May 1976
The May 1976 issue of the Australian UFO Bulletin. 12 pages. Dargo car pacing with illumination effects. Chinkapook landing with ignition failure and flattened crop. King Island duck shooter and cross-shaped object with inverted cone of orange light. Eltham photographs (classic disc silhouette). Benalla movie film resolved as possible jet trails.
In This Issue
Car Pacing at Dargo
Pages 1-2
Summary: A young man and his middle-aged cousin (both farmers, cucumber-gherkin harvest) observed a light they initially took for a shooter’s spotlight. When their car drew near, it was a “similar light floating in midair alongside the road.” At about 45 mph it paced their vehicle for a mile, lost in a deep cutting, then reappeared coming across a paddock on a steep hill.
Flying Saucers? (Chinkapook, VIC)
Pages 2
Summary: Reports near Chinkapook (Mallee settlement, VIC). A local farmer sighted a brilliantly lit object that “appeared to land in a nearby field.” When he attempted to overtake it, “the ignition of his car failed, but when the lights on the object went out, his car was able to move normally again.” (No ignition fault found on subsequent mechanical check.) Neighbour also saw the object.
UFO Sighted: Unnerving Experience for Duck Shooter (King Island, TAS)
Pages 2
Summary: Anonymous duck shooter, parked in a wild uninhabited coastal area. Looking north-easterly, noticed what appeared to be a torch or motorbike headlight moving across a hill, moving westerly, half a mile away.
Photographs at Eltham (VIC)
Pages 2-3
Two colour prints photographed by boys aged 12 and 14 at their Eltham home on a Saturday about midday (September or October 1975). Both photos show "what appears to be the same object, of the ‘classic’ shape: disc with upper central dome, with the long axis inclined at about 30 degrees to the horizontal.
Movie Film Could Be Jet Trails
Pages 3
The Benalla Hume Highway film (Nov 1975 Bulletin) examined by ACOS photographic consultant Frank Gillespie. Frame-by-frame analysis and microscopy.
East Burwood Again… and Surrey Hills
Pages 3-4
Australian Statistics for 1975
Pages 4
Key data: 355 sightings reported for all of Australia (no NT data). 231 identified (~65%).
Investigating the UFO - ABC Special
Pages 4-5
ABC radio network two-hour live program on 24 March 1976, 8-10 p.m. across eight stations nationally.
Close Encounter in Western Australia, July 1969
Pages 5
Visual content (page 5): Witness sketch showing a disc-shaped object hovering above treetops with a bright beam of light directed downward, illuminating the area. A fence visible in the foreground.
Tasmania Again (Major Section)
Pages 6-7
Various Other Sightings
“Shadowy Figures in Plexiglass Dome” (NZ Brookby Case)
Pages 8
Visual content (page 8): Witness sketch (Sheryl Ricard) showing a circular craft with a “Plexiglass dome” at top, three dark shadowy figures moving inside, red and white lights around the rim, and four legs with red lights protruding from underneath.
Brownstown Youth Sees, Photographs Flying Object (Illinois, USA)
Pages 8-9
David Mahon (14), tramping on his father’s farm 3 miles south of Brownstown with a camera. Sound “like an electric motor.” "Black and shaped like a saucer…
He Saw UFO 100 Yards Away (Akron, Ohio, USA)
Pages 9
Mike Sauers: delta-shaped, three orange lights, about 40 yards long, 100 yards away. No sound.
Astronauts Spotted UFOs (McDivitt/Cooper LP Record)
Pages 9
Astronauts Gen. James McDivitt and Col.
UFO “Think Tank” (CUFOS Conference)
Pages 9
CUFOS held a scientific conference April 30 to May 2, 1976. “A serious ‘think tank’, not advertised in advance.” 133 invited, about a quarter expected.
Alert in the Black Country, Part 2 (Conclusion)
Pages 10-12
Visual content (page 12): Three witness sketches reproduced from the SOBEPS report: (1) Jean-Claude Labenne’s elongated oval; (2) Eric Meni’s dome-topped disc with row of lights; (3) Janine Lamy’s smaller elliptical disc.
VUFORS Committee Election
Pages 12
Results of AGM, Friday 14 May 1976: President: Peter Norris. Vice-President: Guy Richards.
Notable Quotes
“A terrific glare of light that lit up everything for several hundred feet around, illuminating the inside of the car as bright as a midsummer’s day.” Dargo witness (on illumination)
“Just to see if it would come any closer. As soon as we started the truck up, back it came.” Ron Wilson (truck escort, on stopping)
“People don’t believe you… I wouldn’t have believed it myself if I hadn’t seen it.” Ron Wilson (on reporting)
“They were so bright you could see them reflecting off the UFO’s shiny metallic surface… From when it started moving off to when it disappeared as a pinpoint of light in the distance, it took only two seconds.” Brian Woolley (HEC linesman)
“I’m sure there is nobody here keen enough to walk the distance on the chance of sparking off a hoax UFO report.” Constable Lowery (Maydena)
“I was in a room, maybe five feet in diameter with walls that looked like brushed aluminium. And on the wall were things that looked like camera lenses with a glow that came and went.” David Mahon (14, Brownstown)
“It started moving over toward us. We cut that light out real fast. We got a chill down our backs.” Ptl. Zachary Space (Akron, on spotlight)
“No less than 20 persons declared to have felt these impressions, sometimes accompanied by tremblings, heat sensations, paralysis and electric shocks.” SOBEPS conclusion (Belgian “Black Country”)
