UFOIC Newsletter

History

The Unidentified Flying Objects Investigation Centre issued its first newsletter in March 1964 from Sydney. The editorial announced that knowledge of UFO events should be "more efficiently shared with our members" and promised issues at six-week intervals, with July and December reserved for the group's other publication, the Australian Flying Saucer Review. The newsletter sold for twenty cents and a year's membership cost one dollar. Public lectures were held at Esperanto Hall on Lawson Street, Redfern, with social evenings hosted at members' homes in suburbs like Mosman.

Dr. Lindtner and Mr. A. Tomas were among the early speakers. Tomas lectured on the changing attitudes of world scientists towards intelligent life in the universe. The first issue itself was a digest of international UFO news, drawing on overseas publications to compile a worldwide round-up of the previous year's sighting activity: the Wiltshire craters brought before the British Parliament, a southern Illinois car chase with an orange glowing object, Argentine airport landings, Canadian Project Magnet's airborne detection flights, and Soviet scientific interest in the phenomenon. UFOIC credited sources carefully, citing Saucer News, NICAP, Newsweek, and the Sydney Morning Herald.

The group's mailing address moved during its life. Early issues used P.O. Box 6118, St. James, Sydney. By 1975 the address had settled at P.O. Box 6, Lane Cove, NSW 2066, where it remained through the final issues. The newsletter was registered at the GPO Sydney for transmission by post as a periodical, giving it official standing in the Australian postal system.

By the mid-1970s, the organisation had formalised its structure. F.J. Phillips (callsign VK2ZQ, indicating an amateur radio operator) served as president. The committee included D. Buching, Mrs P. Buching, M. Guider, H. O'Brien, and J. Blattman. W. Moser handled secretarial duties. Bill Chalker, then completing his Bachelor of Science with Honours, joined as a committee member before rising to co-ordinator. Dr. D. Herbison-Evans (FRAS) and T.W. Dutton (MSMechE, MIDE) served as advisers, lending the organisation a scientific credibility that many Australian UFO groups of the era lacked.

The newsletter's August 1968 issue covered the Congressional UFO Symposium organised by the House Committee on Science and Astronautics on 29 July 1968. The editorial summarised papers by Hynek (calling for UN involvement and international cooperation), James McDonald (arguing the extraterrestrial hypothesis fitted observations best and attacking Menzel's and Klass's plasma explanations), and Carl Sagan (drawing attention to the likelihood of intelligent life elsewhere in the galaxy). UFOIC tracked American political developments closely, viewing them as harbingers of what might eventually happen in Australia.

The publication struggled with regularity throughout its run. Editors apologised repeatedly for delays, citing the burden of simultaneously producing the Australian Flying Saucer Review and the chronic shortage of volunteer help. The August 1968 issue noted it was only the third that year instead of the fourth. By 1975, the editorial was pleading for new members to keep the organisation financially solvent. Despite these difficulties, the newsletter persisted for fifty issues across thirteen years.