Panorama

History

Panorama began publication in 1962 from 22 Northcote Street, Kilburn, South Australia, edited by Fred P. Stone. It was conceived as a companion journal to the Australian Saucer Record (A.S.R.), which Stone also published from the same address. Where the A.S.R. focused on sighting reports and investigation, Panorama carried the broader philosophical and metaphysical material that Stone believed was inseparable from the UFO question. The subtitle declared it "The Magazine with the Wide Horizon," and its masthead carried the motto "Behold! Come Let Us Go."

The first issue (Vol 1, No 1, 1962) laid out the scope plainly: UFO phenomena, Bible studies, metaphysics, ESP, and material "for advanced students." Stone pitched it at readers who had moved beyond simple sighting collection and wanted to explore what the phenomenon meant. Issued bi-monthly at a price of two shillings (or 25 cents for overseas readers), with subscriptions at one pound per year or $2.50 Australian. Six issues per year were planned.

By Volume 3 (1963-64), Panorama had formally incorporated with the Australian Saucer Record and become the official organ of U.F.O.P.I.A., the Unidentified Flying Objects Phenomena Investigation Australia. This consolidation gave the journal a dual identity: it served both as an investigative publication reporting Australian sightings and as a platform for Stone's wider philosophical interests. The publication continued through at least Volume 10 (1971), with combined issues appearing in the later years as the schedule slowed.

Stone was not merely an editor relaying other people's reports. He brought personal experience to the subject. In a remarkable editorial in Volume 3, he described his own encounter with ball lightning during an Adelaide thunderstorm in 1936. A luminous sphere entered through the chimney of his home, moved through several rooms at ceiling height, passed clean through a glass window without breaking it, and exploded in the garden outside. The experience, three decades before Panorama began, shaped his conviction that orthodox science had failed to account for phenomena that ordinary people witnessed regularly.

Content ranged from local Australian sighting reports and RAAF correspondence to reprints from international researchers, discussions of ancient astronaut theories, and metaphysical essays on consciousness and human evolution. Stone maintained connections with the broader Australian UFO community, particularly the Adelaide-based researchers who formed UFOPIA's core membership. The journal also tracked Australian government responses to sighting reports, including RAAF investigation procedures and the Department of Air's standard dismissals.