THINK ABOUTIT UFO SIGHTING REPORT

1973 Dundurrabin, NSW UFO Sighting: The Tyringham-Dundurrabin Flap

On an evening in late June 1973, members of the Dorrington family in the small timber town of Dundurrabin, New South Wales watched a huge, disc-shaped object hover over nearby Boney Mountain for a quarter of an hour — wrapped in green light, ringed by a rotating brilliant red band, and periodically extending a solid-looking green beam that oscillated up and down more than a dozen times before the whole display sank behind the mountain and vanished. It was one sighting within a much longer, well-documented UFO “flap” that gripped the area for months.

Date: On or about June 25, 1973

Sighting Time: Between 6:30 and 7:00 p.m.

Day/Night: Night — corrected from the source material’s blank field; late June is midwinter in this part of NSW, with sunset well before 6:30 p.m., meaning this sighting occurred in full darkness

Location: Dundurrabin, New South Wales, Australia, in the direction of Boney Mountain (also referred to in the source material as Boney Peak)

Urban or Rural: Rural — small timber town

No. of Entity(‘s): None documented

Entity Type: None documented

Entity Description: None documented

Hynek Classification: NL (Nocturnal Light) — corrected from the source material’s duplicated “CE1 CE-I” label. The object was observed hovering over a distant mountain rather than at close range to the witnesses, which does not meet the proximity threshold CE-I requires; the object’s described structure and beam go beyond a simple point light, but distance rules out a close-encounter classification

Duration: Approximately 15 minutes

No. of Object(s): 1

Description of the Object(s): A large, disc-shaped object surrounded entirely by a green glow, with a rotating, brilliant red light band around its middle; a V-shaped, seemingly solid green beam extended from the object and oscillated up and down more than a dozen times before retracting; the object descended straight down behind the mountain until it disappeared from view

Shape of Object(s): Disc

Size of Object(s): Not numerically documented; witness indications given on-site to the investigating researcher suggested a very large object

Color of Object(s): Green glow surrounding the entire object; a rotating brilliant red light band around its middle; the extending beam was also green

Distance to Object(s): Not numerically documented; the object hovered over Boney Mountain as seen from Dundurrabin, implying a distance of at least several kilometers

Number of Witnesses: Multiple members of the Dorrington family (exact number not documented)

Special Features/Characteristics: This sighting occurred during a documented, months-long localized UFO “flap” centered on the small timber towns of Tyringham and Dundurrabin, between Armidale and Grafton, NSW, involving repeated unusual light phenomena and other reported strange occurrences beyond this single incident; the investigating researcher produced an on-site drawing of the object under the direct guidance of a witness; the incident was later covered by The Daily Examiner (Grafton), September 8, 1973, alongside the witness-directed drawing

Case Status: Unexplained — one incident within a broader, well-documented localized flap investigated directly and over an extended period by researcher Bill Chalker

Source: Bill Chalker (1996)

Summary/Description: On or about June 25, 1973, members of the Dorrington family at Dundurrabin, NSW watched a large, disc-shaped object hover over Boney Mountain for roughly 15 minutes, surrounded by a green glow with a rotating red light band and an oscillating green beam, before descending behind the mountain and disappearing. The sighting was part of a broader, months-long UFO flap in the Tyringham-Dundurrabin area investigated directly by Bill Chalker.

Related Cases: None documented on this site — part of the same broader Tyringham-Dundurrabin flap described by Chalker as involving months of additional, separately reported light phenomena and unusual occurrences in the same district

Detailed Report

An impression of the object seen by the group from Dundurrabin, in the direction of Boney Mountain, drawn on-site by Bill Chalker under a witness’s direction, alongside press coverage from The Daily Examiner (Grafton), September 8, 1973. (Credit: Bill Chalker)

In the middle of 1973, a remote district between Armidale and Grafton, New South Wales, centered on the small timber towns of Tyringham and Dundurrabin, became the site of a sustained UFO “flap” — a localized period of repeated, unusual aerial and light phenomena that persisted for months. Researcher Bill Chalker learned of the situation shortly after it began and was able to investigate it directly over an extended period, a rare opportunity given how unpredictable most individual UFO sightings tend to be.

On or about June 25, 1973, members of the Dorrington family, residents of Dundurrabin, observed a large, disc-shaped object hovering over nearby Boney Mountain for approximately 15 minutes, between 6:30 and 7:00 p.m. The entire object was surrounded by a green glow, with a rotating, brilliant red light visible around its middle. A V-shaped beam of green light, appearing solid rather than diffuse, extended from the object and oscillated up and down more than a dozen times before retracting fully into the main body of the object. After approximately 15 minutes of this display, the object descended straight down behind the mountain and disappeared from view. Size estimates indicated to Chalker on-site by witnesses suggested a very large object, though no precise figures were recorded.

Researcher’s Notes

The Dundurrabin Sighting — 1973 and a Rare Documented UFO Flap

• This is an NL case, not CE-I. The object was observed hovering over a distant mountain, not at close proximity to the witnesses. Hynek’s CE-I classification specifically requires close-range observation (within roughly 500 feet), which a mountain-distance sighting cannot meet regardless of how structured or detailed the observed light display was.
• This case’s real significance is contextual — it’s part of a genuine, sustained flap. Chalker specifically frames this incident as valuable because it occurred within a months-long period of repeated activity in the same small district, giving him an unusually rare opportunity for something close to repeated observation of a genuinely elusive phenomenon. A single isolated sighting of this kind would be interesting; one occurring within a broader, sustained local pattern is more evidentially significant.
• The on-site, witness-directed drawing is a notable piece of documentation. Rather than relying purely on verbal description, Chalker produced a sketch directly under a witness’s guidance while still at the scene — a more rigorous documentation method than a description recorded well after the fact.
• The oscillating beam detail is unusual and specific. A beam extending and retracting more than a dozen times, rather than remaining static or simply switching on and off, is a level of behavioral detail that goes beyond a typical “light in the sky” report and suggests either a genuinely unusual phenomenon or an unusually attentive set of witnesses.
• Numerical detail is sparse, and this page doesn’t invent it. Size and distance were both left undocumented in precise terms in the original source material, with only a general “very large” impression conveyed on-site. This page preserves that imprecision rather than assigning false-sounding specific figures.

The Dundurrabin sighting stands out less as an isolated case and more as a single, well-documented data point within a genuine, sustained local UFO flap — the kind of repeated, geographically concentrated activity that gave a researcher like Chalker a rare chance to investigate an inherently unpredictable phenomenon with something approaching consistency.

“A V-shaped green ‘solid’ beam seemed to oscillate up and down, more than a dozen times, before retracting into the main object.”

— as recorded by Bill Chalker, 1973