The Westall UFO Incident

When you think of UFO incidents, the one incident to come to mind would undoubtedly be Roswell - easily one of the most famous UFO cases of all.

However, there is one UFO case you might not be familiar with. It's known as Australia's own Roswell - The Westall UFO incident.

UFO reports are usually witnessed by one person. Two or three at most. Maybe someone out in the middle of the night taking their dog for a walk one last time for the night or someone out for a smoke. Not expecting the least bit out of the ordinary, they glance up at the night sky and happen to see a strange object that they can't explain.

Rarely. Very rarely are reported UFO incidents witnessed by a mass number of witnesses.

However, that is just what happened at a high school in Melbourne, Australia. And it wasn't just several witnesses. Over 100 witnesses claimed to have seen a UFO and it happened in broad daylight.

April 6, 1966

Melbourne, Australia

It was an ordinary day at Westall high school in Melbourne, Australia - a school surrounded by fields and Australian bush land. Students were out for recess. It was like any other day. And then something very strange happened that early afternoon recess.

A small handful of students first saw it - a strange object in the sky in the middle of the day. The way it moved could not have been replicated by any known aircraft. Hovering, tilting, and flying low, it moved across the sky in an unpredictable, haphazard manner. Excited and undoubtedly more fearful than anything, those students called attention to the sky. More students as well as teachers hurried over and saw it.

Witnesses described the object as a disc shaped object metallic silver in color. It was roughly two times the size of a family car. Some reported it as flat while others reporting it having a dome.

If this incident couldn't get any stranger, soon after the first reported sighting, witnesses then reported seeing civilian aircraft in pursuit of the strange aircraft. It pursued the unknown aircraft as if it was an unauthorized or maybe even a suspected enemy. The strange thing about all this is no confirmed reports of any aircraft pursuit exist. Even more suspicious, there was little media coverage outside of Melbourne. No reported record.

The strange disc shaped object then descended to the nearby Australian bush land referred to as "the Grange". No sooner did it land for no more than a few minutes, did the craft shoot up into the sky again and vanish out of sight.

Government officials claimed there was no reason to be alarmed at that there was a rational explanation to what the Westall students and teachers witnessed. What's more, the government also insisted that any witnesses stay silent.

Here are a few theories of what those 200 people, students and teachers saw in the sky that day:

A weather balloon

There was a reported weather balloon release not far from the location sighing. It might be possible that the winds could have moved the weather balloon closer to Westall.

HIBAl (High Altitude) Balloon

Similar to the weather balloon theory, a HIBAL balloon to measure radiaton, could have drifted closer to Westall due to any winds that day.

Secret Military Experiment

And then there was the wild theory that it could have been a secret military experiment. This would be a good explanation of why witnesses were ordered to keep silent.

Not one of these theories has been confirmed.

Was the Westall incident a military experiment? A weather balloon? Was it a case of mass hysteria? We'll likely never know. However, the 200 witnesses swore by what they saw in the sky that April day.

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