The Westall UFO Encounter

For more information on the UFO/ET phenomenon, read The Alien Enigma by JP Robinson.

On April 6th, 1966 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia at around 11 am, one of the greatest mass UFO sightings ever recorded took place at Westall high school (now Westall Secondary College). Over 200 witnesses were present, many being regular students, but the bizarre incident was also seen by the headmaster and other staff members.

The weather was fine that morning, and the sky clear, with some children playing sports in the school yard whilst others studied indoors. Then, out of nowhere, what was described as a large, silverish saucer shaped disc about the size of two or three cars was reportedly seen hovering over the school. Some reported seeing more than one UFO.

One of UFOs then proceeded to move silently and slowly towards a wooded area known as The Grange, where it allegedly landed in the long grass. Some students attempted to jump the fence in all the excitement and headed towards the site of the landed craft, but were told to return by the members of staff on duty that day.

One witness Sue Savage, who was 13 at the time of the encounter explained that she was in science class when a fellow student ran into the classroom shouting “there is a flying saucer outside.”

Mrs Savage went out to the corner of the schoolyard with her classmates and looked up to the sky in amazement. “(The UFO) was like two saucers . . . one on the bottom and one turned upside down on the top,” said Mrs Savage.

“Some people say there was just one but I reckon there were three. They were hovering over the trees and then went down into the trees and disappeared for a minute or two then rose back up, sort of banked on its side and then took off at a 1,000 miles per hour.”

One witness claims she saw a girl make it over the fence where she encountered the unusual saucer shaped vehicle, and was shortly found unconscious and eventually taken away in an ambulance. This student never returned to Westall High school and her family moved out of the family home that night and were never seen again.

Before any of the other witnesses were able to get a closer look at the landed UFO, it rose up and shot off into the sky at an incredible speed. Witnesses claim that they saw five other objects at this point which most people explained as military planes called out to confront the mystery object.

The whole ordeal lasted around twenty minutes, but one UFO did leave a circular imprint on the grass where it had been seen.

After being alerted to the UFO sighting, Kevin Hurley who was 21 at the time, rode his bike to the school from Murrumbeena where he recalls walking through tall grass to the spot behind the trees where the students said the UFO had been earlier in the day.

Mr Hurley said, “I saw a whole lot of people in a group huddle, they were all looking at the ground and there in 2 ft. high grass was a big perfect circle of absolutely flattened and twisted grass. In that circle there were three distinct impressions where the grass has been penetrated down to the dirt.”

When he returned to the site the following day with some friends the area had been cordoned off and a military officer ordered him to vacate the area.

51 year old Shaun Matthews, wasn't a student at Westall but was on holiday in the area at the time of the sighting. He said, "I saw the thing come across the horizon and drop down behind the pine trees, I couldn't tell you what it was. It certainly wasn't a light aircraft or anything of the like. . . I saw the thing drop down behind the pine trees and saw it leave again. I couldn't tell you how long it was there for, it was such a long time ago."

"I went over and there was a circle in the clearing. It looked like it had been cooked or boiled, not burnt as I remember," he said. "A heap of kids from Westall primary and high school came charging through to see what had happened — 'look at this, look at that, we saw it as well', that sort of thing. It was a bit of a talking point for a couple of days."

The police were called in and an unscheduled assembly took place where the students and staff alike were told that what they saw was not an extraterrestrial craft but regardless they were not to repeat what they had seen that day to anyone.

Other teachers at the school claimed that two men in dark blue suits came and quizzed them about what they saw. They were told not to speak of the incident, especially to the press. One teacher who had grabbed her camera and taken dozens of pictures of the UFO, explained that when her camera was confiscated by the men in suits who told her that the camera was now their property. She said that the men were from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).

Whatever they all saw that day in Australia still remains a mystery, but it is not an isolated case. Years later in 1994, another mass UFO sighting occurred in Zimbabwe, known as the Ariel School UFO Encounter.

Surely there must be some truth behind these mysterious tales?

For more information on the UFO/ET phenomenon, read The Alien Enigma by JP Robinson.

Sources:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/inner-south/westall-ufo-sighting-witnesses-to-speak-about-the-1966-alien-encounter-at-clayton-south/news-story/ba54dbec1130e3df8715c728e65bc028

http://alien-ufo-research.com/1966-westall-ufo-encounter/

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2005/10/01/1127804696941.html

http://ufo-explorer.com/timeline/westall-ufo-incident/