The 1966 Westall UFO incident

Another interesting UFO case from Australia, this time a School in Victoria.

At approximately 11.00 am on Wednesday, 6 April 1966, a class of students and a teacher from Westall High School were just completing sports on the main oval when an object, described as being a grey saucer shaped craft, with a slight purple hue and being about twice the size of a family car, was sighted.

Witness descriptions were mixed: Andrew Greenwood, a science teacher, told "The Dandenong Journal" at the time that he saw a silvery-green disc. According to witnesses the object was descending and then crossed and overflew the high school's south-west corner, going in a south-easterly direction, before disappearing from sight as it descended behind a stand of trees and into a paddock at The Grange in front of the Westall State School.

After a short period (approximately 20 minutes) the object - with witnesses now numbering over 200 - then climbed at speed and departed towards the north-west. As the object gained altitude some accounts describe it as having been pursued from the scene by five unidentified aircraft which circled the object.


The Dandenong Journal article:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2977a5153dcb.jpg[/atsimg]

Larger image can be found here:


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/213ddabe7e1f.jpg[/atsimg]

It's interesting to note that the 5 aircraft has never been explained, the RAAF denied any knowledge of these craft.

The military turned up quite quickly to investigate the area and question many of the students and staff and then told them to downplay the incident, also the bureau of meteorology stated that they released a weather balloon on Wednesday and it could have drifted to the school.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1b2b97d57fcd.jpg[/atsimg]

Larger image can be found here:


A new investigation was conducted by Shane Ryan, an English lecturer at the University of Canberra in 2006, the 40 year anniversary of the incident.

Around 30 of the witnesses from that day were interviewed.

On the UFO, everyone seems to agree, Mr Ryan says. It was a low-flying, silver/grey shining object, either of classical flying saucer shape or close to it, "a cup turned upside down on a saucer". The students were familiar with light aircraft because the schools were close to Moorabbin Airport. Although the UFO was of similar size, "everyone said straight away that they knew it was not a plane", Mr Ryan said, nor a weather balloon.

The object was in view for up to 20 minutes, and many saw it descend. Most agree it landed behind pine trees at the Grange Reserve. Dozens of students ran across what was then an open paddock to the reserve to investigate, but the object had lifted off and vanished.

One of the closest witnesses was a boy whose family leased land at Grange Reserve for horses.

Shaun Matthews was on holidays and spending time on the land.

"I saw the thing come across the horizon and drop down behind the pine trees," he told The Sunday Age this week. "I couldn't tell you what it was. It certainly wasn't a light aircraft or anything of the like …

"I saw the thing drop down behind the pine trees and saw it leave again. I couldn't tell you how long it was there for, it was such a long time ago."

Mr Matthews, 51 and now living in Greenvale, said the object "went up and off very very rapidly".

"I went over and there was a circle in the clearing. It looked like it had been cooked or boiled, not burnt as I remember," he said. "A heap of kids from Westall primary and high school came charging through to see what had happened — 'look at this, look at that, we saw it as well', that sort of thing. It was a bit of a talking point for a couple of days."

Mr Matthews said the object, about the size of "two family cars", passed him at a distance of about "four football fields". "It was silvery, but it had a sort-of purple hue to it, very bright, but not bright enough that you couldn't look at it," he said.

"I saw that it dropped down behind the trees, and I thought, 'hello, hang on'. A minute or so later, it went straight up, just gone."

He said police and other officials interviewed his mother. But he cannot remember them burning the landing site, as others have alleged. And he did not see any light aircraft trailing the object, as others did.

"The way this thing moved there is no way it could have been a weather balloon or a light aircraft," he said.

"A helicopter? No way — no noise, wrong shape, and it didn't move like it. It came out of the distance, stopped, and then just dropped.

"It didn't just sort of cruise and then slightly descend at an angle. It just stopped, dropped, and then went straight up."

This is certainly an unusual case with multiple witnesses, military involvement and cover up (No reports have ever been released) and physical evidence.

I have also found another witness testimony which was conducted in July 2008, another student who was very close to the UFO.

The only problem is the story is quite different from the one above so I am investigating further to make sure it is a credible case.

If it is I will add it here.













Sources:
www.onlymelbourne.com.au...
www.ufocasebook.com...
www.theage.com.au...
en.wikipedia.org...




[edit on 20-3-2009 by Chadwickus]

Good work. I've read about this case quite a few times and it seems like quite a credible case. But as usual it's a case that will probably never be solved with is unfortunate.

Whoa! I've never heard of this case before. It sounds pretty amazing though, and the military was trying to cover it up!

Thank you posting this, I love reading about these old and unexplained UFO cases. Especially when they are presented in such an excellent way as this one! Great job!


I also noticed this picture in theage.com:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/9046be1db5d3.jpg[/atsimg]
Ring of mystery: Shaun Matthews revisits Grange Reserve where he witnessed the UFO. Photo: Craig Sillitoe
www.theage.com.au...

Do you know if this the actual, excact landing site? Does the ground still show traces after the landing? If so, it's just amazing!



[edit on 20/3/09 by ziggystar60]

reply to post by ziggystar60



I'm not too sure if it is or not, which is why I didn't include it in the thread but there was talk that the army burnt the area as well, I assume to possibly get rid of any evidence. Again I'm not too sure if that's the case or not.


PS: Love the new avatar

[edit on 20-3-2009 by Chadwickus]

Some more to follow up with.

Firstly a radio interview with Shane Ryan:

Interview


Another witness account printed in the Clayton Calendar:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/9db5efb049b4.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8d06252861a5.jpg[/atsimg]

And finally an aerial shot of the area showing witness sightings:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/343499105ed8.jpg[/atsimg]
(Note: I have flipped the image to fit better)

View full size image here:










Source:
tech.groups.yahoo.com...






[edit on 20-3-2009 by Chadwickus]
Mod edit: embedded audio changed to a link, as requested.

[edit on 8/5/2010 by ArMaP]

The V. interview

This is the other witness account I mentioned in the OP, it's unusual because the witness wanting to be known as V. actually saw two craft land that day.

In the incident young V. stood to the left close to the object, while 3 other students stood around in close proximity to the second object. A teacher and at least a dozen other students crowded along the high fence to get a view. The two objects rose up from the grass and took off, one to the west, the other flew up and orbited a small plane before flying down to the south west Grange reserve area, with students in pursuit. My sketch is preliminary and not quite to scale. The UFOs were described as about 1.5 metres in height and approximately 5.4 metres in width. They left behind two circles of burnt grass.

A rough sketch of what V. described:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2e11d34d6a2d.jpg[/atsimg]

And a sketch by V. himself:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/bef58456a3b2.jpg[/atsimg]

What makes V.'s story more compelling is that this isn't the first time he has seen a craft like this before.

V. went home for lunch straight after this extraordinary experience which swept up the rest of his school. He explained to me that he didn’t need to see any more that day (6 April 1966) because he had seen the exact same object a few years earlier, when as a young child he was trying to take a wooden pallet from a factory site near the Westall Grange area during the early hours of the morning. His escapade was interrupted when a UFO flew over.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/7f25efc797ca.jpg[/atsimg]

It was the same looking object he would see during daylight at Westall in 1966 along with many in his school, but it was flying on edge – an appearance captured in a polaroid photo taken near Balwyn 4 days before the Westall incident! There were other similar encounters during this period of the 1960s in the area around Westall and neighbouring isolated suburbs of Melbourne, which in those days was the outer edge of the city. This area still had an isolated almost country feel to it.

Read the rest here.

Very interesting..

You say there are suspicions that the military burnt the ground around the Shaun Matthews landing site.

If the same happened at the incident 'V.' saw, the burning of the grass, does that not outrule the military burning the area of Shaun's landing?

Stimulating and groovy thread! I have never heard this story. I wish V would come out and tell the world. Even submit 2 polygraphs. Get the worlds attention. I will continue to follow this thread closley. Bravo

reply to post by RobCav


That's the problem about old witness statements such as these.

They tend to change a bit, fortunately Shawn Ryan has interviewed 100 witnesses so far so there should be a common story developing.

I also think he's sitting on a lot more info but is waiting to release it in his book he's writing...

With regards to what the military has done, hopefully in the near future we might glean some truths through the FOI act, which is currently being changed here in Australia to give people more access to government documents.

Application fees will be scrapped and a "pro-disclosure" culture encouraged under sweeping Freedom of Information (FoI) changes proposed by the federal government. The planned overhaul of the FoI Act, the first since the laws were created 27 years ago, will also prevent documents being withheld because they may prove embarrassing to the government.

livenews.com.au...

www.smh.com.au...





[edit on 25-3-2009 by Chadwickus]

reply to post by Chadwickus


Nice find chadwickus I had not heard of this one, well put together I will continue reading with interest. S&F mate.
MJ2

Good stuff, Chadwickus!

Very well presented. It is unfortunate that these cases like this blow up so large after the fact. I mean, it is great to have such extensive documentation, but with these significant encounters being so far removed, people tend to just not really care.

I think that if something like this happened in the now and we could actually film them, things would flip on their head.

That's only if the Gov wasn't successful in covering it up, as they appear to be very good at it.

Thanks for the replies guys!

I'm glad I was able to bring a new case to the table for some.

I stumbled onto this case today over at Ufoevidence. Yeah, it is probably one of the best mass-witness cases. I find it interesting how people read these cases and put it in the mystery drawer

[edit on 30-3-2009 by Indigo_Child]

reply to post by Indigo_Child


In which "drawer" can we put these cases?

There was no real explanation for the case, confirmation is not explanation, so it is still a mystery.

Hiya Chadwickus, nice thread. I've heard of this incident before but at the time it didn't interested me much.
In contrast your presentation made it interesting to read, thanks..

S&F

Alright, just as an aside. I don't know how much a fan I am of being able to embed audio into the thread.
Especially when it plays upon any refresher of the page without me having to play it personally.

Just saying.


By the way, and don't take this the wrong way my Aussie Friends, you guys DO sound like the redneck version of the brits!

PS - DAMNIT! There it goes again. Even when I post a reply!

Good stuff though, don't get me wrong.



[edit on 30-3-2009 by Jay-in-AR]

reply to post by Jay-in-AR



I thought it was just me with the audio starting when the page opens...

I agree it is a bit annoying, it should load like the videos do and you have to press play...unfortunately I can't do much about it now

No worries, man.
No worries.

I just used it as a poke to make fun of your accents!


Good stuff.

reply to post by Jay-in-AR



lol yeah I know how you mean

The tyres screeching doesn't help