THINK ABOUTIT UFO SIGHTINGS REPORT

1953 North Bankstown, NSW UFO Photograph:

An Early Australian Case

On January 2, 1953, at North Bankstown, New South Wales, a man named Atkinson watched — and photographed — an object roughly 300 feet across. It’s one of the earliest documented photographic UFO claims in the Australian record, from the same week as separate reports at Berri, South Australia and Geelong, Victoria.

Date: January 2, 1953

Sighting Time: Not documented

Day/Night: Not documented

Location: North Bankstown, New South Wales, Australia

Urban or Rural: Urban/suburban

No. of Entity(‘s): None documented

Entity Type: None documented

Entity Description: None documented

Hynek Classification: DD (Daylight Disc) — presumed based on the object being described and photographed, though the source material does not specify day or night conditions, shape, or color; this classification should be treated as provisional given the sparse detail available

Duration: Not documented

No. of Object(s): 1

Description of the Object(s): Not documented beyond its approximate size; the object was both observed directly and photographed by the witness

Shape of Object(s): Not documented

Size of Object(s): Approximately 300 feet across

Color of Object(s): Not documented

Distance to Object(s): Not documented

Number of Witnesses: 1 — a male witness identified only by the surname Atkinson

Special Features/Characteristics: The witness photographed the object, making this one of the earliest documented photographic UFO claims in the Australian record; no copy, description, or analysis of the photograph itself survives in the available source material

Case Status: Insufficient Data — a single-witness account with almost no surviving descriptive detail, and no
available copy of the photograph the witness reportedly took

Source: Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS)

Summary/Description: On January 2, 1953, a witness identified as Atkinson observed and photographed an object approximately 300 feet across at North Bankstown, New South Wales. No further descriptive detail or copy of the photograph survives.

Related Cases: None documented — occurred the same general week as separate reported sightings at Berri, South Australia and Geelong, Victoria, though no connection between the events is established

Detailed Report

On January 2, 1953, at North Bankstown, New South Wales, a witness identified only by the surname Atkinson observed an object estimated at roughly 300 feet across. The witness photographed the object at the time. No further detail — shape, color, altitude, duration of the sighting, or time of day — survives in the available source material, and no copy or description of the resulting photograph has been located.

Researcher’s Notes

The North Bankstown Photograph — 1953 and a Case Reduced to a Single Fact

This case survives as barely more than a single sentence. A name, a location, a date, an approximate size, and the fact that a photograph was taken — that’s the entirety of what’s documented. This page presents it honestly as such rather than inventing supporting detail.
The claimed photograph is the case’s most significant feature, and also its biggest evidentiary gap. Without any surviving copy, description, or analysis of the image, its existence can’t be independently assessed. This is a common problem with mid-century UFO photograph claims cited only by title or brief mention in later compilations, without the original image itself being preserved in accessible archives.
The size estimate (300 feet) is strikingly large relative to the report’s overall brevity. A specific numeric estimate surviving while virtually every other descriptive detail was lost is an unusual pattern, though not an implausible one for a compilation drawing on fragmentary original records.

The North Bankstown case is preserved here as a documented data point in the historical record of early Australian UFO photography claims — genuinely one of the thinnest entries in this archive, but included for completeness given its early date and claimed photographic evidence.