1966: Westall UFO Encounter

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THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTING REPORT

Date: April 6, 1966

Sighting Time: 11.00 am,

Day/Night: Day

Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Urban or Rural: Westall High School (now Westall Secondary College)

Entity Type:

Entity Description:

Hynek Classification: DD (Daylight Disc) Metallic or whitish object was seen in the day. 

Duration: 20 minutes

No. of Object(s): 

Size of Object(s): about twice the size of a family car

Distance to Object(s):

Shape of Object(s): saucer-shape

Color of Object(s): grey with a slight purple hue

Number of Witnesses: more than 200

Source:

Summary/Description: The Westall UFO encounter is an event that occurred on 6 April 1966 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Around 11.00 am, for about 20 minutes, more than 200 students and teachers at two Victorian state schools allegedly witnessed an unexplained flying object which descended into a nearby open wild grass field. The paddock was adjacent to a grove of pine trees in an area known as The Grange (now a nature reserve). According to reports, the object then ascended in a north-westerly direction over the suburb of Clayton South, Victoria, Australia  

Full Report

At approximately 11.00 am on Wednesday, 6 April 1966, a class of students and a teacher from Westall High School (now Westall Secondary College) 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 alleged to have been seen. 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 (primary students). 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 covered the encounter in detail and ran two front page stories. The first was on 14 April.and the next was on 21 April

Broadsheet newspaper, The Age ran a very small article about the Westall incident on 7 April 1966, on page 6:

“Object Perhaps Balloon – An unidentified flying object seen over the Clayton-Moorabbin area yesterday morning might have been a weather balloon. Hundreds of children and a number of teachers at Westall School, Clayton, watched the object during morning break.”

The newspaper also said a number of small aeroplanes circled around it. However, a check later showed that no commercial, private or RAAF pilots had reported anything unusual in the area. The Weather Bureau released a balloon at Laverton at 8:30 am and the westerly wind blowing at the time could have moved it into the area where the sighting was reported”.[9] Witnesses and researchers were surprised when The Sun News-Pictorial (a tabloid) ran no story, yet The Age (a broadsheet) did.

The Sun and The Herald newspapers, while not mentioning the Westall incident, both published cartoons in the following day’s editions that made light of the flying saucer phenomena.

On April 6, 1966, many students and some staff of Westall High School (now called Westall Secondary College), in Rosebank Avenue, Clayton South, witnessed a flying saucer fly over their school and then descend into a paddock near the school. The paddock was adjacent to a grove of pine trees, in an area known as The Grange (now a nature reserve). Soon after, around five light aircraft appeared, giving chase to the UFO as it rapidly ascended and moved off, never to be seen again. The provenance of the light aircraft was also never resolved.

Shortly afterwards, one to three circular patch(es) of grass were seen by many witnesses in the paddock. Later, uniformed men, thought to have been police and military personnel (airforce, according to some accounts), were seen attending the scene. After taking various measurements, some have reported that the paddock was then burnt or turned over by these uniformed men. Some witnesses reported being spoken to, or later visited by, these personnel. Some say that both students and staff were told not to discuss the incident, while some students reported being disciplined for speaking out. It has been estimated that about 200 people witnessed these events on that autumn day in Melbourne’s (then) south-eastern fringe, including people at the adjacent Westall State School.