THINK ABOUTIT UFO|ENTITY ENCOUNTER REPORT

1977 Bulloo River, Queensland: The “35 Beings” Contactee Account

In January 1978, a Brisbane tabloid published the account of a gold prospector — identified only under the pseudonym “Albert Smith,” at his own request — who claimed that seven months earlier, 35 blue-grey-skinned humanoid beings from a place called “Begua” had landed near his remote camp on the Bulloo River in southwest Queensland and stayed for two days, during which he says he was mentally controlled, watched them jump 60 meters in a single bound, and witnessed one of them summon eight days of rain. It is, by a wide margin, one of the most extraordinary and least verifiable accounts in this archive.

Date: June 22, 1977 (reported in the press January 8, 1978, more than six months later)

Sighting Time: 11:00 p.m.

Day/Night: Night

Location: Bulloo River, far southwest Queensland, Australia (precise location undisclosed, described only as the witness’s remote prospecting camp)

Urban or Rural: Rural — remote, isolated

No. of Entity(‘s): 35, per the witness’s account

Entity Type: Humanoid

Entity Description: Described as appearing very human, with blue-grey skin; men wearing grey business-suit-style clothing, women in summer-weight clothing despite near-freezing conditions; one woman claimed to be 490 years old and was described as looking mummified; beings reportedly capable of leaping 60 meters in a single jump and speaking only in whispered tones, sometimes communicating with hand gestures

Hynek Classification: CE-III (Close Encounter III) — corrected from the source material’s duplicated “CE3 CE-III” label. The claimed extent of interaction — direct physical contact, two days of alleged reciprocal communication, and reported mental control — arguably exceeds a standard CE-III close observation, though no removal to another location or craft interior was described, so this page retains CE-III rather than upgrading to CE-IV

Duration: Approximately two days

No. of Object(s): Described inconsistently — initially as three lights merging into one landing event, later referred to in the plural (“their craft”); this page treats the object count as unclear in the source material rather than resolving it to a single confirmed craft

Size of Object(s): Approximately 50 meters high, each reportedly supported by five legs (the source material’s “fire supporting legs” is treated here as a probable transcription error for “five supporting legs”)

Distance to Object(s): Not documented; craft reportedly landed in a clump of trees
near the witness’s camp

Shape of Object(s): Not documented

Color of Object(s): Described only as producing dazzling lights

Number of Witnesses: 1 (the anonymous, pseudonymous witness only)

Special Features/Characteristics: The witness claims the beings played a game involving hundreds of lightning-emitting balls; that he touched their leader, “Behnar,” and found the texture like soft rubber; that the beings appeared to anticipate his questions before he asked them and permitted him to ask only what they wished; that he believed his mind was controlled for the full two days, including being physically unable to rise from bed to watch the craft depart; that the beings could summon rain on command, which then continued for eight days; that no physical marks, objects, or other evidence remained after their departure beyond a strong smell of kerosene; and that this was the fourth in a claimed series of extraordinary encounters by the same witness since 1973, including a fleet of 16 spacecraft, a cigar-shaped craft with visible occupants, and a separate brilliantly illuminated craft in 1976
Case Status: Insufficient Data — an anonymous, pseudonymous single witness, a tabloid source published more than six months after the claimed event, no physical evidence of any kind, and claims (490-year lifespans, 60-meter jumps, on-demand rain lasting eight days, total mental control) that go well beyond what any evidence in the source material can support

Source: Brisbane Sunday Sun (Brisbane, Australia), January 8, 1978, by John Dux

Summary/Description: An anonymous gold prospector, given the pseudonym “Albert Smith” by the reporting journalist, claimed that in June 1977, 35 humanoid beings from a place called “Begua” landed near his remote camp on the Bulloo River, Queensland, and remained for two days, during which he reported extraordinary abilities, alleged mental control over him, and a claimed history of three prior encounters dating back to 1973. No physical evidence, corroborating witness, or independent verification of any element exists.

Related Cases: None documented — the witness claims three additional, undocumented prior encounters in the same general area (winter 1973, May 1974, June 1976), none of which are covered as separate cases on this site

Detailed Report

At about 11:00 p.m. on June 22, 1977, a gold prospector — identified in the resulting news article only by the pseudonym “Albert Smith,” at his own request, since the reporter explicitly states this was not his real name — claimed to have seen three lights descend silently from the sky and settle into a clump of trees near his remote camp on the Bulloo River in far southwest Queensland. He reported watching figures emerge amid dazzling light.

According to the account, published in the Brisbane Sunday Sun more than six months later, in January 1978, what followed was a two-day encounter with 35 beings the witness said identified their origin as a place called “Begua.” He described the men as dressed in grey, business-suit-style clothing and the women in summer-weight clothing despite near-freezing conditions, all with an otherwise human appearance apart from blue-grey skin. Their craft, he said, stood about 50 meters high, supported by legs he described in a phrasing likely intended as “five” rather than the “fire” recorded in some transcriptions.

The witness said the group’s leader identified himself as Behnar, and that touching him felt like touching soft rubber. He claimed the beings seemed to anticipate his questions before he voiced them, and that he believed they permitted him to ask only what they wanted him to — leading him to conclude they had control of his mind for the full two days. He described the beings as speaking English only in whispered tones, sometimes supplementing speech with hand gestures, and said only a few remained near his camp while the rest went down to the river. One woman, he said, claimed to be 490 years old and appeared correspondingly mummified in her physical presentation. At one point, he said, the group played a game involving hundreds of balls that threw off lightning, and were capable of leaping 60 meters in a single jump.

When the beings eventually departed, the witness said nothing remained to prove their presence beyond a heavy smell of kerosene — no physical marks or objects of any kind. He said the group’s leader told him he would make rain shortly before departing, and that rain began shortly afterward and continued, by the witness’s account, for eight days. He also said he wanted to watch their craft leave but believed he was again mentally controlled, finding himself unable to rise from his bed, as though his legs weighed 200 kilograms.

The witness described this June 1977 encounter as the fourth in a series of extraordinary experiences at the same prospecting site over five years: a fleet of 16 spacecraft observed hovering and departing in the winter of 1973; an approach to a hovering, cigar-shaped craft with visible male and female occupants in May 1974; and a separate, brilliantly illuminated craft in June 1976. At the time of the interview, he stated he had not approached any authorities, citing a lack of proof, and said he intended to bring a camera on a planned return visit to the area to document further encounters, while expressing both fear and a degree of reassurance that he had not been harmed during his previous experience.

Researcher’s Notes

The Bulloo River Account — 1977 and Why This Page Treats It With Maximum Caution

The witness’s identity is entirely unknown, by the reporter’s own admission. “Albert Smith” is stated outright in the original article to be a pseudonym, assigned at the witness’s request. There is no way to independently verify who this person was, whether he existed as described, or any detail of his background — a fundamentally different evidentiary situation from cases where a witness is named and can, at least in principle, be traced or interviewed further.
Every named UFO investigator elsewhere in this archive verified accounts through named, traceable witnesses. This case has neither. Compare this to cases like Willow Grove or the Tanami Desert sighting, where researchers personally interviewed identified witnesses. Here, only a tabloid journalist’s account of an anonymous source’s claims exists, with no independent investigator named as having verified any part of the story.
The claims themselves go well beyond typical entity-encounter reports in this archive. A 490-year-old being, 60-meter jumps, on-command rain lasting eight days, total mental domination preventing physical movement, and a repeating pattern of increasingly dramatic encounters by the same uncorroborated witness are all extraordinary claims that would require correspondingly strong evidence — evidence that, by the witness’s own account, does not exist (“no marks or objects left to prove their existence”).
This account fits a recognizable pattern sometimes called “contactee” narrative. A repeating personal history of escalating encounters, direct verbal communication with a named alien leader, claims of unique chosen status, and a stated intent to seek “proof” on a future occasion are all common structural features of contactee-genre claims from this era, distinct from single-incident witness or multi-witness sighting reports.
The publication gap is itself notable. The story appeared in print more than six months after the claimed event, which is a long interval for a first press account of a dramatic, multi-day encounter, and leaves open the question of what prompted the witness to come forward when he did.

This account is preserved here because it was published and is part of the historical record of Australian UFO reporting — not because its content can be verified or should be treated as comparable in evidentiary weight to the named, investigated, multi-witness cases elsewhere in this archive. Readers should weigh it accordingly.