Canonical home moved
The canonical home for Australia is now the Australia Country Exhibition, which covers the full record from 1947 to the present, with the post-2017 disclosure cycle as one chapter in the longer narrative. This Disclosure Network page summarises the post-1996 institutional position and is in the process of being merged into the country exhibition.
🇦🇺 Disclosure Cycle
Disclosure in Australia
What Australia is doing on UAP, what it is not doing, and who in the civilian community is documenting the gap. Sourced from Senate Estimates, FOI documents, and on-record media appearances.
What Australia Is Doing
Very little, officially. The Royal Australian Air Force handled UAP reports from 1947 to 1996, at which point the programme was terminated. The official reason given was that there was no scientific or other compelling reason to continue. The Unusual Aerial Sightings Policy that replaced formal investigation was reviewed in 2003 and formally cancelled in 2013. There is currently no Defence reporting protocol for the public or for Defence members. The position, stated under questioning, is that Defence monitors international developments.
For context: the United States passed the UAP Disclosure Act of 2024 and held public congressional hearings. France maintains GEIPAN, operating since 1977. The United Kingdom held public Project Condign and DEFE-24 disclosures. Brazil's National Archives released the SIAN files. Australia stands among the Five Eyes nations as the only one without a publicly named UAP investigative function in 2026.
The Five Eyes UAP Working Group
In late 2021 a Five Eyes Inaugural UAP Caucus Working Group convened, involving representatives of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. The working group's stated purpose, recorded in documents subsequently released under Australian freedom-of-information law, was to "cultivate shared awareness of allies' UAP issues, detection, and mitigation activities and challenges."
Air Marshal Robert Chipman, then Chief of Air Force and now Vice Chief of Defence, told Senate Estimates committee hearings on two separate occasions that Australia had not been briefed by the United States on UAPs. The FOI documents subsequently contradicted this testimony, confirming that a Defence representative at the Australian Embassy in Washington had attended the United States UAP Task Force briefing. Defence later acknowledged the attendance in writing, in response to a further question on notice.
Separately, Australia did not attend the Five Eyes forum on UAPs in May 2023, despite an invitation.
Parliamentary Activity
Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, Greens senator for lutruwita/Tasmania, asked the first formal Senate question about UAP in October 2021 and continued asking through Senate Estimates hearings in 2022, May 2024, and 27 November 2024. The persistence of those questions, supported in the background by the researcher Grant Lavac providing suggested wording, produced the FOI document chain that exposed the Chipman contradiction. Senator Whish-Wilson announced his retirement from federal politics on 20 October 2025, creating an open question about which parliamentarian, if any, will pick up the line of inquiry he developed across four years.
Two e-petitions formally registered with the House of Representatives address the Australian UAP record directly:
Anchors of the Australian Community
The civilian researchers, journalists, and elected officials whose work on UAP in Australia is documented on the public record. Each name links to a full profile page.
Civilian Research Organisations
Australia's UFO research organisations span seven decades. The archive lists them factually, in order of founding, with no editorial preference for one over another.
Australia's oldest active UFO research organisation. Originally formed as the Australian Flying Saucer Research Society (Victorian Branch). Continues to operate from Melbourne.
Active New South Wales-based research organisation. Conducts witness interviews, maintains a sighting database, and publishes case investigations.
National-scope umbrella that coordinated between state-based research groups for a quarter-century. Hosted conferences, published a quarterly newsletter, and maintained the national sightings archive. The network ceased active operations in 2024; the sightings archive remains accessible online as a historical record.
Witness-focused investigation network founded by sighting witness and videographer Damien John Nott. Conducts on-the-ground fieldwork, maintains a multi-year video record of aerial phenomena, and presents at the Australian UFO Festival and exopolitics conferences.
Regional chapter of the Mutual UFO Network, headquartered in the United States. Active across Australia and New Zealand. Coordinates witness intake into the MUFON Case Management System, conducts field investigations, and contributes to the MUFON UFO Journal.
Focused on contemporary Victorian sightings investigation, with particular attention to the Westall 1966 case and its 60th anniversary documentation in 2026.
Annual community event. Hosts researchers, witnesses, and authors. Visits the Tully Nest site at the 19 January 1966 location, currently subject to a petition for national historical recognition.
In the Archive
The Australian record in the archive: cases, government documents, country profile, and timeline events that the Disclosure Network references.
