The full "UFOs, Alien Abduction & Contact: The Parapsychological Connection" lecture at Campbelltown onMarch 11, 2015

Back in November 2014 I gave an abbreviated version of this talk to a full house AIPR conference in North Sydney which was very well received. Now here is an opportunity to get the full story in a powerpoint lecture with Q & A (question & Answers) time over an evening at the March meeting of the UFOPRSA organisation in Campbelltown. Join me from a journey into the real Twilight Zone on the evening of Wednesday March 11th, 2015:

The National Spotlight on UFOs

by Bill Chalker

Australia has a rich history of organised interest in the UFO subject. Various cooperative national ventures were undertaken over the decades, the most notable being the initial publication of the Australian Flying Saucer Review magazine in the early 1960s, the Commonwealth Aerial Phenomena Investigation Organisation (CAPIO) in the mid to late sixties, the Australian Co-ordination Section (ACOS) for the Centre for UFO Studies during the seventies (which became the Australian Centre for UFO Studies in 1980), the UFO Research Australian Newsletter (UFORAN) magazine and the UFO Research Australia in the 1980s and early 1990s, the Australian UFO Research Network since 1998 and the national newsstand magazine Australasian Ufologist from 1999.  This article will focus on these national based initiatives which were a force of collective perspectives brought to bear on the UFO phenomenon, which clearly had more than just state based manifestations.

THE FIFTIES

Public civilian investigations took off in July, 1952, when in response to a huge wave of sightings at the time, and one of his own, during May, 1951, Edgar Jarrold began Australia's first public civilian flying saucer organization - the Australia Flying Saucer Bureau  (AFSB)- based in Sydney. 

(Sydney Morning Herald, 2 February 1954)

During 1953, the Australian Flying Saucer Investigation Committee (AFSIC) was established in Victoria, and the Australian Flying Saucer Club (AFSC), which later became the Australian Flying Saucer Research Society, began in South Australia.  Jarrold’s group had “Australian capital city observers” in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Hobart. From each of these state connections lay the seeds that would lead to the ultimate development of strong state groups. With the departure of Jarrold by 1955, and the failure of Fred Stone to develop a similar network, state borders progressively lead to the formation of strong independent groups, which arose from active elements developing in various states.  These included the UFO Investigation Centre (UFOIC) during 1956, the Queensland Flying Saucer Research Bureau (QFSRB - now known as UFO Research (Qld)) in 1956, and the Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society (VFSRS - now known as the Victorian UFO Research Society) in 1957.

During the fifties cooperative national ventures initially pivoted around the group activities of Edgar Jarrold in NSW, then Fred Stone in South Australia.  By the end of the decade there was a national association developed among some of the state groups. This was initially suggested by UFOIC in June 1958, with the idea that such an association would allow the collective membership of all state groups to access pooled resources.  The UFO Association of Australia was created by September 1958 with a pooled membership of 300 from the three largest cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.  It was intended that there would be a pooling of resources such as tape recordings, slides and other material.  Fred Stone of the AFSRS, perhaps stung by his failure to establish the AFSRS as a national entity, abstained from the association.

In June 1959 Papua New Guinea was still a territory of Australia.  There the spectacular "entity" sightings of Reverend Gill and members of his Boainai mission capture the public imagination and the attention of the Australian researchers. Reverend Gill made notes about the experience and sent a copy of his own report - 8 closely typed foolscap pages - to Rev. Crutwell at Menapi Mission, who in turn sent a copy to Mr. D. H. Judge, a Brisbane member of the Queensland Flying Saucer Research Bureau.  The report was released to the media and accounts appeared in the media during mid August, 1959, causing a sensation.

(CUFOS reconstruction with Rev Gills direct assistance

from the International UFO Reporter)

(based on Rev. Gill's own sketch)

 Reverend Gill was at the time of his sightings already scheduled to return to Australia.  This presented civilian groups with an excellent opportunity to assess the significance of the reports.   All investigators found Gill to be very impressive.  His credibility was enormous.  This lead one of the leading civilian groups, the Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society, to view the Gill reports as constituting the most remarkable testimony of intensive UFO activity ever reported to civilian investigators in the entire history of UFO research.  VFSRS indicated that they were unique because for the first time, credible witnesses had reported the presence of humanoid beings associated with UFOs.  The VFSRS report concluded that the Boianai UFOs were advanced craft, manned by humanoid beings, capable of a fantastic aerodynamic performance.  VFSRS now felt that UFO researchers no longer needed to enquire as to the nature of UFOs, now only their origin was to be determined.

The major civilian groups of the day, in a spirit of new found cooperation inspired by the significance of the Boianai observations, distributed copies of Reverend Gill's own sighting report to all members of the House of Representatives of Australia's federal parliament.   A circular letter accompanied the report, signed by the presidents of the participating civilian UFO groups, urging members of parliament to press the Minister for Air for a statement about the attitude Air Force Intelligence had of the New Guinea reports.

On November 24th, 1959, in federal parliament, Mr. E.D. Cash, a Liberal politician from Western Australia asked the Minister for Air, Mr. F.M. Osborne, whether his department (specifically Air Force Intelligence) had investigated "reports of recent sightings of mysterious objects in the skies over Papua and New Guinea."   The Minister's reply did not address this question, but instead he focused on the general situation indicating that most sightings were explained and "that only a very small percentage - something like 3 percent - of reported sightings of flying objects cannot be explained". 

Peter Norris, VFSRS president, was advised by the Directorate of Air Force Intelligence that the Department was awaiting "depth of evidence" on the New Guinea sightings. 

The civilian groups stood at the end of the fifties in a position of strength, unified, strengthened, and galvanised into action, by the quality of the Gill reports.   The extraordinary reports of UFO "visitants" over Boianai, Papua New Guinea, during 1959, were remarkable testimony from "credible observers of relatively incredible things" (as the director of USAF intelligence, Major General John Samford referred to the witnesses of the minority of "unknown" and "unidentified" reports, back in 1952).  The Anglican Church missionary, Reverend William Gill, provided civilian groups with remarkable testimony of unknown "interlopers".  They were in stark contrast to the hoary silliness that punctuated the flirtation of enthusiasts with the contactee absurdities during much of the fifties.  Buoyed by substantial data, the civilian groups were ready to face what would prove to be the turbulent sixties. 

THE SIXTIES

Fred Stone of AFSRS organised the first flying saucer convention in 1960.  Held in Adelaide it attracted little support from the other states, but the attendance of Reverend Gill gave it some focus, but still it remained anchored in the issues that dominated the fifties – the validity of contactees such as George Adamski, which approach was best – the “nuts and bolts” extraterrestrial approach or the psychic route, and just what were the purposes behind the saucer visitations.                         

During the early sixties some of the state groups even co-operated in a joint publication. But cooperation wilted for a few years.  Through to the end of the fifties state groups produced their own publications – UFOIC published the “UFO Bulletin”, VFSRS produced the “UFORUM” journal, and QFSRB issued “Light” magazine.  By 1960 in cooperation initially with the Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society (VFSRS) and later also with the Queensland Flying Saucer Research Bureau, UFOIC published the Australian Flying Saucer Review (January 1960, April 1960, September 1960, February 1961, July 1961, January 1962 and November 1962). The interstate cooperative effort lapsed. VFSRS began publishing its own Australian Flying Saucer Review Victorian edition in May 1964, continuing for a number of years, and intermittently after that. UFOIC published 3 issues of its own NSW edition (June 1965, November 1966 and the much delayed December 1969 issue).

By 1965 another national initiative emerged - C.A.P.I.O. (Commonwealth Aerial Phenomena Investigation Organisation) which had some limited success bringing Australian groups together for a few years. 

A major turning point in civilian UFO research in Australia occurred on February 27th, 1965, at Ballarat, Victoria.  What was billed as Australia's real first convention of UFO groups provided a focus for elevating the respectability of the UFO subject.  Unfortunately, in hindsight it also started a process that, while initially encouraging, would eventually divide some UFO groups and lay the seeds of group political warfare which would resound for years to come. What seemed to have been a very good idea emerged at the conference.  It was suggested apparently by RAAF representatives that the RAAF would deal with civilian UFO organisations only if they were organised on a federal level.  It was resolved at the convention to form such a national organisation - "a centralised body all the groups in Australia in order to deal with the government and public on top level."  The name of this organisation was agreed as C.A.P.I.O. (Commonweath Aerial Phenomena Investigation Organisation).  Officer bearers were elected at the convention.  Peter Norris, VFSRS president, was made CAPIO president.  Leslie Locke (Western Australia) and Andrew Tomas (NSW) were elected vice presidents.  Sylvia Sutton and Judy Magee, both from VFSRS, took the positions of secretary and assistant secretary respectively.  This was the beginnings of C.A.P.I.O.  Attempts were made for the large state groups to cooperate in combine publications and the national group CAPIO.  Both efforts ran into trouble, largely fuelled by group politics.

(the 1965 Ballarat conference with l to r: B.G. Roberts left) & George Jones (centre)

However the 1965 Ballarat convention was a great opportunity for those researchers, investigators and enthusiasts who attended.  It had been arranged by W. Howard Sloane, of the Ballarat Astronomical Society, with the aim of removing "the stigma of ridicule from research into UFOs."  Not only did representatives of most existing Australian groups attend, but there were also several witnesses to some of Australia's most famous cases, including the Rev. William Gill and Charles Brew, who spoke about their experiences.  Former Air Marshall Sir George Jones attended and was out spoken in his support for serious UFO research.  The RAAF was represented by Mr. B. G. Roberts, Senior Research Scientist, of the Operational Research Office, Department of Air, Canberra.  The presence of a scientific consultant of the RAAF, along with 2 RAAF officers, manning a hardware display, was an unprecedented step for the Australian government.  CAPIO lasted a few years but collapsed due a range of problems.  Differences again arose and national initiatives were largely abandoned until 1974.

THE SEVENTIES

The 1960s and the 1970s were periods steeped in UFO accounts of high strangeness that emerged in a climate of gradually increasing maturity in the manner in which the phenomenon was investigated.   Considerable intrigue and energetic debate marked the search for answers from both the perspective of the civilian researcher and that of the clandestine world of official investigations.  Occasionally such activities came together in curious ways but generally official investigations remained the stuff of secrecy, at least to the general public.  Civilian researchers themselves were caught up in fundamental and evolutionary steps towards understanding the nature and extent of the UFO phenomenon.

The Australian Centre for UFO Studies (ACUFOS), which started out as ACOS (Australian Co-ordination Section) faired better than CAPIO during the seventies and early eighties.  ACOS - the Australian Co-Ordination Section - for Dr. J. Allen Hynek’s Centre for UFO Studies was formed by Harry Griesberg and David Seargent in 1974.  ACOS organised regular conferences, the first in 1975, from which a real sense of co-operation emerged between most of the state civilian groups and individual researchers.  Both as ACOS and as the Australian Centre for UFO Studies (ACUFOS) from 1980, it was a focus of major projects and documentation programmes. 

(UFOCON 1, 1975 - I'm on the left hand side & Keith Basterfield is on the centre desk)

Dr. Allen Hynek, who had acted as astronomy consultant to the United States Air Force UFO study since 1948, came to Australia during 1973, to lecture on astronomy and UFOs and to promote his ground breaking book, "The UFO Experience - A scientific Inquiry", published in the US in 1972.  His visit was a watershed for both Australia and himself.  Dr. Hynek was in the best position to determine the scientific merits of the UFO phenomenon.  He had consulted for more than 20 years with the US Air Force and had moved from a sceptic to a scientist who was willing to actively promote the validity of the phenomenon.  He championed the need for serious research.  His 1972 book was his case for the scientific merit of the UFO phenomenon.  It caused a lot of scientists to rethink their position on the subject.  By 1973, Dr. Hynek lacked an appropriate vehicle for his ongoing research.  For years he had quietly encouraged and actively participated in the "invisible college".  Following his visit and the massive resurgence of UFO activity in America during that year he brought the "invisible college" into the open and formed the Centre for UFO Studies.  It continues as an ongoing focus for serious research into the UFO phenomenon.

During his stay he researched many of the classic cases.  Dr. Hynek was able to meet with Rev. William Gill and also journeyed to Papua, enabling him to undertake a detailed on site investigation into this famous case.  He came away still convinced of the bonafide nature of the Boianai "visitants".    While in Australia he had discussions with researchers to try to set up a local focal point of case material which could then be forwarded to his group in Chicago.  Out of those discussions, ACOS - the Australian Co-Ordination Centre for the Centre for UFO Studies was formed.

THE EIGHTIES

In 1980 a number of the state groups joined forces with the cooperative publishing venture UFO Research Australian Newsletter (UFORAN) edited by South Australian research group veteran Vladimir Godic. It became a focus for cooperative activity often with a national focus.  

ACUFOS had been successful in its efforts at co-operation at a national level, but by the second half of the eighties it loss much of its momentum, when many of the leading researchers, tired of group politics and problems, opted for a more informal networking structure.  In 1984 UFO Research Australia (UFORA) formed by Vladimir and Pony Godic, with Keith Basterfield, was the outgrowth of this trend.  It was successful in its efforts to encourage serious research on a loose networking basis.  UFORA also pioneered the use of electronic mail and bulletin boards by UFO researchers in Australia.  

THE NINETIES AND BEYOND 

Vladimir and Pony Godic edited a digital book on UFO research in Australia and New Zealand, which was published in 1992.   It brought together material published in Vladimir Godic's UFO Research Australia Newsletter (UFORAN) through the eighties, and was a testament of the success of UFORA.  

Unfortunately Vladimir Godic's untimely death in 1995 led to the closure of UFORA.  ACUFOS limped into the nineties a pale shadow of its former self.  Most serious researchers had long since abandoned it in favour of the national networking vision established by ACOS and the earlier ACUFOS manifestation and UFORA, and because ACUFOS had lost direction and credibility with what was seen as the uncritical promotion of dubious material by its final incumbent co-ordinator.  Its recent attempted resurrection lacked credibility and seemed to be little more than a vehicle for the views of a rather skewed form of ufology. 

The proliferation of interest in the UFO field seemed well served by the variety of groups, networks, and individuals that became available.  Their contributions were supplemented by the influx of new people and approaches.  The civilian contribution to elaborating the Australian UFO mystery continued with considerable momentum, but national focuses were difficult to coordinate.  However the national vision pioneered by CAPIO, ACOS, ACUFOS and UFORA were to get an effective re-empowerment.  

In 1998 the Australian UFO Research Network (AUFORN), was formed by Robert Frola and Diane Harrison.  AUFORN provided the opportunity for an effective, and yet, informal network through a number of successful steps, including the AUFORN internet network and a national toll free UFO hotline number for reporting sightings. AUFORN also supported the growth of this magazine the Australasian Ufologist which by 1999 had become a national newsstand publication.  

Both AUFORN and the Ufologist continued into the new century and mobilised the national focus that has been consistently revisited since the inception of public civilian group interest way back in 1952.  

The persistence in pursuing a national research, investigation and publishing vision for the UFO subject is an important and critical part of our ongoing attempts to understand this extraordinary subject.  A national spotlight on the UFO phenomenon needs to continue and should be vigorously supported.

By the UFO book … the Australian experience

(This is from an article I wrote some years ago which originally appeared in the Australian magazine UFOlogist)

Commercially published books on UFOs in Australia have appeared over the years with widely varied approaches in detail, focus and style.

Australia's first book on UFOs appeared in 1965.  "Flying Saucers over Australia" by James Holledge (or Stephen Holledge – the book carries both!), was a paperback billed as presenting "the startling indisputable evidence of Unidentified Flying Objects operating in our skies".  Holledge was a journalist who had churned out a number of books that were heavy on sensation and light on fact.  When you see some of his other titles, such as "Inside Soho", "Cult of the bosom", "What makes a call girl", "White slavery" and "Black Magic" then you realise not to expect much.  Surprisingly, despite being rather superficial, it did touch on a number of the key cases, including the 1965 Vaucluse Beach landing and the Charles Brew case.  Holledge did however take Adamski at face value and seemed sympathetic to some other contactee claims.

Australia's second UFO book, "Flying Saucers - Where do they come from?" emerged during 1967.  Its author, Sydney Sales Manager and former Royal Air Force photographer, Richard Tambling, had several UFO sightings of his own.  While it covered some of the better recent local sightings, it was Tambling's infatuation with contactee photos (particularly those of Dan Fry and Paul Villa) that set the tone and with hindsight revealed his calling.  As an Air Force photographer Tambling should have been a bit more critical, but subsequently all pretence was put aside.  Tambling was a full blown contactee, his space friends from Uranus no less. A slightly expanded edition of the book, still not mentioning Tambling’s personal contactee journey appeared in 1978.

 Prolific writer Michael Hervey's book, "UFOs over the Southern Hemisphere" was published in 1969.  It was widely publicised and sold well.  It was the most detailed compilation of Australian sightings to date, but unfortunately poor editing and research made it a rather uncritical mixture of low weight sightings and good cases.  A sightly revised edition was published in 1975 but little had improved.  For the period, however it was a handy reference for sightings. 

John Pinkney and Leonard Ryzman made a short lived splash in 1980 with their book “Alien Honeycomb – the first solid evidence for UFOs.” Not quite – prosaic sources rather than saucers were fitted the bill, but interspersed with the story of the “not so alien honeycomb” was coverage of Australian UFO sightings. Its focus on the disappearance of pilot Frederick Valentich was overshadowed by Kevin Killey and Gary Lester’s 1980 book “The Devil’s Meridian” which attempted to caste Bass Strait as our local answer to the Bermuda Triangle. 

In 1981 Keith Basterfield’s book, "UFOs: the Image Hypothesis - Close Encounters of an Australian Kind" tried to link hypnagogic and hypnapompic imagery (i.e. between the sleep/awake interface) as a possible explanation of UFO close encounter experiences.  The book had a catalogue of Australian cases. A revised and updated version of the book appeared in 1997 as “UFOs: A report on Australian Encounters.”

Veteran research Stan Seers had his memoir on the Australian UFO scene published in 1982 – “UFOs – The Case for Scientific Myopia”.  In the same year journalist Quentin Fogarty attempted to exorcise his Kaikoura UFO “demons” with his book “Let’s Hope They’re Friendly!” – a title that could have referred both to the UFOs and the researchers, media and skeptics that responded to the Kaikoura UFO enigma.  Murray Stott published his book “Aliens over Antipodes” in 1984.  It covered both Australian and New Zealand UFO events, sprinkled liberally with speculations and thoughts about the UFO subject.

Vladimir and Pony Godic edited a digital book on UFO research in Australia and New Zealand, which was published in 1992.   It brought together material published in Vladimir Godic's UFO Research Australia Newsletter (UFORAN) through the eighties.  

My book “The OZ Files – the Australian UFO Story” was released in 1996. It represented a detailed history of the Australian UFO controversy.  Kelly Cahill, who was central to the unravelling of an independently witnessed CE3 event with apparent “abduction” dimensions and compelling related physical evidence, had her own book on the first high profile abduction milieu in Australia, also published in 1996.  A regional survey, “The Gosford Files – UFOs over the NSW Central Coast” by Moira McGhee & Bryan Dickeson, appeared in 1997.

The Australian UFO book legacy continues …

THE WONDERFUL COSMIC TORNADOS OF OZ

In my up coming Science and the UFO controversy column for the Australian UFO magazine I've written a piece called "The Cosmic Tornados of OZ".  Here is part of it as related to the fascinating 1963 experience of farmer Charles Brew near Willow Grove in Victoria.
The "Close Encounter" series will cover the story with their usual flare. It will be dramatic and it will get some sense of the original. Shane Ryan and I will be giving commentary on the show.  Back in about 1980 I visited the Willow Grove property.  Sadly Charles Brew had passed away by then.  His family showed me the location. It wasn't quite like this.  The UFO may have been that close, but there was a steep immediate drop off of the land with hills in the near background and the weather - clouds and rain much more closed in.  Still, its only an attempt at dramatic recreation.

I refer you to the more detailed story here and to Keith Basterfield's "cold case" review.
Here for the first time is the real story behind the RAAF's strange embrace with their "close encounters" with "the cosmic tornados of OZ" - how Dr. Berson set the seed that unleashed a tornado that was the RAAF's "UFO problem."
Dorothy in “The Wizard of OZ” got taken to OZ.  Here is the story of how our knights of the air – the RAAF in the form of the Department of Air (now Department of Defence (RAAF)) – also got carried away by “tornados” but they were already were in the real OZ – Australia – and a scientific reality check was always there.  The RAAF just didn’t pay too much attention.  So much for the RAAF’s citation of “the scientific record” for their strange and toxic dance with UFOs. 

THE REMARKABLE WILLOW GROVE

“TORNADO LIKE METEOROLOGICAL MANIFESTATION”

 At 7 am, February 15th, 1963, Charles Brew bore witness to a something remarkable.  With his 20 year old son, Trevor, Charles was at work in the milking shed on their farm, "Willow Grove", near Moe, Victoria.  It was light, but rain clouds lay overhead.  Charles Brew was standing in an open area, with a full view of the eastern sky.  It was from that direction that he saw a strange object appear and descend very slowly towards the milk shed.  The objects approach was coincident with the cattle and a pony reacting violently.  The 2 farm dogs fled.  A local newspaper even reported that the cows turned somersaults, a suggestion the Brews denied.

The UFO descended to an apparent height of between 75 and 100 feet, hovering over a large Stringy-Bark tree.  It was about 25 feet in diameter and 9 to 10 feet high.  The top section appeared to be a transparent dome of a glass-like material, from which protruded a 5 to 6 foot high mast or aerial.  The "aerial" appeared to be as thick as a broom and resembled bright chrome.   The top portion of the disc itself was battle-ship grey in colour and appeared to be of a metallic lustre.  The base or underside section glowed with a pale blue colour and had "scoop-like protuberances about 12 to 18 inches apart around the outside edge."  This section rotated slowly at about one revolution per second.  This spinning motion apparently caused the protuberances to generate a swishing noise, somewhat like a turbine noise, that was clearly audible not only to Brew but also to his son Trevor, who was located inside the shed near the operating diesel powered milking machine units.

Charles Brew described how he felt his eyes were drawn towards the object "as though beams of magnetic current" were between it and him.  He also experienced a peculiar headache which came on with the approach of the object.  Even though Brew normally did not suffer migraine,  the use of tablets did not subdue the headache. 

After hovering for a few seconds the object began to climb at roughly a 45 degree angle, continuing on its westward course and passing up into the cloud deck again.  Trevor did not see the UFO, but confirmed the unusual sound, like a "diggerydoo" or "bullroarer" - aboriginal artifacts which can produce pulsating wind rushing noise.

The first serious investigation of the UFO event was conducted by Dr. Andrzej Berson, a principle research scientist of the CSIRO Division of meteorological division, and his associate Mr. Clark(e).  They arrived at the site within a few days of the event.

(VFSRS/Charles Brew)

(RAAF/Charles Brew)

(Dr. Michael Swords drawing of the Willow Grove UFO

inspired by Charles Brew's description)

Flt. Lt. N. Hudson and Sqd. Ldr. A.F. Javes of the RAAF interviewed Charles Brew on site on March 4th, 1963.  While impressed with his credibility, the weather at the time of the sighting - heavy continuous rain with very low cloud and poor visibility, and with a fresh wind in an easterly direction, caused them to focus on weather related explanations.  Their report describes the basis of their somewhat extraordinary "explanation" for the incident:

"On 6th March, Dr. Berson and Mr. Clark(e) (of the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation) Meteorological Physics division) were interviewed to see if clouds give this type of phenomenon.  They agreed that a tornado condition could give this effect.  The direction of rotation of Brew's report of the object was consistent with known facts for the Southern Hemisphere.  The blue-ish colouring has been reported previously and is probably due to electric discharge and there would be a smell of ozone.  The only difference in Brew's report was that the object moved from East to West because all previous reports to the CSIRO Met section of this nature have been from West to East.  Mr. Brew stated that the wind was fresh from an easterly direction.  However, (a) meteorological report states that wind was westerly at 8 knots."

The report notes that the met report was from a Yallourn observer, which is about 20 kilometres away, therefore local variations in the weather would not have been unusual.

Despite this lack of rigour in determining how relevant their hypothesis was, the RAAF officer' report concluded, "There is little doubt that Brew did witness something, and it is most likely that it was a natural phenomenon.  The phenomenon was probably a tornado. There was no reported damage along its path, therefore one could assume that it was weak in nature." 

The Department of Air responded to a civilian UFO group enquiry about the incident with the following statement, "Our investigation and enquiries reveal that there are scientific records of certain tornado-like meteorological manifestations which have a similar appearance in many ways to whatever was seen by Mr. Brew.  The information available is such however, that while we accept this is a possibility, we are unable to come to any firm conclusion as to the nature of the object or manifestation reported."  The official sighting summaries removed any such doubt.  By then the "possible cause" was listed as a "tornado like meteorological manifestation."  In correspondence with the Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society, the CSIRO's Dr. Berson indicated, "we are unable to come to any firm conclusion as to the nature of the object or manifestation reported."  It seems clear that the RAAF were largely parroting the CSIRO's conclusions and taking things a little further without any realistic justification.  Their musings pre-empted Terence Meaden's "vortex" hypothesis by some 2 decades.

Dr. Berson and Mr. Clarke visited Charles Brew at the Willow Grove property.  According to Brew, Dr. Berson was interested in the headache that he had, and indicated that Berson had said that it tied in with their theory of a possible electromagnetic nature of the incident.  The CSIRO's field investigation had in fact preceded that the RAAF by about a week. Brew indicated that the RAAF officers told him that the object he saw was similar to those seen overseas and that it was the best sighting they had looked at.

Dr. Berson & Reg Clarke (Source: Garratt, Angus & Holper "Winds of Change: 50 years of achievements in the CSIRO division of Atmospheric Research 1946 - 1996")

What the Department of Air referred to as a "tornado like meteorological manifestation" elicited the following emotive description from Charles Brew.  It mirrors the striking nature of his encounter with the "unknown".  He said, "I wished it would come again.  It was beautiful.  I could feel the life pulsating from it."

Dr. James McDonald visited Charles Brew during his 1967 Australian trip interviewing him at the site of the 1963 incident.   McDonald concluded, "like that of many other UFO witnesses, it is extremely difficult to explain in present-day scientific or technological terms."

Despite the extraordinary nature of the Willow Grove incident and the high level of official interest in it, the sighting was listed in a subsequently released "Summary of Unidentified Aerial Sightings reported to Department of Air, Canberra, ACT, from 1960" as having a possible cause of "tornado like meteorological manifestation." 

Here is the real story behind the development of the RAAF’s explanation of the Willow Grove UFO as a "tornado like meteorological manifestation."  Dr. Berson revealed it is a letter to Robert Low, the project coordinator of the notorious Condon committee studying UFOs, at the University of Colorado.  Dr. Berson was under the impression that the Condon Committee was going to do a serious investigation of the UFO mystery.

So Dr. Berson shared his own research of UFOs in Australia.  In the letter dated 11 May 1967 he wrote:

“In connection with the Willow Grove sighting in February 1963 which took place far from any industry, airport or other place of interest, D.A. (Department of Air – or what became Department of Defence (Air Force) – B.C.) took the trouble to send D.C.A. as well as an R.A.A.F. team to the spot.  They also sent an employee and an Air Force Major to interview me at this Division.  The apparent motivation of their visit to me was the fact that, accompanied by a friend, I had visited the site of the sighting some hundred miles from Melbourne and interviewed the person in question.  Although this was an unofficial interview, my affiliation with C.S.I.R.O had been casually mentioned.

“When they came to see me they wanted to have an opinion of what possible known aerial phenomenon could have produced the sighting and acoustic experience.  The visit had been announced the afternoon before and I had prepared some material.

“My answer was that perhaps some saucer shaped lee-wave cloud previously hidden by the canopy of the low rain clouds suddenly and for a few seconds was exposed to ground view by a freak break in the clouds.  I showed them pictures of the famous Heard Island saucer shaped lee-wave cloud and of a similar one photographed in England and published in Scorer’s book.

“As another possible, but not likely, explanation I suggested similar exposure of a vortex cloud, a kind of incipient tornado whose funnel shape descended but did not make ground contact.

“I finally mentioned the possibility of birds descending through the rain cloud in ring-shape formation and freak concentration.  (My visitors later settled arbitrarily for the second alternative).”

Dr. Berson wrote that the Department of Air (RAAF) explanation of the Willow Grove event as a “tornado-like meteorological phenomenon revealed “how arbitrarily and superficially this identification, and for that matter probably many others, have been made.”

In an interview with journalist John Hallows (published in an excellent 3 part series “An Open Mind on UFOs” in the Australian newspaper on 15 May 1968), Dr. Berson was anonymously quoted, “In one incident at Moe, Victoria, which I also investigated myself, the official inquirers plumped arbitrarily for a natural explanation which was in fact – and this is in my field – the least likely of all.”  In the article there was further elaboration: “The scientist, a UFO sceptic, could not suggest any natural cause for incident.”

Indeed a year earlier Dr. Berson was suggesting to Robert Low of the Condon Committee some real science that could be done, inspired by the Willow Grove UFO event.  He wrote of “the distribution of total magnetic intensity (as recorded by an AN/AsQ-1 airborne magnetometer installed in a D.C.3 aircraft) in a part of Gippsland surrounding the site of the Willow Grove sighting” demonstrated “a possible magnetic field relationship.”

Dr. Berson wrote Low, “Following a discussion with a geophysicist in the Antarctic Division of the Department of External Affairs I venture to suggest to you that a statistical investigation should be made on the following lines: place and/or time of (low level?) sightings of high credibility rating be correlated with magnetic data such as high hourly geomagnetic K index at observatories and the world-wide K index. These have been published since 1955 and are available to 1962, or possibly 1963 inclusive (J. Bartels, A. Romana and Veldcamp, IAGA Bulletins No. 12).  A collection of indices for the years 1932-61 has been also compiled by Bartels (IAGA Bulletin No. 18).  Berson’s suggestion was not fully acted upon but the final report of the Condon Committee did had a chapter on “Instrumentation for UFO Searches” by Frederick Ayer II.  Dr. Claude Poher did a study based on magnetic field measurements at Chanston-la-Foret (France) in 1973. 

In 1976 Dr. Poher criticised the Department of Air (Department of Defence (Air Office) UFO “Summaries” for their often implausible conclusions. At the same time the French equivalent to NASA – CNES – were forming GEPAN – their UFO/UAP study group which continues today as GEIPAN.  Dr. Poher was its first director.  The DA/DOD/RAAF were certainly a long way behind the curve, perhaps being led astray with their own poor science (or lack of science) by the remarkable cosmic tornados from OZ.
Here are Dr. Berson's letters to Robert Low (1966 & 1967) which references his growing UFO interest, initiated by his contact with Mr. I. S. Groodin around 1956 (a fellow member of the CSIRO's atmospheric research division), his intermittent connects with "D.A." (Department of Air or the Department of Defence (Air Office), namely the RAAF and DAFI - Directorate of Air Force Intelligence) shared with CSIRO associate Reg Clarke, his communications with Dr. James McDonald, all of which would fuel his concern that UFOs were a serious subject.  He anonymously commented in a John Hallows article series in "The Australian" newspaper in 1968. His correspondence with Low reveal his thoughts about a UFO science in the making.
Note: some replication in the scans occur because of the old foolscap format of the original letters.
(Thanks to Jan Aldrich for the copy of the correspondence)

Berson & Groodin appear in this 1953 photo from "Winds of Change"

The striking Trancas close encounter - "solid light" or carbon arc spotlights?

The cover of Oscar Galindez's book on the case

Dr. Bucher's drawing perspective with my added pink stick person

Roberto Banch's 1980s site/event reconstruction 
which concluded a prosaic cause - unconfirmed military deployment & carbon arc spotlights

artistic representation of the closest object - a UFO? a tank? an upside down giant size carbon arc lamp with light beam emerging from the (wrong?) back end? (with "fire" coming from its base.

The first episode of the second season of the Newroad series "Close Encounters" has just aired on the Science channel in the US. Discovery Canada will follow on February 6. The fascinating Trancas encounter from Argentina in 1963 was featured with commentary from 2 UFO researchers with chemistry backgrounds - Ademar Jose Gevaerd from Brazil and me from OZ (Australia). The recreation captured some of the witness dynamics well, but the encounter aspect fell short of what was reported. Still I'm sure it will attract people to dig more deeply into this fascinating affair - a terrifying UFO encounter or an unreported military deployment of equipment and unverified carbon arc spotlights. I have inserted the Dr. Bucher drawing (with my "stick woman" placed in the manner of how the witness actually reported she placed her hand in the strange horizontal non-divergent truncated beam of white light - not green, not vertical and not like a laser beam) which more accurately captures the reported events. Roberto Banchs conducted a detailed retrospective investigation in the 1980s. I've examined the original investigations, the Galindez investigation in the 1970s and other data, as well as the Banchs investigation. I still feel the case is not fully explained and may well be a striking unexplained "solid light" event. There are simply too many elements not explained by the explanatory models. The colour images are from the "Close Encounter" programme.