major projects and documentation programmes. ACUFOS was the most successful of the efforts at co-operation at a national level, but by the second half of the eighties it loss much of its momentum, when many of the leading researchers, tired of group politics and problems, opted for a more informal networking structure.

UFO Research Australia (UFORA) formed by Vladimir and Pony Godic, with Keith Basterfield, was the outgrowth of this trend. It was successful in its efforts to encourage serious research on a loose networking basis. UFORA also pioneered the use of electronic mail and bulletin boards by UFO researchers in Australia.

Groups like VUFORS, UFOR(Qld), TUFOIC, AFSRS, and UFOIC have maintained ongoing presences in the field, each with their own focus and approach. Newer groups like Phenomena Research Australia (PRA), UFO Research (NSW), and the Independent Network of UFO Researchers (INUFOR), are contributing to the research and investigation. Some researchers have preferred either individual or more independent approaches. Others elect to adopt informal networking arrangements.

More recently the Australian UFO Research Network (AUFORN), formed by Robert Frola and Diane Harrison, have provided the opportunity for an effective, and yet, informal network through a AUFORN internet network, a national newsstand magazine - the Australasian Ufologist, and a national toll free UFO hotline number for reporting sightings.

THE FIFITIES

The civilian groups stood at the end of the fifties in a position of strength, unified, strengthened, and galvanised into action, by the quality of the Gill reports. The extraordinary reports of UFO "visitants" over Boianai, Papua New Guinea, during 1959, were remarkable testimony from "credible observers of relatively incredible things" (as the director of USAF intelligence, Major General John Samford referred to the witnesses of the minority of "unknown" and "unidentified" reports, back in 1952).

The Anglican church missionary, Reverend William Gill, provided civilian groups with remarkable testimony of unknown "interlopers". They were in stark contrast to the hoary silliness that punctuated the flirtation of enthusiasts with the contactee absurdities during much of the fifties. Buoyed by substantial data, the civilian groups were ready to face what would prove to be the turbulent sixties.

THE SIXTIES

A major turning point in civilian UFO research in Australia occurred on February 27th, 1965, at Ballarat, Victoria. What was billed as Australia's first convention of UFO groups provided a focus for elevating the respectability of the UFO subject. Unfortunately, in hindsight it also started a process that, while initially encouraging, would eventually divide some UFO groups and lay the seeds of group political warfare which would resound for years to come. It was resolved at the convention to form a national organisation - "a centralised body all the groups in Australia in order to deal with the government and public on top level."

The name of this organisation was agreed as C.A.P.I.O. (Commonweath Aerial Phenomena Investigation Organisation). Officer bearers were elected at the convention. Peter Norris, VFSRS president, was made CAPIO president. Attempts were made for the large state groups to cooperate in combine publications and the national group CAPIO. Both efforts were short lived, largely due to group politics.

THE SEVENTIES

The 1960s and the 1970s were periods steeped in UFO accounts of high strangeness that emerged in a climate of gradually increasing maturity in the manner in which the phenomenon was investigated. Considerable intrigue and energetic debate marked the search for answers from both the perspective of the civilian researcher and that of the clandestine world of official investigations.

Occasionally such activities came together in curious ways but generally official investigations remained the stuff of secrecy, at least to the general public. Civilian researchers themselves were caught up in fundamental and evolutionary steps towards understanding the nature and extent of the UFO phenomenon.

ACOS - the Australian Co-Ordination Section - for Dr. J. Allen Hynek's Centre for UFO Studies was formed by Harry Griesberg and David Seargent in 1974. ACOS organised regular conferences, the first in 1975, from which a real sense of co-operation emerged between most of the state civilian groups and individual researchers. Both as ACOS and as the Australian Centre for UFO Studies (ACUFOS) from 1980, it was a focus of major projects and documentation programmes. It was the most successful of the efforts at co-operation at a national level, but by the second half of the eighties it loss much of its momentum, when many of the leading researchers, tired of group politics and problems, opted for a more informal networking structure.

UFO Research Australia (UFORA) formed by Vladimir and Pony Godic, with Keith Basterfield, was the outgrowth of this trend. It was successful in its efforts to encourage serious research on a loose networking basis. UFORA also pioneered the use of electronic mail and bulletin boards by UFO researchers in Australia. Vladimir and Pony Godic edited a digital book on UFO research in Australia and New Zealand, which was published in 1992.

It brought together material published in Vladimir Godic's UFO Research Australia Newsletter (UFORAN) through the eighties. Vladimir Godic's untimely death in 1995 lead to the closure of UFORA. ACUFOS limped into the ninties a pale shadow of its former self. Most serious researchers had long since abandoned it in favour of networking and because it lost direction and credibility with what was seen as the uncritical promotion of dubious material by its final incumbent co-ordinator.

The poliferation of interest in the UFO field is well served by the variety of groups, networks, and individuals that are presently available. Their contributions are being supplemented by the influx of new people and approaches. While caution and a critical approach is needed, people interested in the field, and people who have had experiences, at least have a variety of options to choose from. The civilian contribution to elaborating the Australian UFO mystery continues with considerable momentum.

Groups like VUFORS, UFOR(Qld), TUFOIC, AFSRS, and UFOIC have maintained ongoing presences in the field, each with their own focus and approach. Newer groups like Phenomena Research Australia (PRA), UFO Research (NSW), and the Independent Network of UFO Researchers (INUFOR), are contributing to the research and investigation. Some researchers have preferred either individual or more independent approaches. Others elect to adopt informal networking arrangements.
More recently the Australian UFO Research Network (AUFORN), formed by Robert Frola and Diane Harrison, have provided the opportunity for an effective, and yet, informal network through a AUFORN internet network, a national newsstand magazine - the Australasian Ufologist, and a national toll free UFO hotline number for reporting sightings.

OFFICIAL INVOLVEMENT

While the RAAF have undertaken investigations, these have lacked the research orientated perspectives that many civilian researchers have tried to achieve. It can be said with some certainty that civilian investigations have a greater claim to comprehensively adressing the UFO mystery than have official investigations.

To properly put the RAAF data into perspective, consider the following.

From 1950 to 1984, the RAAF dealt with more than 1,612 reports, and 1,258 from 1960 to 1980.

One of the best civilian groups in Australia, the Tasmanian UFO Investigation Centre (TUFOIC), has been keeping valuable statistics on their investigations for years. For one small Australian state alone, they have dealt with 2,131 reports up to and including 1980.

The period 1960 to 1980 was been chosen as it is the only period for which the RAAF have published data.

On November 24th, 1959, in federal parliament, Mr. E.D. Cash, a Liberal politician from Western Australia asked the Minister for Air, Mr. F.M. Osborne, whether his department (specifically Air Force Intelligence) had investigated "reports of recent sightings of mysterious objects in the skies over Papua and New Guinea." The Minister's reply did not address this question, but instead he focused on the general situation indicating that most sightings were explained and "that only a very small percentage - something like 3 percent - of reported sightings of flying objects cannot be explained".

Peter Norris,VFSRS president, was advised by the Directorate of Air Force Intellience that the Department was awaiting "depth of evidence" on the New Guinea sightings.

In contrast, from 1955 and particularly in the wake of the striking Gill testimony, the RAAF began a retreat from their original open minded position. By then the growing number of sightings had turned into "the UFO problem" - a problem with uncertain and controversial public relation, military and political dimensions. To them the situation was embodied in the determination that they were dealing with "the UFO problem" - a problem with uncertain and controversial public relations and political dimensions.

Controversy about possible unknown interlopers in our airspace could not be tolerated, and officialdom was moving towards effectively managing "the problem". The scientific ethic never really got off the ground. It had been effectively scuttled and was in retreat. The scientific approach had been pushed aside with the rejection of nuclear physicist Harry Turner's secret study of the Directorate of Air Force Intelligence (DAFI) UFO files. The military and political ethic had begun its long march of dominating the official approach to the UFO controversy. The decades to follow would prove to be controversial and exciting as the Australian UFO controversy continued its evolution.

BOOKS

Australia's first book on UFOs appeared in 1965. "Flying Saucers over Australia" by James Holledge, was a paperback billed as presenting "the startling indisputable evidence of Unidentified Flying Objects operating in our skies". Holledge was a journalist who had churned out a number of books that were heavy on sensation and light on fact. When you see some of his other titles, such as "Inside Soho", "Cult of the bosom", "What makes a call girl", "White slavery" and "Black Magic" then you realise not to expect much.

Surprisingly, despite being rather superficial, it did touch on a number of the key cases, including the 1965 Vaucluse Beach landing and the Charles Brew case. Holledge did however take Adamski at face value and seemed sympathetic to some other contactee claims.

Australia's second UFO book, "Flying Saucers - Where do they come from?", emerged during 1967. Its author, Sydney Sales Manager and former Royal Air Force photographer, Richard Tambling, had several UFO sightings of his own. While it covered some of the better recent local sightings, it was Tambling's infatuation with contactee photos (particularly those of Dan Fry and Paul Villa) that set the tone and with hindsight revealed his calling. As an Air Force photographer Tambling should have been a bit more critical, but subsequently all pretence was put aside. Tambling was a full blown contactee.

During the 1950s evidence mounted. Some striking radar visual events occurred, in which compelling correlations occurred between visual UFO sightings and radar returns. The slowly developing foundation of quality events was intermittently underminded by the absurdity of the contactee claims, where individuals claimed meetings with benevolent aliens and rides in their "flying saucers". Fortunately by the 1960s the strength of the accumulating physical evidence forced the "contactee" tales into the fringe background.

Reports of UFO landings and related physical traces took centre stage. Isolated reports that seemingly involved alien abductions began to appeared.

The 1970s ushered in more diverse physical evidence and abduction style events.

More controversial physical evidence dominated the 1980s, but by 1987 the turning point had truly come. Abduction reports poliferated and by the 1990s were virtually dominating the entire UFO controversy.

The understanding we have of the nature of the UFO mystery in Australia can be best attributed to the civilian groups and individual civilian researchers around the country. They have amassed an extraordinary data base of material. Much of this material has been published in various publications or is held in various data collections. While it must be said that much of this material varies greatly in quality, a great deal of it contributes to the heart of the UFO enigma.

While the RAAF have undertaken investigations, these have lacked the research orientated perspectives that many civilian researchers have tried to achieve. It can be said with some certainty that civilian investigations have a greater claim to comprehensively adressing the UFO mystery than have official investigations. To properly put the RAAF data into perspective, consider the following. From 1950 to 1984, the RAAF dealt with more than 1,612 reports, and 1,258 from 1960 to 1980. One of the best civilian groups in Australia, the Tasmanian UFO Investigation Centre (TUFOIC), has been keeping valuable statistics on their investigations for years. For one small Australian state alone, they have dealt with 2,131 reports up to and including 1980.The period 1960 to 1980 was been chosen as it is the only period for which the RAAF have published data.

In July, 1952, in response to a huge wave of sightings at the time, and one of his own, during May, 1951, Edgar Jarrold, 33 year-old foundry office worker, husband, and father of 2 young children, began Australia's first civilian flying saucer organisation. Initially a one man affair, the Australia Flying Saucer Bureau (AFSB) headquartered in Sydney, was by May, 1953, publishing Australia's first UFO publication, the Australian Flying Saucer Magazine. On February 6, 1953, 5 Victorians founded the Australian Flying Saucer Investigation Committee (AFSIC). The organisation's chairman was journalist Donald Thomson. In South Australia, during 1953, the Australian Flying Saucer Club (AFSC) was started by Fred Stone.

The "invasion" centred in Victoria in 1954 was the most significant of the early sighting waves. The Victorian UFO Research Society was not founded until 1957, however in 1978 it produced an excellent study of the flap. The persistent Victorian visitations of 1954 drew this flippant comment in a contemporary newspaper, "...It was becoming increasingly clear that the Martians are people of infinite variety", and that they probably regarded their "spaceships", "with the same jealous individuality as terrestrial women have with their hats." The extensive wave lead to entrenched official interest. A classified DAFI file minute dated 2 Nov 1955, somewhat tellingly revealed: "A ministerial statement in the House (Australian parliament - B.C.) on 19 Nov 53 (indicates) that the RAAF make detailed investigations of every report received, (which in truth we are not yet doing)."

The Australian Flying Saucer Investigation Committee (AFSIC) of Victoria released a study of 55 sightings from the 1954 wave, during July, 1954. The report concluded "We are still far from deciding what these things are. It would be only guesswork to say they are actual spaceships from another planet. But we are fully agreed upon this - that these things are material objects. They cannot be put down to a person's hallucination or optical illusion. They are getting lower seemingly to land". Unfortunately this cautious civilian research group disappeared from the scene within a year. Some of its members would eventually join the Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society.

While the RAAF was confronting "the UFO problem" civilian research was in disarray following the "disappearance" of pioneer researcher Edgar Jarrold. The "Jarrold mystery" was absorbed into the notorious Albert K. Bender saga, and seemed to share a lot of the bizarre elements of it. Bender's US organisation, one of the earliest flying saucer groups, closed suddenly. Many enthusiasts concluded Bender had been silenced and the whole saga was aired in Gray Barker's notorious book, "They Knew Too Much about Flying Saucers". Bender fed the paranoia bandwagon when he broke his silence with the book, "Flying Saucers and the Three Men". Bender claimed alien agents,"three men in black", silenced him preventing him from revealing the truth about the saucers. Jarrold's "disappearance" was used to fed the burgeoning "men in black" legend. However, a critical analysis of the Jarrold affair argues for a more prosaic explanation than the paranoid alien "men in black" myth. In part Jarrold was a "victim" of what has been called the "UFO widow" syndrome,.ie. his obsession with the saucer mystery lead to a disintergration of his life.

The Jarrold enigma remained unresolved. The net effect back in the fifties though was that Jarrold, who had met with the RAAF in 1954 and had been the leading civilian figure in ufology, had by the second half of 1955, disappeared from the UFO scene. South Australian researcher Fred Stone tried to move into the centre stage of Australian civilian research, and take up Jarrold's fallen mantle, but progressively state borders lead to the formation of independent groups. These included the UFO Investigation Centre (UFOIC) in 1955 with Dr. W.P. Clifford and from 1958 with Dr. Miran Lindtner, the Queensland Flying Saucer Research Bureau (QFSRB - now known as UFO Research (Qld)), with Charles Middleborough in 1956 and with Stan Seers from 1957, and the Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society (VFSRS - now known as the Victorian UFO Research Society), with Peter Norris in 1957.

Adamski's visit to Australia was a different affair. Australia had the advantage of being a large country with great distances seperating the principle areas of population. Strong and independent UFO groups had developed in each state. While there was interest in Adamski, many of the main groups were already realising the damage being caused by his dubious claims. Pioneer researcher, Stan Seers, president of the Queensland Flying Saucer Research Bureau, was a pragmatic man and realised that irrespective of the dubious nature of Adamski's patently transparent stories, Adamski was the UFO personality of the moment, around the world for that matter. Seers saw the potential benefit of Adamski visiting and was instrumental in organising it. Adamski characterised his visit as more colourful and certainly a lot rougher. In fact it was troubled by wide debate and ridicule, and alleged efforts to stop him showing his photographic material. Following Adamski's visit, Seers and other leaders in the civilian UFO movement sort to distance themselves from the "space brother" brigade. This process would accelerate with the appearance of impressive evidence from Papua in mid 1959 and Tasmania in 1960, that was not weighed down with the baggage of silly claims and dubious evidence. While some like Seers would not entirely dismiss Adamski, most Australian researchers were ready to move on. The Queensland group was one of the few to maintain an ongoing affection for Adamski and the the contactee credo.

In 1959 Papua New Guinea was still a territory of Australia. June of that year saw the spectacular "entity" sightings of Reverend Gill and members of his Boainai mission.

Reverend Gill made notes about the experience and sent a copy of his own report - 8 closely typed foolscap pages - to Rev. Crutwell at Menapi Mission, who in turn sent a copy to Mr. D. H. Judge, a Brisbane member of the Queensland Flying Saucer Research Bureau. The report was released to the media and accounts appeared in the media during mid August, 1959, causing a sensation.

Reverend Gill was at the time of his sightings already scheduled to return to Australia. This presented civilian groups with an excellent opportunity to assess the bonafides of the reports. All investigators found Gill to be very impressive. His credibility was enormous. This lead one of the leading civilian groups, the Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society, to view the Gill reports as constituting the most remarkable testimony of intensive UFO activity ever reported to civilian investigators in the entire history of UFO research. VFSRS indicated that they were unique because for the first time, credible witnesses had reported the presence of humanoid beings associated with UFOs. The VFSRS report concluded that the Boianai UFOs were advanced craft, manned by humanoid beings, capable of a fantastic aerodynamic performance. VFSRS now felt that UFO researchers no longer needed to enquire as to the nature of UFOs, now only their origin was to be determined.

The major civilian groups of the day, in a spirit of new found cooperation inspired by the significance of the Boianai observations, distributed copies of Reverend Gill's own sighting report to all members of the House of Representatives of Australia's federal parliament. A circular letter accompanied the report, signed by the presidents of the participating civilian UFO groups, urging members of parliament to press the Minister for Air for a statement about the attitude Air Force Intelligence had of the New Guinea reports.

On November 24th, 1959, in federal parliament, Mr. E.D. Cash, a Liberal politician from Western Australia asked the Minister for Air, Mr. F.M. Osborne, whether his department (specifically Air Force Intelligence) had investigated "reports of recent sightings of mysterious objects in the skies over Papua and New Guinea." The Minister's reply did not address this question, but instead he focused on the general situation indicating that most sightings were explained and "that only a very small percentage - something like 3 percent - of reported sightings of flying objects cannot be explained".

Peter Norris, VFSRS president, was advised by the Directorate of Air Force Intellience that the Department was awaiting "depth of evidence" on the New Guinea sightings.

The civilian groups stood at the end of the fifties in a position of strength, unified, strengthened, and galvanised into action, by the quality of the Gill reports. The extraordinary reports of UFO "visitants" over Boianai, Papua New Guinea, during 1959, were remarkable testimony from "credible observers of relatively incredible things" (as the director of USAF intelligence, Major General John Samford referred to the witnesses of the minority of "unknown" and "unidentified" reports, back in 1952). The Anglican church missionary, Reverend William Gill, provided civilian groups with remarkable testimony of unknown "interlopers". They were in stark contrast to the hoary silliness that punctuated the flirtation of enthusiasts with the contactee absurdities during much of the fifties. Buoyed by substantial data, the civilian groups were ready to face what would prove to be the turbulent sixties.

In contrast, from 1955 and particularly in the wake of the striking Gill testimony, the RAAF began a retreat from their original open minded position. By then the growing number of sightings had turned into "the UFO problem" - a problem with uncertain and controversial public relation, military and political dimensions. To them the situation was embodied in the determination that they were dealing with "the UFO problem" - a problem with uncertain and controversial public relations and political dimensions. Controversy about possible unknown interlopers in our airspace could not be tolerated, and officialdom was moving towards effectively managing "the problem". The scientific ethic never really got off the ground. It had been effectively scuttled and was in retreat. The scientific approach had been pushed aside with the rejection of nuclear physicist Harry Turner's secret study of the Directorate of Air Force Intelligence (DAFI) UFO files. The military and political ethic had begun its long march of dominating the official approach to the UFO controversy. The decades to follow would prove to be controversial and exciting as the Australian UFO controversy continued its evolution.

The 1960s and the 1970s were periods steeped in UFO accounts of high strangeness that emerged in a climate of gradually increasing maturity in the manner in which the phenomenon was investigated. Considerable intrigue and energetic debate marked the search for answers from both the perspective of the civilian researcher and that of the clandestine world of official investigations. Occasionally such activities came together in curious ways but generally official investigations remained the stuff of secrecy, at least to the general public. Civilian researchers themselves were caught up in fundamental and evolutionary steps towards understanding the nature and extent of the UFO phenomenon.

A major turning point in civilian UFO research in Australia occurred on February 27th, 1965, at Ballarat, Victoria. What was billed as Australia's first convention of UFO groups provided a focus for elevating the respectability of the UFO subject. Unfortunately, in hindsight it also started a process that, while initially encouraging, would eventually divide some UFO groups and lay the seeds of group political warfare which would resound for years to come.

The occasion was one of great euphoria for those researchers, investigators and enthusiasts who attended. The conference had been arranged by W. Howard Sloane, of the Ballarat Astronomical Society, with the aim of removing "the stigma of ridicule from research into UFOs." Not only did representatives of most existing Australian groups attend, but there were also several witnesses to some of Australia's most famous cases, including the Rev. William Gill and Charles Brew, who spoke about their experiences. Former Air Marshall Sir George Jones attended and was out spoken in his support for serious UFO research. The RAAF was represented by Mr. B. G. Roberts, Senior Research Scientist, of the Operational Research Office, Department of Air, Canberra. The presence of a scientific consultant of the RAAF, along with 2 RAAF officers, manning a hardware display, was an unprecedented step for the Australian government.

The Department of Air (Air Force) scientific representative, B. G. Roberts gave a presentation which addressed the term UFO and some objections to it, official assessments of aerial sightings, and the identification of sightings. Roberts argued the term "unidentified aerial sightings" (UAS) was a more appropriate one than UFO, the latter term having long since been regarded as just another term for "flying saucers". In terms of "unidentified sightings" Roberts stated, "the number of sightings which the Department is unable to identify from the information available has remained fairly consistent at around two a year. Indeed, given sufficient time and effort, the number of unidentified sightings probably could be reduced further.

What seemed to have been a very good idea emerged at the conference. It was suggested apparently by RAAF representatives that the RAAF would deal with civilian UFO organisations only if they were organised on a federal level. It was resolved at the convention to form such a national organisation - "a centralised body all the groups in Australia in order to deal with the government and public on top level." The name of this organisation was agreed as C.A.P.I.O. (Commonweath Aerial Phenomena Investigation Organisation). Officer bearers were elected at the convention. Peter Norris, VFSRS president, was made CAPIO president. Leslie Locke (Western Australia) and Andrew Tomas (NSW) were elected vice presidents. Sylvia Suttton and Judy Magee, both from VFSRS, took the positions of secretary and assistant secretary respectively. The CAPIO organisation had begun with great enthusiasm.

Attempts were made for the large state groups to cooperate in combine publications and the national group CAPIO. Both efforts were short lived, largely due to group politics.

Australia's first book on UFOs appeared in 1965. "Flying Saucers over Australia" by James Holledge, was a paperback billed as presenting "the startling indisputable evidence of Unidentified Flying Objects operating in our skies". Holledge was a journalist who had churned out a number of books that were heavy on sensation and light on fact. When you see some of his other titles, such as "Inside Soho", "Cult of the bosom", "What makes a call girl", "White slavery" and "Black Magic" then you realise not to expect much. Surprisingly, despite being rather superficial, it did touch on a number of the key cases, including the 1965 Vaucluse Beach landing and the Charles Brew case. Holledge did however take Adamski at face value and seemed sympathetic to some other contactee claims.

1965 in retrospect was an appetiser for 1966. Australia and a number of other parts of the world were seized by UFO fever. There were extensive reports all over Australia, but the main focuses of interest were far north Queensland and Victoria.

1966 was again a major year for UFO activity in Australia. The classic UFO landing at Horseshoe Lagoon near Tully, far north Queensland, and witnessed by farmer George Pedley, entered the term UFO "nest" into popular UFO parlance. The locality was the centre of an extended UFO milieu that continued for many years, particularly in 1969, 1972 and 1975. The area was also the site of controversial and fascinating experiments in UFO detection through remote sensing and filming.

While the RAAF was getting its act together, the semblance of cooperation that emerged from the 1965 Ballarat conference with the formation of CAPIO was rapidly unravelling in the face of interstate politics.

Australia's second UFO book, "Flying Saucers - Where do they come from?", emerged during 1967. Its author, Sydney Sales Manager and former Royal Air Force photographer, Richard Tambling, had several UFO sightings of his own. While it covered some of the better recent local sightings, it was Tambling's infatuation with contactee photos (particularly those of Dan Fry and Paul Villa) that set the tone and with hindsight revealed his calling. As an Air Force photographer Tambling should have been a bit more critical, but subsequently all pretence was put aside. Tambling was a full blown contactee.

Dr. James McDonald, a highly regarded atmospheric physicist, was encouraged to come to Australia by indications that there were significant cases of UFO phenomena that might enrich his agressive campaign in trying to scientifically legitimise the UFO subject. Paul Norman, VUFORS active sightings officer, and originally from America, was instrumental in encouraging Jim McDonald in making the Australian trip. McDonald's trip was in part funded by the US Office of Naval Research (ONR) funds. This aspect would embroil him in a protracted controversy orchestrated by aviation writer Philip Klass. It was clear that there seemed to be an element of pay back in this. Klass' initial excursion into the UFO mystery with his book "UFOs Identified" (1968), in which he posited the hypothesis that plasmas played a significant role in the UFO controversy, was appropriately criticised by McDonald. Klass sought to crucify McDonald by foisting the ONR funding scandal on him and making a case that McDonald's use of the funds to travel to Australia to investigate UFOs was highly inappropriate. While ONR did not renew his funding it was apparent that they were aware of his UFO activities and some say were actively sanctioning it. Klass would become the leading U.S. sceptical UFO researcher or, as many would have, the leading debunker of the field.

Dr. McDonald indicated to James Hughes, his Office of Naval Research (ONR) project monitor, upon his return from Australia, "The UFO situation in the Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania area is essentially the same as in the United States. I found the same types of UFO phenomena, the same predominance of discs and cigar shaped objects, the same type of car stopping incidents, and so on. There were many good cases, and before I left I had checked almost all of the "classic" Australian UFO episodes." In a whirlwind visit, McDonald either interviewed directly or by phone many of the witnesses to some of Australia's best cases. Some of these cases included Brian Crittenden's 1958 close encounter at Casino, NSW, the famous Boianai 1959 sightings, Ron Sullivan's extraordinary car headlight beam bending experience in 1966, George Pedley's sighting of a UFO and the famous "nest" at Horseshoe Lagoon in 1966, and Barry Morris's frightening pirsuit and landing near the UFO haunted locality of St. George, just a few months prior to McDonald's visit.

Dr. McDonald lectured on the UFO phenomenon to staff of the radiophysics division of the CSIRO, in Sydney (June 27th), the Institute of Physics and Department of Meteorology, University of Melbourne (June 29th), and the staffof the Division of Meteorological Physics, CSIRO, Aspendale, Victoria. He also gave private lectures to groups of scientists. Many were impressed by his powerful presentations. McDonald's credentials and detailed studies gave civilian groups he lectured to, an added impetus of confidence. The media reported favourably and extensively on his visit.

Prolific writer Michael Hervey's book, "UFOs over the Southern Hemisphere" was published in 1969. It was widely publicised and sold well. It was the most detailed compilation of Australian sightings to date, but unfortunately poor editing and research made it an rather uncritical mixture of low weight sightings and good cases. A sightly revised edition was published in 1975 but little had improved. For the period, however it was a handy reference for sightings.

On the campus of the University of Adelaide, the South Australian division of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) organised a one day symposium to consider the UFO problem, namely on 30th 0ctober, 1971. The symposium had about 300 attendees and, because of its prestigious backing, attracted widespread publicity. The following motion was moved at the ANZAAS symposium:
"The Symposium as a group feels very strongly that some action on the problem of UFO reports be taken.... (and) that the possibility of setting up a subcommittee for the study of UFO reports be considered by the Executive Committee of ANZAAS (S.A. Division)."
This motion was favoured by the Divisional committee of ANZAAS in November, 1971. They felt that there was sufficient evidence to demonstrate that there were sightings and evidence for phenomena that had not been adequately explained. The committee concluded there was a need to investigate unexplained sightings and they constituted "an unsolved scientific problem as there were no answers under current hypotheses."

Dr. Allen Hynek, who had acted as astronomy consultant to the United States Air Force UFO study since 1948, came to Australia during 1973, to lecture on astronomy and UFOs and to promote his ground breaking book, "The UFO Experience - A scientific Inquiry", published in the US in 1972. His visit was a watershed for both Australia and himself. Dr. Hynek was in the best position to determine the scientific merits of the UFO phenomenon. He had consulted for more than 20 years with the US Air Force and had moved from a sceptic to a scientist who was willing to actively promote the validity of the phenomenon. He championed the need for serious research. His 1972 book was his case for the scientific merit of the UFO phenomenon. It caused a lot of scientists to rethink their position on the subject. By 1973, Dr. Hynek lacked an appropriate vehicle for his ongoing research. For years he had quietly encouraged and actively participated in the "invisible college". Following his visit and the massive resurgence of UFO activity in America during that year he brought the "invisible college" into the open and formed the Centre for UFO Studies. It continues as an ongoing focus for serious research into the UFO phenomenon.
During his stay he researched many of the classic cases. As indicated earlier in this history he met with Shamus O'Farrell and discussed his famous 1954 Sea Fury incident. Dr. Hynek was also able to meet with Rev. William Gill and also journeyed to Papua, enabling him to undertake a detailed on site investigation into this famous case. He came away still convinced of the bonafide nature of the Boianai "visitants". While in Australia he had discussions with researchers to try to set up a local focal point of case material which could then be forwarded to his group in Chicago. Out of those discussions, ACOS - the Australian Co-Ordination Centre for the Centre for UFO Studies was formed by Harry Griesberg and David Seargent.

ACOS organised regular conferences, the first in 1975, from which a real sense of co-operation emerged between most of the state civilian groups and individual researchers. Both as ACOS and as the Australian Centre for UFO Studies (ACUFOS) from 1980, it was a focus of major projects and documentation programmes. It was the most successful of the efforts at co-operation at a national level, but by the second half of the eighties it loss much of its momentum, when many of the leading researchers, tired of group politics and problems, opted for a more informal networking structure. UFO Research Australia (UFORA) formed by Vladimir and Pony Godic, with Keith Basterfield, was the outgrowth of this trend. It was successful in its efforts to encourage serious research on a loose networking basis. UFORA also pioneered the use of electronic mail and bulletin boards by UFO researchers in Australia. Vladimir and Pony Godic edited a digital book on UFO research in Australia and New Zealand, which was published in 1992. It brought together material published in Vladimir Godic's UFO Research Australia Newsletter (UFORAN) through the eighties. Vladimir Godic's untimely death in 1995 lead to the closure of UFORA. ACUFOS limped into the ninties a pale shadow of its former self. Most serious researchers had long since abandoned it in favour of networking and because it lost direction and credibility with what was seen as the uncritical promotion of dubious material by its final incumbent co-ordinator.

A variety of approaches have emerged to address the abduction phenomenon in recent years. These new approaches may compliment and extend the progress of what has gone before. Many people are searching for answers for a profound mystery that has intruded into their lives. Some will be well served by ethical and professional UFO researchers. Some may encounter the extreme elements within the UFO community or the sceptical contingent. Fortunately now if difficulties occur there are other alternatives. Support groups for example have sprung up in many states. If properly run, they serve an important function.

One of the most noteable manifestations of the support group concept has been the UFO Experience Support Association (UFOESA) based in Sydney. It emerged out of frustrations with the formal UFO group structure. It describes itself as "a non-profit, voluntary organisation dedicated to helping witnesses and experiences of UFO events cope with and understand their encounters".

Researchers have no exclusive mandate on the right approach, but can offer advice, perspective and perhaps, where appropriate, a critical comment, to keep experiencers from getting caught up, beyond their depth, in the less desirable aspects of the fringe UFO culture.

Keith Basterfield formed the Australian UFO Abduction Study Centre in 1994, in an attempt to act as a communication forum for the diverse approaches to this controversial aspect of the UFO subject. Its aims included being a contact point for individuals who believe they have interacted with the UFO abduction phenomenon, acting as an information and referral service for these people and other interested parties, and to encourage research into the UFO abduction phenomenon. Keith Basterfield has explored a number of possible psychological explanations for aspects of the UFO phenomenon. In 1981 his book, "UFOs: the Image Hypothesis - Close Encounters of an Australian Kind" tried to link hypnagogic and hypnapompic imagery (ie. between the sleep/awake interface) as a possible explanation of UFO close encounter experiences. This hypothesis was clearly inadequate to explain most anomolous UFO events and was soon abandoned. More serious attention was given to the "fantasy proned hypothesis" he linked to UFO abduction experiences. Studies have failed to substantiate this hypothesis. Keith moved on exploring other possible explanations, including "sleep paralysis", an explanation suggested by Dr. Susan Blackmore. Such psychological explanations need to be sorted through to determine if we are dealing with a bonafide anomaly outside our current understanding. A great deal more careful research needs to be done. Keith updated his 1981 book with "UFOs: a report on Australian UFO encounters" coming out in 1997.

Bill Chalker's book "The OZ Files - the Australian UFO Story" was released in 1996. It represented a detailed history of the Australian UFO controversy. Kelly Cahill, who was central to the unravelling of an independently witnessed CE3 event with apparent "abduction" dimensions and compelling related physical evidence, had her own book on the first high profile abduction milieu in Australia, also published in 1966. A regional survey, "The Gosford Files - UFOs over the NSW Central Coast" by Moira McGhee & Bryan Dickeson, appeared in 1997.