Disclosure Australia

History

Disclosure Australia launched in June 2003 as the newsletter of a newly established Australian Disclosure Project, formally titled "The Australian UFO Research Network Disclosure Project." The Secretariat operated from PO Box 786, North Adelaide, South Australia 5006, under the auspices of the Australian UFO Research Association (AURA), with the broader network coordinated through PO Box 738, Jimboomba, Queensland 4280. Keith Basterfield of AURA served as the project's primary researcher.

The project's mission statement was direct: "To ascertain the extent of official Australian Government knowledge of the UFO phenomenon; then to document both this and civilian knowledge on the subject." Over three and a half years and 31 newsletters, the project systematically searched the National Archives of Australia (NAA) RecordSearch system, lodged Freedom of Information requests, and examined over 10,000 pages of government documents.

By December 2006 the project had located records of 146 files across eight government agencies: the Department of Supply (Woomera range sightings, 1952 to 1972), the Department of Civil Aviation (which actively sought saucer reports in the early 1950s), the Department of Territories (Papua New Guinea reports, 1959 to 1965), the Department of External Affairs (Minister R.G. Casey's personal interest in 1954), ASIO (surveillance of UFO organisations, 1956 to 1972), the CSIRO (Dr Michael Duggin's individual investigations), and the Department of Defense including the Royal Australian Navy, Australian Army, and RAAF.

The RAAF emerged as the dominant agency. Between 1951 and 2001 it maintained a reporting and analysis system, first through the Directorate of Air Force Intelligence (DAFI) and later through a series of other units. The project documented the evolution of RAAF policy from active investigation (sending officers to interview witnesses, corresponding with CSIRO scientists) to passive collection (simply filing reports without analysis) to eventual abandonment of the reporting system entirely.

The newsletter also functioned as an organisational tool. It established liaison officers in each participating group, published nomination forms, reported on FOI responses, and disseminated findings through the bi-monthly "Australasian UFOlogist" magazine, national conferences, and a two-part CD-ROM set. A project website hosted digital copies of key documents.