The 1966 Burkes Flat "bent headlight beams" case revisited - followup

From my detailed retrospective investigation of the Burkes Flat incident. The above imagery collection shows a number of aspects of the case and its investigation. I am pictured on site at Burkes Flat pointing to the tree that Gary Taylor's car collided with, causing his death. VUFORS investigator Paul Norman recovered a headlight from Gary Taylor's car and passed it onto my friend & colleague Dr. Geoff Stevens, then working with the Australian Atomic Energy Commission at Lucas Heights. Geoff showed me the work he did, including tracing with chalk marks the directions of lines of magnetic force on the headlight. The picture shows my hand on the headlight for size reference. The relatively random directions of lines of magnetic force ruled out evidence for exposure to a strong magnetic field. That would have caused all the lines to be running in the same direction. A contemporary photo, shown in the documentary, reveals the investigation undertaken by police and the coroner at the site of Gary Taylor's fatal car crash. A photo from 1984 shows me interviewing Ron Sullivan, the witness to an extraordinary bending of car headlight beams at the same locality.

In my 1984 research article "The Bent Headlight Beam case revisited" (published in the "UFO Research Newsletter" (UFORAN magazine) Volume 5 No. 3 May-June 1984, and republished later in the British magazine FSR - Flying Saucer Review) I wrote:
"Ever since I became deeply involved in investigating and researching UFO events in Australia, one remarkable event has held a particular fascination for me, namely the incident that became known as the "bent headlight beam case."  It took place on April 4, 1966, at Burkes Flat, Victoria."
You can have a look at some of my work on this extraordinary case at the following links:
CLASSIC "COLD CASE": 1966 Burkes Flat - the "bent headlight beams
The classic 1966 Burkes Flat case case on my OZ Files page

The "Close Encounters" series first aired early this year on Discovery Canada (and now airing on the US Science channel) included coverage of the Burkes Flat case, as per my Facebook page comments of 26 February, 2014:

I recently caught up with the double Australian case episode of the Discovery Canada series - Episode 11: "Saucerful of Secrets" (1966 - Tully) and "Lights Out" (1966- Burkes Flat) - in which Shane Ryan and myself are commenting on each case. Once again the "recreations" are dramatic and entertaining and hopefully will encourage enquiring minds to dig into the actual data about the case. As I have extensively researched and investigated both cases I have issues with the fidelity of the "dramatic recreations" with the facts of both events. In both cases I know I supplied extensive material which gave detailed illustrated and photographic evidence and data, so some of the "recreation" deviations from the actual facts of each case are puzzling to me. But given the entertainment format I am consoled by the likelihood that the shows may encourage interest in these striking cases.
For the uninitiated some of the more obvious "deviations" (i.e. thats not the way it happened) in each are:
"Saucerful of Secrets" (1966 Tully): George Pedley was driving a tractor, not a jeep; there seems a marked separation of viewing the UFO and the "saucer nest" - in this case an "under-dramatisation" of the facts. George first saw the UFO directly above the lagoon at a very low level, virtually at head height, rising up. In other words there was a direct visual correlation with the location of the nest and the UFO - a definite "close encounter" - In the "recreation" there is a disconnection; The "nest"! Well in the "recreation" it is virtually a floating, slowly spinning birds nest in appearance, which is far from its original appearance. Both George and Albert entered the water of the lagoon, not just George. I did to, years later, but got out pretty quickly when one of Albert Pennisi's sons, (Shane Pennisi told me he thought it was probably him in the early 1970s) told me about the taipan snakes. Probably more accurate to say I launched myself out of the lagoon, but didn't make it as high as George's UFO back in 1966. The dynamic between George and Albert wasn't too bad from my perspective.
"Lights Out" (1966 Burkes Flat): Not sure where the reference came from with regard to Ron Sullivan seeing something behind him just before the encounter. In the "recreation" he avoids colliding with the tree and come to a stop off the road and gets out of the car. That didn't happen according to what Ron told me. The direction and nature of the bend of the "headlight beams" was incorrect.
Ben Hurle and the VUFOA team will be shortly coming out with their retrospective doco on the case which will be an excellent description of the events along with new information. I mention their work in early postings.
Anyway enjoy the Close Encounters "takes" for what they are: creative takes and commentaries from two lads from down under about two extraordinary classic cases from Australia that deserve your deep attention, beyond the 22 minutes in total afforded to them. I've been exploring and researching both cases for decades and they are still mysteries to me - each are powerful examples of the UFO mystery.

As of 18 March 2014 with the release of "The Burkes Flat UFO Incident - The Tale of Two Men" Ben Hurle and the Victorian UFO Action team have done an excellent job in this fascinating documentary, which brings so many memories back to me.  I interviewed Ron Sullivan & Hugh Hunter back in 1980 and undertook a site investigation at Burkes Flat. I recommend this outstanding "cold case" investigation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_n8FgLGkKI

Here are some screen grabs from the excellent VUFOA documentary:

Ben Hurle interviewing Ron Sullivan

VUFOA recreation

Ron Sullivan explaining the sighting sequence

Ron Sullivan's drawings of the UFO sequence

Ben Hule interviewing Peter Vanrennan, who as a 

tennager was the first person in the group who found 

Gary Taylor at the car crash site after Taylor's friend

Lawrence Boyle sought their help.

A photo of the ground trace supplied by the Saints

Ben Hurle with Ron on site at Burkes Flat

Ben Hurle interviewing Sheryl Saint, owner of 

the paddock in which the UFO was seen.

VUFOA team member Ivan Rigoni attached a plaque 

at the site with Ben Hurle watching on

Lawrence Boyle recollecting his friend Gary Taylor

Ben Hurle interviewing Lawrence Boyle with my on site 

photo of the now missing impact tree at Burkes Flat

A wealth of information on an extraordinary event that needs to be remembered and better understood.  Something extraordinary occurred at Burkes Flat in April 1966, which sadly led to the death of a young man.  What did Ron Sullivan see? A UFO with a "solid light" display which interacted with our own light in a very striking way; did Ron encounter some sort of bizarre nocturnal mirage effect? Did he encounter an extraordinary Earth Light display?  Ron Sullivan's 1966 experience is a remarkable example of a UFO event with very striking interaction on its surroundings. Thank you Ron for your determination and courage in coming forward with your experience, which allows us to contemplate and research an incredible mystery, with profound implications for our understanding of reality.

The Passing of Ron Sullivan - witness to the extraordinary 1966 "bent head light beam" case at Burkes Flat

I was saddened to learn of the passing of Ron Sullivan at 91 on 25 May 2019. He was a good man who back in 1966 experienced something that defies explanation. My condolences to his family and friends.  He was a great help to my retrospective investigations of his experience.
See my link here: https://theozfiles.blogspot.com/search?q=Sullivan

From my detailed retrospective investigation of the Burkes Flat incident. The above imagery collection shows a number of aspects of the case and its investigation. I am pictured on site at Burkes Flat pointing to the tree that Gary Taylor's car collided with, causing his death. VUFORS investigator Paul Norman recovered a headlight from Gary Taylor's car and passed it onto my friend & colleague Dr. Geoff Stevens, then working with the Australian Atomic Energy Commission at Lucas Heights. Geoff showed me the work he did, including tracing with chalk marks the directions of lines of magnetic force on the headlight. The picture shows my hand on the headlight for size reference. The relatively random directions of lines of magnetic force ruled out evidence for exposure to a strong magnetic field. That would have caused all the lines to be running in the same direction. A contemporary photo, shown in the documentary, reveals the investigation undertaken by police and the coroner at the site of Gary Taylor's fatal car crash. A photo from 1984 shows me interviewing Ron Sullivan, the witness to an extraordinary bending of car headlight beams at the same locality.

WESTALL '66: the sleeper awakes

Back on July 11, 2012 I gave a lecture to the UFO & Paranormal Research Society of Australia (UFO-PRSA) in Campbelltown entitled WESTALL '66: the Sleeper Awakes.  In that presentation I focused on the investigations & research undertaken into the 1966 Westall school UFO case that proceded the more recent research of Shane Ryan which underpinned the impressive Rosie Jones "WESTALL '66: a suburban UFO mystery" documentary."

The 1966 Clayton Calendar school magazine story (above) and the contemporary newspaper clippings (below) were the key parts of the public side of the largely hidden story of the mass witnessed daylight UFO event centred over the Westall school area.

The following 4 photos show (clockwise from upper left) Shane Ryan, George Simpson and myself (Bill Chalker) at the Westall April 2006 renunion which brought together many witnesses to the original event, including Joy and Jeff - witnesses to the 1966 Westall UFO incident.  Jeff was the author of the student account in the Clayton Calendar.  At the reunion I met researcher/director Rosie Jones and producer Carmel McAloon who were just beginning work on their documentary.  The reunion led to a feature story in the Women's Day magazine: "We've Kept our UFO secret for 40 years."

The eventual documentary incorporated the inspired use of Lee Whitmore's charcoal animations which powerfully resonated with the prominent role of school children among the witnesses to the extraordinary events that played out on 6 April 1966. Two version of the DVD documentary were issued, the main public version with Shane Ryan on the label, and the other circulated by the SciFi channel airing of the documentary, which featured my "forensic" drawing based on my on-site interview/reconstruction with witness Victor Zakry.

I had a brief cameo in the 2010 "Westall '66" documentary discussing my 1982-1984 access to the Department of Defence RAAF UFO files in Canberra, with my "shopping list" which included the 2nd April 1966 Balwyn UFO photo case; the 4th April 1966 Burkes Flat encounter and the 6th April 1966 Westall event.  Three fascinating UFO events all happening in the Australian state of Victoria within a 4 day period. Here is the clear first generation print of the Balwyn photo:

The Sun newspaper story of April 12, 1966 gave a potent snapshot of an extraordinary event:

The documentary’s reconstruction; Ron Sullivan in the field in front of the depression; the event details per Ron Sullivan & Australian Flying Saucer Review (AFSR (VFSRS edition); close up photo of Burkes Flat depression:

I undertook a detailed retrospective investigation of the Burkes Flat incident.  The following imagery shows me on site pointing to the tree that Gary Taylor's car collided with, causing his death. VUFORS investigator Paul Norman recovered a headlight from Gary Taylor's car and passed it onto my friend & colleague Dr. Geoff Stevens, then working with the Australian Atomic Energy Commission at Lucas Heights.  Geoff showed me the work he did, including tracing with chalk marks the directions of lines of magnetic force on the headlight.  The picture shows my hand on the headlight for size reference.  The relatively random directions of lines of magnetic force ruled out evidence for exposure to a strong magnetic field.  That would have caused all the lines to be running in the same direction. A contemporary photo, shown in the documentary, reveals the investigation undertaken by police and the coroner at the site of Gary Taylor's fatal car crash.  A photo from 1984 shows me interviewing Ron Sullivan, the witness to an extraordinary bending of car headlight beams at the same locality.

(Images copyright with original owners. Powerpoint presentation slides copyright Bill Chalker)

In further posts related to my 2012 lecture "WESTALL '66: the Sleeper Awakes" I will describe investigations of the Westall case between 1966 and 2005.

UFO High Impact - Westall and the amazing wave of 1966 - 50th anniversary

With the 50th anniversary of the UFO HIGH IMPACT year of 1966 here are some personal images that reflect my own engagement with that awesome year in Australian UFO history: 

being interviewed by the History Channel on Tully with Sydney Harbour bridge as backdrop; 

with Albert Pennisi, the owner of Horseshoe Lagoon - site of the famous daylight UFO incident in January 1966 - photo with Albert taken at UFO Research Qld's 2006 conference; 

the 3 "UFO amigos" at Westall in 2006 - Shane Ryan, George Simpson and me; at the Westall UFO theme park in 2015; 

at Westall school in 2005;

in the Department of Defence in 1982 taking over the DPR's desk examining the RAAF's UFO files;

at Burkes Flat in 1980 pointing at the tree that Ron Sullivan hit in 1966 when his car headlight beams bent in the presence of a UFO (Gary Taylor tragically died colliding with the same tree a few days later); 

with the 2 powerhouses behind the excellent documentary Westall '66 - a suburban UFO mystery - Carmel McAloon & Rosie Jones in 2006 at Westall; 

and my "forensic" drawing reconstruction of Victor Zackary's Westall experience in 1966.
1966 was an extraordinary year for high impact UFO events. Tully, Burkes Flat and Westall are the most prominent of these. There are other physical trace stories and events far stranger, such as apparent abduction events during that same year, long before such experience became a major part of the generally accepted UFO controversy. There is much more to be revealed about the extraordinary year of 1966.

Looks like I'll be on the Channel 10 TV next Wednesday April 6 2016 (about 10.30 am) coverage of the Westall anniversary.

I will be giving a lecture – “UFO High Impact - Westall and the amazing wave of 1966 revisited” at the Paracon 2016 event at Katoomba in late May 2016.
Time/Location: Sunday May 29th 2016 1030AM-1130AM in Blue Mountains Cultural Centre.
In the 50th anniversary year the extraordinary UFO wave of 1966, focusing on the striking Westall school case, the Tully UFO landing, the Burkes Flat "bent headlight beam" case, the Balwyn UFO photo, a Penrith close encounter and the Bankstown "saucer nest", is examined by UFO researcher, historian and author of "The OZ Files - the Australian UFO Story" and "Hair of the Alien - DNA and other Forensic Evidence of Alien Abductions Bill Chalker.
Note: There will be a screening of Westall 66 in The Blue Mountains Cultural Centre following this talk. (12PM-1PM) Check schedule for clarification.

I will also be interviewed on this theme by George Knapp on Coast to Coast radio on Monday, April 18, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm Sydney time as a way of covering the 50th anniversary of these extraordinary events – a time of UFO High Impact.

Instrumented UAP UFO Field Studies now & then

Philippe Ailleris operates the UAP Observations Reporting Scheme.  He has focused on UAP UFO instrumented field experiments. He shared with me his 2011 Acta Astronautica paper "The lure of local SET: Fifty years of field experiments"

At the July 2014 CAIPAN UAP UFO scientific workshop Philippe presented a poster paper:
UNIDENTIFIED AEROSPACE PHENOMENA AND EXPERIMENTAL STRATEGY : METHODS, EQUIPMENT AND LESSONS FROM INSTRUMENTED FIELD STUDIES
Philippe Ailleris,1
1 UAP Observations Reporting Scheme, Noordwijk, The Netherlands
contact@uapreporting.org, http://www.uapreporting.org/
Since the publication of the University of Colorado’s Condon Report [1] and the inception of the French Space Agency’s unit GEIPAN [2], numerous Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena (UAP) sightings have been reviewed using diverse measures (e.g. physical traces, radarscope data, photographs, film and video footages, physical effects, and medical records). Nonetheless they have failed to provide sufficiently reliable evidence to convince the scientific community of the existence of anomalous aerial phenomena on Earth. Almost all these previous data have not been acquired under controlled conditions with scientific instrumentation. It is obvious that a change of methodology is necessary and that the UAP phenomenon requires an active investigative response to move toward a scientific solution. To maximise the chances of acquiring reliable and valid data on the UAP phenomenon, instrument observations of UAP are essential, preferably coupled with visual observations. Instrumentation can assist in obtaining quantitative data required to understand basic physical characteristics of UAP. As early as the 1950s some attempts to detect and analyse anomalous atmospheric phenomena using scientific equipment have been carried out in the field in areas where anomalous aerial events had been reported. Field research gave credence to the idea that the UAP phenomenon could be studied on a rigorous and empirical basis. This paper describes some of these past experiments, from the different schemes and strategies devised, to the field-instrument packages selected and the most important results obtained. Details of the principal instrumented field studies deployed by governmental agencies, scientists, researchers and associations around the world are presented along with limitations and shortcomings in extant field research, with the objective of refining future instrumented projects. Finally the paper highlights the importance of studying the history of the UFO controversy, especially the necessity of accurately documenting and preserving the information pertaining to these historical research efforts (allowing this past work to guide future projects), and encouraging official bodies to be open and transparent in communications related to genuine UAP reports.
References:
[1] Condon Dr. Edward & Sullivan, Final Report of the Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects Conducted by the University of Colorado under Contract to the United States Air Force, Bantam Books, 1969.
[2] Groupe d’Études et d’Information sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non identifiés, http://www.geipan.fr/, 2014. 











Here is a photo taken by Tom Tulien (used with his permission) 
of Philippe Ailleris presenting at the CAIPAN workshop.
Philippe kindly supplied an interim copy of his excellent poster presentation, which I have split into manageable segments for viewing:

Recently I sent Philippe material about instrumented field studies in Australia and China.  Between 1983 and1989 the famous Chinese scientist and the “father of Chinese rocketry”, Tsien Hsue-shen (or Qian Xeusen (pinyin)) advocated “UFO studies to be included in the teaching of geoscience” and supported the establishment of UFO observation stations. (See also Paul Dong in "The UFO Report 1991" edited by Timothy Good, Chp 6, "China Establishes UFO Observation Stations"). Taking Qian Xeusen's comments to heart a lot of the astronomical observatories "provide" a "side benefit" of defacto UFO observatories.

Tsien Hsue-shen (Qian Xeusen in pinyin) with Chairman Mao

Around 1968 Australian researcher Stan Seers developed "a simple, cheap, and easy to assemble UFO magnetic monitoring device."  One of these fitted with a "self-triggering cine camera" was set up at Horseshoe Lagoon near Tully, another at a site 20 miles south of Brisbane.  The setup at Horseshoe Lagoon was triggered and ran off footage. The undeveloped footage was posted off to Kodak. The package was returned with a note from Kodak saying the container contained no film on arrival in Melbourne, despite the original postage being indicative of a film being present. Investigators used a local member of parliament to try to get to the bottom of the missing film mystery, but all to no avail.

Albert Pennisi pointing to photos of the UFO detector and a group photo of Albert, his 2 sons and Stan (blowups of these shots) taken from movie by Mike Williams)

An extract from my tribute article for Albert Pennisi -

"Albert's "dream" machine - UFO reality at Tully"

In my book "Hair of the Alien" I devoted a chapter "An early Abduction odyssey" to the experiences of Vicki Klein.  She operated a “UFO detector” in her Canberra suburb of Downer. On July 7 1971, at 1.10 pm, from her Downer house Vicki saw a light grey cigar-shaped object above Mt. Majura.  Shortly before 1 pm, the detector, designed to pick up changes in magnetic fields, started to “buzz”.  It could not be switched off by resetting. Nuclear physicist Harry Turner wrote in a report, “Armed with 12 power binoculars and a next-door neighbour, (Vicki Klein) scanned the skies for a possible cause for the buzzing, finally locating an object at elevation 40^o and bearing 70^o, apparently directly above a civil radar station on top of Mt. Majura (2 miles from observer and 4 miles NE of Canberra city).  The object was slightly fatter at one end and was tracing out a square patter in a vertical plane, the object remaining horizontal during the manoeuvre. At the corners of the square pattern there appeared to be some fading with occasional flashing.  After five minutes the object disappeared and the detector stopped buzzing.  There was no echo reported on the radar, but this would not be expected if the object actually was directly above the radar.”

I deployed a range of detection equipment, including one device designed by technician Andrew Cole to detect only moving magnetic fields, into known UFO flap areas of Tyringham and Kempsey during 1976.  Only calibration studies were undertaken as no UFO activity was witnessed.

 my sketch of an event at Tyringham in 1973

UFO photo by Marwin Copland at Tyringham in 1973

My recent return to the Tyringham "hot zone"

The availability and variety of monitoring equipment has vastly improved over the decades.  The lessons to date provide useful opportunities for implementing improved strategies.

Astrophysicist Dr. Massiomo Teodorani in his paper “INSTRUMENTED MONITORING OF AERIAL ANOMALIES - A Scientific Approach to the Investigation On Anomalous Atmospheric Light Phenomena” addressed the following areas: “Anomalous atmospheric light phenomena tend to occur recurrently in several places of our planet. Statistical studies show that a phenomenon’s real recurrence area can be identified only after pondering reported cases on the population number and on the diffusion of communication media. The main scientific results that have been obtained so far after explorative instrumented missions have been carried out are presented, including the empirical models that have been set up in order to describe the observed reality. Subsequently, a focused theorization is discussed in order to attack the physical problem concerning the structure and the dynamics of “light balls” and the enigma related to the central force that maintains them in spherical shape. Finally, several important issues are discussed regarding methodology, strategy, tactics and interdisciplinary approaches.”

Dr. Teodorani concluded, “The most appropriate conclusive remark that can be given here is probably the one that stresses the real main goal of this research, consisting in searching for the physical mechanism that keeps light balls so perfectly confined in a spherical shape and that makes them produce so much energy. Once we’ll understand definitively this mechanism we’ll have at our disposal the key to reproduce this energy – possibly a clean form of it – in a laboratory and consequently to use it for many mankind’s needs, now compelling in this so critical period of our civilization. After all, quite recent laboratory experiments were able to reproduce for a short time lapse a ball lightning of small size. Why not thinking that we might replicate in a lab a much more energetic phenomenon such as a so called “earthlight”? Of course the use of this possible new energy source might be double-faced: a) tapping it under control conditions and peacefully in a similar manner as in electric or nuclear centrals; b) using this energy as a weapon system. The second possibility seems possible as well, or even easier: after all, once the physical mechanism is known it might be possible to find out a way to liberate suddenly the energy contained inside a light ball by nullifying instantly the central force that permits a hydrostatic equilibrium with the outward pressure force. The implications of this are really weird. But, as we all know, the use of some science or technology depends mostly on the nature of man. The main wish is that mankind becomes more peaceful and mature, so that an “infinite possibility” might be managed only for the common well.”

Massimo Teodorani also included some information on what a monitoring station for “UFOs” should cover. He indicate that for 2 years he had been collorating “with an international research group of scientists lead by Dr. Mark Rodeghier of CUFOS. Our goal is to prepare a project for an automated measurement station in order to obtain measurements of such phenomena all the time, after choosing an appropriate location for the station. At the present time most of the attention is concentrated in two directions:

A) Optimizing the best optical sensors that are able to acquire data on weakly luminous objects after covering all the sky.

B) Optimizing the best grating system able to obtain spectra of good resolution. Gratings are intended to be attached to optical sensors such as 3i Cube CCD camera.”

In my up coming columns for UFO Truth magazine "The OZ Files" and the Australian UFOlogist magazine "Science and the UFO Controversy" I have re-examined the CAIPAN UAP UFO scientific workshop in terms of it being an important signpost on the long road to a UAP & UFO science.