UFOs & UAP – the way forward, anchored in science and history

What an extraordinary year.

We have had US Congressional hearings again on the subject of UFOs, UAP and the claims of UFO crash retrieval programs. And now we are seeing out 2024 with the mystery drone saga, which has so many historical resonances, to the extent that anyone navigating this fascinating subject should do themselves a favour and immerse themselves in the rich history of UFOs and more recently its UAP iteration. So much of what people have been “discovering”, has all been discovered in the long past history of UFOs.

While Luis Elizondo’s book “Imminent – Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs” captured the headlines, Robert Powell’s excellent book “UFOs – A scientist explains what we know (and don’t know)” was, for me at least, a far more interesting book – indeed it was a primer for where we should be heading towards – an open and transparent multidisciplinary science based enquiry, something I have been advocating for decades.  

Fortunately, we have many manifestations of this trajectory – the Society for UAP Studies (SUAPS), for which I am an advisor, the SOL Foundation, the Galileo Project, the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU) and International Coalition for Extraterrestrial Research (ICER), to name but a few of these excellent initiatives.

We have had a lot of documentaries and series, of which “The Program” by James Fox and “Investigation Alien” with George Knapp are recent examples, that are very worthwhile embracing.   Each in their own way are contributing to the growing awareness and recognition of the UFO & UAP experience. 

Rather than focus on US developments, which are getting extensive coverage, here I will concentrate on events and issues that I had some involvement in. 

For much of the year I have been involved in an effort to digitally scan my paper files spanning more than 50 years.  As my files have been what I call “active” files, that is they are accessed frequently, often daily, but again, often those files got a bit chaotic.  The new organisation NHIR (Non Human Intelligence Research) based in Perth, found by Dr. Anton Uvarov, with Ross Coulthart co-ordinating potential research programs, supported me in organising my files, with a view to make them available to general research. Ultimately I organised my archive into 14 categories, plus general guides, articles, talks & profiles:

BC01 UFO/UAP physical evidence

BC02 Physical trace cases

BC03 Australian & regional UFO/UAP case material

BC04 Historical pre 1947 material including key events (1868 Parramatta & 1927 Fernvale) BC05 Australian official UFO (UAS) files 

BC06 Harry Turner/Michael Duggin files 

BC07 “solid light” cases

BC08 pilot cases,

BC09 photo cases 

BC10 “crash retrieval” files 

BC 11 UFO/UAP science 

BC 12 Historical perspectives 

BC 13 Abduction/contact case material 

BC 14 Asian UFO/UAP experience particularly Chinese UFO/UAP experience 

22 archive boxes were made available for professional business scanning, which was completed in December 2024.  Subject to a necessary review for redaction of private details in some files, we hope to complete this exercise early in the new year.

A number of active investigation projects emerged focusing on some close encounter type cases that seemed to intensively focus on at least one individual and a few associates in a remote & isolated location.  Some of these encounters appeared to involved videos and photos that may show anomalous objects and possible “entities”.  I have sighted some of the images and they are intriguing, but require a lot more investigation.  As the experiences apparently involved considerable impacts on the primary witness, the welfare of the individual and his privacy is paramount.  A lot further research, investigations and more direct interactions with the witness are needed but these are contingent on the welfare and privacy of the main witness.  This has been a long drawn out process, but we hope to progress this seemingly fascinating UFO/UAP contact encounter milieu, and possibly report on the situation in coming months.

Further removed from current case investigations are historical investigations of pre-1947 event.  One of these certainly became a central focus for me during 2024, when some primary source documentation emerged on an historical case that has fascinated since I first learnt of it way back in 1975.  This was the case of Frederick William Birmingham from the 19th century.  I reported extensively on this fascinating affair as “Frederick William Birmingham – a 19th century UFO/UAP witness & early aviation visionary” in UFO Truth Issue 68 July/August 2024 & my blog site.

I concluded, “Despite the limited and fragmented nature of Herbert Rumsey’s archive of “Birmingham’s papers” and that Rumsey presented a somewhat flawed view of their contents in his 1911 letter, the material in the University of Sydney rare materials collection offers researchers much food for thought for interpretations of Birmingham’s strange account of “a machine to go through the air” in Victorian times. Having researched this saga since 1975,

I find it a fascinating insight into a Victorian era Irish-Australian who may have been a 19th UFO witness. He certainly seemed to be a 19th century early aviation visionary, even if materials and technology had not caught up. Back in 1933, Frederick Cox, mayor of Parramatta in 1884, reminiscing about old Parramatta, remarked,

“Did I ever tell you about Birmingham?” 

“Birmingham was an alderman of Parramatta Council, and an engineer, and at his house in Duck-lane ... “he built a flying machine...” In so many strange and wonderful ways Frederick Birmingham seemed adrift and ahead of his times.”

I also got involved in an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) podcast that focused on the classic 1966 Tully UFO affair. Danielle O'Neal and Piia Wirsu of the ABC Expanse podcast series have focused on the famous Tully UFO milieu in Series 4 over 5 episodes - UNCROPPED.  They have done an excellent job in presenting the general essence of the story, while largely focusing on the human side of this fascinating saga.

The series was introduced as follows: 

“In 1966 a salt of the earth banana farmer in far north Queensland saw something he couldn't explain. It looked like a flying saucer and it left behind a circular mark in some reeds, which he called a 'saucer nest'.

That moment became the inspiration for an international alien hoax, it subjected him to intense ridicule, and it exposed him to the whole chaotic debate about UFOs.

Host Danielle O'Neal goes from a mosquito-laden lagoon in far north Queensland to the Australian government's classified UFO files, to the US Congress as she seeks to understand what happened, its legacy and why believable people say seemingly unbelievable things.

The Expanse podcast explores big stories from across Australia — a vast continent where anything can happen.”

This podcast series provided an excellent accounting of the Tully “saucer nest” saga, and through some further ABC media reporting broaden the story into a deeper exploration of the UFO subject.  I was involved in both aspects of this coverage.  The focus was on the impact of the daylight UFO sighting by banana farmer George Pedley’s January 1966 daylight close encounter sighting at Horseshoe Lagoon near Tully in northern Queensland, in particular on Albert Pennisi and his son Shane, with an emphasis on the human impact.  I recommend the Expanse 5-part podcast series “Uncropped”.

From the series transcript I had some cameos:

 

So, in the early 70s when this young, slightly ragged, surfy-looking dude in T-shirt and cut-off jeans turned up, Albert was cautious.

Bill Chalker: It was a bit of a hot day, storm clouds looking as though it was going to beat a path to the door.  

Danielle O'Neal VO: Bill Chalker had a beaten-up old backpack slung over his shoulder, scuffed from being dragged in and out of apple carts and ute trays on the great post-school surf trip.

Albert walked up to the gate to intercept him, machete stuffed into his belt at his side.

Bill Chalker: A lot of people thought he was a bit intimidating.  

Danielle O'Neal VO: In this gruff voice Albert called out;

Bill Chalker: 'Whatchya doing here, mate?’. 

Danielle O'Neal VO: Bill introduced himself.

Bill Chalker: I'm just this weird guy that had this long-term interest in UFOs and I'm really interested in what really happened rather than how the media reported it. So, uh, he liked that, I think. 

Danielle O'Neal VO: Albert opened up his doors and invited Bill in. 

This tanned and long haired surfer, not your stereotypical UFO-guy. 

But Bill had been fascinated by what had happened in Tully. 

Bill Chalker: By then it had, was almost legendary; Horseshoe Lagoon. Particularly amongst the UFO community.  

Danielle O'Neal VO: Albert introduced Bill to his sons, including Shane, and took him on the grand tour of the lagoon.

Bill Chalker: It was sort of, uh, pretty brackish at that stage. I was already up to my neck, one of Albert's sons that said, ‘Oh, better be careful there because we've got taipan snakes’.  

I launched myself out like a missile or a UFO coming outta the water.  

I said to him, ‘You could have, you could've told me about that before I went in!’. 

Danielle O'Neal VO: The taipans didn’t dull Bill’s enthusiasm for investigating. He never really stopped looking into unexplained aerial sightings and physical trace cases.

And there were a lot more sightings about to land. What had started in Tully was about to go global.

And Bill wanted eyes on what the government had. The secret UFO files.

That young, tanned surfer-looking guy on the failed road trip, Bill Chalker? He was diving deep, down the UFO rabbit hole. 

By the 80s he was well on the way to becoming one of Australia’s chief UFO researchers.

Like Keith, Bill was just - how about some science?

Bill Chalker: Science should be about focusing and doing a careful examination of things, you know, open, open inquiry. 

Danielle O’Neal VO: But, he knew all about the ‘UFO eyeroll’. 

Bill Chalker: During the seventies, I found out about a UFO sighting that occurred back in 1970. We went into this area and found a classic burnt area about 30 feet wide. 

It was a very clear-cut correlation with where this UFO had seemed to land. 

Danielle O’Neal VO: Bill reached out to a scientist, explaining the intricacies of the case. 

Bill Chalker: He said, it sounded like a classic case but you don't want to make that public.  

You're better off saying that you're interested in witchcraft than flying saucers. 

He knew that within the mainstream of the scientific research area, if you start to make yourself the focus of UFO enquiries then it doesn't bode well for your ongoing scientific career path.  

This aspect got a bit confused in promos for the show, so I issued a clarification:

The latest (22 December 2024) short clip promo of the ABC Expanse podcast Uncropped requires some context to explain some comments I've made. It has me saying about interest in UFOs, "You're better off saying that you're interested in witchcraft. It doesn't bode well for your ongoing scientific career path." I clearly don't accept that and my own participation in UFO UAP research confirms why those statements don't sit well with me. Here is the real context in the form of a quote from the introduction to my 1996 book "The OZ Files - the Australian UFO Story": 

"In 1973 I was a third-year science student majoring in chemistry and mathematics, also engaged in ‘forbidden science’. I was experiencing some difficulties in analysing soil samples from a possible UFO landing site at Emerald Beach, near Woolgoolga, on the north coast of New South Wales. Someone suggested I approach Dr Keith Bigg, then Deputy Director of Radiophysics at the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation. Dr Bigg was helpful in his advice. He was most intrigued about my descriptions of the Emerald Beach incident and the fact that ‘circles’ had been found. ‘Seems quite a classic case,’ he wrote. But his parting advice had a twist to it. ‘Never admit that your interest is in UFOs or you’ll get nowhere. You’re more likely to get cooperation in hunting witches. Think up a “scientific” reason [for your interest in a particular phenomenon]’, he wrote. These closing remarks were—and are—a sad reflection on the prevailing, myopic, view of mainstream science. The English visionary, William Blake, referred to such narrowness of perception as ‘Newton’s sleep’."

From further transcripts of the podcast:

Danielle O’Neal VO: It seems like the pop culture UFO depictions have majorly affected how the entire field is viewed. Or dismissed. 

Something I've realised is that when I talk to people about UFOs, everyone has their own idea of what that acronym means.

Like UFOS - flying saucers full of little green men.

Or, like UFO as in literally unidentified flying object. Which, again, not that wild a concept. There's probably stuff out there we can't explain. 

But things like E.T., or the X Files often mean that if we drop the clanger 'UFO' people fill in all these blanks with whatever cultural knowledge they have to hand. 

Bill Chalker: Therein lies part of the problem. Unfortunately, a lot of it gets kind of minimalised and trashed by casual media engagement. 

There's something worthwhile that's been recurring, that would benefit from serious scientific engagement. 

Danielle O’Neal VO: But with people reluctant to put their name to anything with a whiff of paranormal, people like Bill stepped in to try to conduct whatever inquiry they could. 

But 1981 found him bedbound, recovering from appendicitis, so Bill decided he could use the time to see if he could get access to the collection of all official UFO reported sightings in Australia. 

The government's UFO files. 

Bill thought;

Bill Chalker: What the hell, I'll start doing a ringing campaign to the Department of Defence and keep it up until I got a response.  

It took literally over a year of a bit of, I get a letter back eventually saying, yes, you can have access to the files. 

I think they were just expecting me to turn up, have a look at the files for an hour or two and go back home happy. 

Danielle O’Neal VO: That's not what happened.

Bill Chalker: Got there promptly at 9am at the Russell offices. A very austere, concrete looking building,  

Danielle O’Neal VO: Bill had dressed for the occasion. Gone were the cut off shorts and long blonde hair of a decade earlier.

Bill Chalker: I was there trying to ensure that I didn't come across as a, as a wild eyed kind of whatever, off the street kind of thing. Trying to convey that this was a serious investigation of the files. Short hair, a bit of a beard, tie. 

I was shown through and given the vacant office of the Director of Public Relations of the Department of Defence. He was on Christmas holidays.  

Danielle O’Neal VO: The secretary showing him in pointed out the photocopier if he needed it, then left Bill to settle in. 

Bill Chalker: While I sat there waiting in comes the secretary and a couple of people dragging along these large postal sacks full of files.  

And I thought, ‘Well, that's pretty unusual way of conveying files’.  

But then I got them all out, organized them all on the desk, started to systematically go through them, basic details down to try and get an idea of what were they.  

Danielle O’Neal VO: Then Bill heard these hurried footsteps coming.

The Secretary turned up and I was told that these files hadn't been declassified yet. 

I shouldn't be looking at them.  

Danielle O’Neal VO: Oops.

I mean I know it was the Christmas holidays, but doesn't someone check that stuff?

Bill Chalker: So they went off and some poor harried person had to spend the next hour or two hurriedly stamping every single page ‘declassified’ with an autograph and I just thought, you've got to be kidding.  

Danielle O’Neal VO: The files eventually made their way back into the office. Declassified this time. 

Sitting there sorting it all out for a week in this austere room, some of the files seemed pretty significant to Bill. 

Bill Chalker: A file that referred to a report that was written in 1954 by a Melbourne based nuclear physicist, who had a security clearance, concluded that a residue of the data represented evidence of extraterrestrial craft.  

And that was in a secret report to Air Force Intelligence in 1954. 

Bill Chalker: I was able to establish on that first visit that I was probably examining about a third of the Department of Defence's UFO files.  

Danielle O’Neal VO: What the hell was in the rest?

Bill wanted to find out exactly that. Armed with the information he had teased out of those postal sacks;

Bill Chalker: That allowed me to make very concrete requests for other specific files and over the space of two years, I documented in very fine detail what I found.  

Danielle O’Neal VO: He knew there were things he wanted to get to the bottom of as he dug around in all these files. There was a case he was already aware of.

Bill Chalker: The North West Cape case from 1973.  

Danielle O’Neal VO: North West Cape, a US military communications base.

All very top secret and hush hush. So much so that when he finally got access to those UFO files... this one was missing.

Luckily before that, he’d read this report from the deputy commander of the base.

Bill Chalker: Who was driving between the support to the base itself and he observes what appeared to be an object hovering over the mountains, that seemed to take off at extraordinary speed.  

There was a separate report from an Australian fire captain working on the base. And he was just checking facilities and then he observes a dish shaped object with a sort of a disc around the bottom, like a satin ring-shaped around the bottom.  

And it seemed to be hovering there for a while, and then it seemed to take off at extraordinary speed. 

The reports were fairly close to each other in terms of timing. So we had two separate witnesses to what appears to be the same event. 

It seemed to be unexplained to them. 

Danielle O’Neal VO: Then the penny dropped. 

Bill Chalker: The date of the sighting was on the same day as that base was used to issue a full nuclear alert to American forces within the Indian Pacific and Pacific region. 

Danielle O’Neal VO: There is no way for me to tell if these things are linked. But it does seem like a coincidence. 

Something unknown in the sky, in the middle of the Cold War mind you, and on the same day a nuclear alert is issued. 

But all this information had been squirrelled away and seemingly forgotten.

Which seems odd. A nuclear alert is kinda a big deal. 

These transcripts from the podcast series “Uncropped” are only a sample of a fascinating and compelling coverage of the focused UFO experience that occurs in the show.  Many different views are given, but ultimately the series supported the reality and impact of the Tully UFO milieu.  Danielle O’Neal, host and producer and her supervising producer Piia Wirsu, even appeared on George Knapp and Jeremy Corbell’s Weaponized podcast Episode #63 “Mystery Drones & Saucer Nests” in December 2024.  The show is well worth checking out.  Check out in particular just after the first hour.

Continuing the Tully 1966 coverage I was interviewed on Rhys Dalton-Morgan’s new podcast venture “The UFOzzie” – the 2nd episode: “What Are UFOs: With Australian Scientist Bill Chalker” (available on YouTube).  

We also focused on the remarkable Rosedale UFO landing case of 1980 and the intense localised UFO flap centred on the little community of Tyringham in New England, northern New South Wales, Australia – my “baptism of ‘UFO fire’” during my university days.  I recommend that interview, and the first episode of “The UFOzzie” podcast which focuses on Rhy’s grandfather – “The Real Top Gun” – WW2, Nukes & UFOs.  I featured that story in my piece “‘Tommy Leader’: Tom Dalton-Morgan and the 3% UFO solution” (See also UFO Truth issue 67 May/June 2024.

So once again, this past year has been a remarkable one for so many different reasons.