Chapter Two
The Burragorang Mystery

Even if there was no underground world where scientists work upon the development of a space exploration/military technology far beyond our presentday knowledge in these matters, there has long been a history of paranormal events in the Burragorang Valley to suggest that something very much out of the ordinary has been happening.

People and also aircraft had already vanished in those valley depths, when in 1951 three soldiers entered the Burragorang, intent upon locating the wreckage of a wartime fighter plane, which they believed might have crashed in a particular area of the valley. They subsequently vanished without trace.

A search was organised, but quickly called off, on the orders of high-ranking Australian Army personnel. More will be said about this aircraft in our next chapter.

Word about the missing soldiers spread, and in 1953 it became something of an adventure for campers to keep an eye out for any remains of the three soldiers, and also the crashed fighter plane. These searches continued for the next few years without success.

Meanwhile the construction of Warragamba Dam had commenced to create a new water supply for the growing Sydney population. The residents of the valley farms were re-located and the old town of Burragorang was gradually submerged by the rising waters of ‘Lake Burragorang’.

This now gave the Sydney Water Board the power to seal off the entire valley to campers and bushwalkers. This however, as time has shown, has not stopped these activities! There had been a number of strange flying craft reported seen over the Burragorang, and these sightings attracted the attention of a number of enthusiastic UFO investigators in those early days of Australian UFOlogy.

Searchers were soon in the valley, keeping one eye out for rangers with the other watching for UFOs! One camper who happened to penetrate the valley was surprised to come upon a large ‘saucer nest’ in a forest clearing. Yet the most startling incident occurred in 1953 when a lone camper, Brian Dogherty, while camped under the stars one night, saw a large, dark ‘saucer’ shaped craft moving over the surrounding tree tops.

As he got to his feet he heard a loud ‘crunching’ sound as the craft landed in a nearby patch of gum forest above the gully he was camped in. It was a long time before he got back to sleep, and by the time he awoke, and went in search of the landing site of the mystery craft, it had lifted off and flown elsewhere. All that Brian found was an area of trees and shrubbery that had been broken and flattened.

Chapter Two
The Burragorang Mystery