When most of us think of Unidentified Flying Objects our thoughts turn to far away places: the WWII Battle of Los Angeles or the infamous weather balloon that landed in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. What many Victorians don’t know is that we are home to one of the world’s most famous UFO events. One with as many as 100 witnesses, many of whom are still telling their stories.
According to newspapers and reports of the time, on 6 April 1966 something strange happened at a patch of scrubby, pine-ringed bushland called The Grange in Melbourne’s sleepy south-eastern suburbs. The Grange is across the way from Westall Secondary School (then Westall High) and backs onto farmland. In the 1960s it was visited by farmers looking for a place to graze their cattle and by kids and teens looking for a place to explore. On 6 April it was reportedly the destination of some strange and unusual visitors: Unidentified Flying Objects1. The Dandenong Journal of 14 April leads with the evocative headline FLYING SAUCER MYSTERY: SCHOOL SILENT. As reports of the 6 April incident flooded in, with no official word from the school, the team at The Dandenong Journal attempted to piece the story together.
Reports from eyewitnesses claim that just before morning recess a series of ‘dazzling silvery object(s)’2 appeared over high school oval, moving toward The Grange. One of the objects was larger than the others with witnesses describing it as ’round with a hump on top and round things underneath’3 or as an object that was ‘silver grey and seemed to “thicken” sometimes. The thickening was similar to when a disc is turned a little to show the underside.’ 4
Witnesses also described ‘many private aircraft, mainly Cessna’5 flying toward and around the UFOs. A two-page, anonymous report from The Clayton Calendar (the Westall High journal, unfortunately not held by State Library Victoria), goes into some detail about the craft and speculates that they may have been military aircraft, coming from nearby Moorabbin airport. This account was republished in its entirety in the June 1966 issue of the Australian Flying Saucer Review. The Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society (later the Victorian UFO Research Society) inspected the scene and interviewed a number of witnesses but at the time no exhaustive account was published. The VFSRS had members across the state and was based quite close to Westall, in the southeastern suburb of Moorabbin (the site of another famous event purportedly tied to the paranormal, the disappearance of Frederick Valentich in 1978).
While the event was heavily reported in the local news outlets, it also hit the Melbourne papers. The small write-up in The Age ‘Object perhaps balloon’ posits that the witnesses may in fact have seen merely a weather balloon, noting the the ‘Weather Bureau released a balloon at Laverton at 8:30 am and the westerly wind…could have moved it into the area where the sighting was reported’.6
We may never know with certainty what happened in Westall that April morning in 1966, the stories remain and the conviction of the witnesses has not wavered. What we can be sure of is that there are often mysteries where we least expect them, perhaps there’s one in your own backyard.
As for The Grange, it now hosts a UFO themed children’s playground and a walking track. No accounts of a return of these craft have been reported.
References
- Current preference is for the term Unidentified Aerial Phenomena or UAPs. This post will use the language of the time
- Untitled article from the Clayton Calendar, reprinted in Australian flying saucer review, June 1966, p 13
- Marilyn Eastwood, 2010, Something is out there, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, p 179
- Andrew Greenwood, teacher at Westall High School, interviewed by the Dandenong Journal, 21 April 1966, p 1
- The Clayton Calendar, reprinted in Australian Flying Saucer Review, June 1966, p 13
- ‘Object perhaps balloon’, The Age, 7 April 1966, p 6
Thank you for this wonderful blog article Terri about the 1966 Westall Flying Saucer Incident. For those with an interest in the story, have a look at the 1966 Westall Flying Saucer Incident Facebook group page, and see the 2010 documentary about the incident titled “Westall ’66: A Suburban UFO Mystery”, by Rosie Jones.
Also, a small correction, “The Clayton Calendar” was a magazine made by the students at Brown’s Road State School in Clayton in 1966, not Westall High School.
Regards,
Shane.
Hi Shane, there are so many great resources out there about this incident. I’m hoping this post inspires people to take a closer look at this fascinating part of our history.
Thanks for the correction too, I’ll make an edit. Terri.
Hi Shane,
We met when you lectured at UFOR Burwood.Hope you’re good.
I have been speaking with Maddy Massy from the ABC Science Show and they are producing a two part documentary to do with UAP.She is keen to include the Westall incident and I thought you might be interested in speaking with her.There is very little in the ABC archives on the case.
Would love to put you in touch with her.
Cheers,
Pat Daluz
0418977340
This case really is interesting, i am really surprised, that no reports, on the incident have ever been found, no statements or written reports can be found, nothing at all in the Australian National Archives, im wondering why to be honest.
Bill Chalker, a Australian researcher, had viewed all the RAAF DOD UAP files in Canberra in 1984. Nothing on Westall was found, However, Shane Ryan who has done some fantastic work investigating the Westall incident, has said it was the Department Of Supply who was involved, with looking into the incident out at Westall, and apprantly Thousands of their files in the NAA have yet to be opened, that may hold the key to this mysterious case.
I saw this when I was a little girl living in the Dandenongs! It was amazing and i’ve never forgotten it.
sherry M.
Hi Sherry. Can you explain more about what you saw? Thank you. Regards, Shane.
Hi there can you tell me what you experienced and saw etc I’m so interested
Hi Sherry, this was before my time but there are plenty of accounts at the links in the blog post. Enjoy!
In 1966 my siblings and some friends (aged 17 to 13yo) created lighter than air balloons with a mixture of aluminium milk bottle tops and something that I can’t remember (hydrogen peroxide?). The mixture was formulated in a glass milk bottle with the balloon secured over the top of the bottle. When the balloon was inflated we secured it and let it off from a small paddock in Mentone and watched it rise into the sky. We then rushed indoors to listen on the radio of UFO sightings.
We stopped the game when we ran out of aluminium milk bottle tops.
Was that really us? We honestly thought so.
Did we tell our parents what we had done? No!
I have always wondered if our experiments were the reported UFOs. The timing was perfect and matches your article.
Hi Thea. Were none of you at school that day…? The Westall Incident happened during school hours on a school day.
A great article about an intriguing subject. I want to believe.
Fascinating! When I became a member recently the first shelf I investigated was on UFOs in Australia as I’m researching the 1959 siting at a Mission school in Papua New Guinea where Father Gill and over 27 people saw and interacted with figures on a UFO that hovered (along with eight others) over the sea over the course of a weekend from June 26 1959.
I have part of the original Newspaper article from October that year illustrated by Wally Driscoll who was a mate of my Granddad. I’m researching it further with hopes to turn it into a script – any leads or contacts you or others suggest would be greatly appreciated!
I would like to add I was a student at Westall High School on the day in question. Kids came running from everywhere stating they had seen some flying saucers above the oval just prior to lunchtime. Together with a teacher (Mr.Anderson) their sightings were 100% true. I along with other kids ran over to “The Grange” after the saucers headed that way. I saw where one had landed in long grass, it was about 8 metres diameter and all the grass was laid down perfectly in one direction in a circle. You can’t argue with facts, it happened. I have been a Member of the Victorian Police Force for 32 years and I know what I saw and what the other kids said!
It may be of interest to researchers in Australia, but 16 days after the Westall incident, a similar sighting of disc shaped UFO’s occurred in Beverly, Massachusetts, USA above a school. One of the three objects came within 20 feet of a terrified eyewitness. The link to the story is below.
http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case5.htm
In the Spring of 1966, possibly in April, I was a passenger in a car my mother was driving westward over the State Street bridge in Teaneck, New Jersey. I looked up in the sky and low on the horizon was a diamond-shaped formation of objects that appeared to be well below 1000 feet above the ground. I asked my mother to stop the car and jumped out to get a better view from the sidewalk. But I was still unable to discern their shape, and also could hear no sound. It’s possible they were military, but I believe that it was illegal to conduct formation flying over densely populated areas.
Lets not Forget the Westall sighting was the largest MassSighting in Human History, 366 pupils and Teachers can not all be wrong..
In the ‘photos’ section there is a grainy b/w picture of a flying saucer. What is the context of this picture – who took it and where? Many thanks.
Hi Eric, can you let me know which ‘photos’ section you’re referring to? Then I can help out.
Terri.
My father and I drove up into the backyard, we got out of the car, we both looked up into the sky left of us, we saw very clearly a UFO. We looked at each other, looked back at the UFO and the UFO disappeared in No Time At All, as quick as a flash.. I was in the first form of High School. We saw the UFO in Reservoir a Melbourne suburb , Australia 1966. It was later in the afternoon. I was never fearful, I actually feel honored to have seen it, now. I live in Leland, NC. USA
Russell Haynes, I believe you.