Paranorma and

Psychic Australian May 1978

Katoomba Ufo Encounters

By Rex Gilroy 

My Fathers Ufo Sighting

My Father had never believed in the existence of UFO's. That is until the night of 1st of March 1972. The time was 10 pm as he lay in his bed looking out of the Blue Mountains bedroom window which faced east. At that moment he was surprised by a large saucer-shaped silver glowing object which seemed to pass silently over the house toward the west to disappear in seconds. The night was misty and there was a very low cloud cover which meant the strange craft had passed very close to ground level. Regretably I did not see the craft as I was seated in the lounge room watching television. No sooner had my father seen the strange object than he out out of bed and told me what he had just seen. He said that although he never believed in "flying saucers" he believed in them now.

Katoomba Ufo {Cataline Race Track}

One dark cloudy September night in 1969 Mr Robert Hilton and his mother were standing in the back yard of their home, which is situated near the Old Bathurst Road, Katoomba, and overlooks the Catalina Race car track. Directly ahead of them and hovering high above the centre of the track they sighted a large oval saucer-shaped craft among the clouds. The craft emitted three lights-one green and two red from beneath it, and a white light shone from square windows that appeared to surround the craft. The object remained hovering for a minute and then began moving off slowly in a north-easterly direction. The Hintons judged the approximate speed of the craft at about 36 mph.

Eddellbuttel Piggery Incident

If incidents such as these were not enough to convince even the more skeptical Australian, then the Eddellbuttel piggery incident certainly must have. This well known piggery situated along the Great Western Highway and just west of the famous Explorers Tree landmark, stands nearby the cliffs over-looking the Megalong Valley. The Eddellbuttel incident began one dark night in 1972, Mrs Eddellbuttel was washing dishes in the kitchen sink about 8pm.

Chancing to glance through the window toward the south-west she saw an orange light moving above the trees to descend among them to the west of the house behind the pig sheds. Summoning her brother and his wife who happened to bee staying with her. Mrs Eddellbuttel pointed out the eerie glow to them through the window a couple of hundred yards beyond the house. Thinking the glow to be from the lamps of spotlight shooters they soon fetched her husband, Bernard who had been taking a bath at the time. At this stage the brother in law had left the house, intending to investigate the strange glow. Walking up past the pig sheds he moved towards the trees.

It was then that he got the shock of his life when he saw what was the origin of the strange glow. There amid the trees was a saucer shaped craft of considerable size emitting the strange glow. The light was so bright that it lit up the whole surrounding area. Later it would be revealed that many motorists passing along the nearby Great Western Highway had also observed the glow in the distance. The craft had lights surrounding it with one central light in the centre of its dome. It was this dome light which emitted the blinding glow. Then as if aware that it was being watched the glow faded rapidly away leaving the mysterious craft almost invisible in the darkness among the trees.

By this time, realising what he might be looking at, the brother in law became seized with panic and ran as fast as he could from the craft until he reached the house. Perhaps equally panic-stricken the family locked and bolted every door and fastened every window in the house, someone having enough presence of mind to phone the local police. All this time the large number of pigs kept at the Eddellbuttel farm usually noisy in any disturbance like the dogs, remained deadly silent. At first the police may have thought the phone call a joke and taken no notice of it. However after repeated calls, decided to send two officers to the farm to investigate the matter. Within minutes the two constables arrived in a paddy wagon.

Driving up toward the pig shed they alighted hoping to see the object for themselves but found nothing-the mysterious craft had vanished as silently as it had come. There the matter might have rested but it did not. The Eddellbuttal Ufo report made the media and bought forth numerous other eyewitnesses who had seen the same glowing object pass over Katoomba that night. One of the witnesses was a farmer in the Megalong Valley below the cliffs beyond which the Eddellbuttel farm stands. The farmer had been standing outside his house, when from over the cliffs he detected a large approximately 30 ft wide dark object silently descending slowly down into the valley to land in a deserted field some distance from the farmhouse.

There is remained a full 10 minutes as the farmer watched it. Then silently as before, the mysterious object rose into the air and rapidly gained speed and flew off into the darkness. The impression given by these events could imply that something had been malfunctioning in the craft and its occupants, for it it was certainly driven by some intelligence, had landed first at the Eddellbuttel's place, and then in the valley below to carry out emergency repairs? Whatever it was the Eddellbuttel UFO was certainly not some errant Earth-based craft. One explanation which failed to hold water was the object had been a malfunctioning helicopter whose crew had landed to repair. Beyond this the RAAF could offer no other convincing explanation. To this day no grass will grow upon the circular depression left in the ground by the mystery craft.

Barry Taylors Ufo Picture

To date only one observer has been fortunate enough to photograph a Ufo on the Blue Mountains. This remarkable achievement was accomplished by Mr Barry Taylor Of Katoomba happened to be standing in the grounds of the California Guset House, Katoomba, on the night of 15 July 1972 Barry Taylor. The time was 8.30 pm as he stood there taking night photographs of the surrounding area. Suddenly he sighted the strange object flying from south to north as he was looking in the direction of Wentworth falls Barry Taylor aimed his camera which was equipped with a telephoto lens, and took several good photograph of it. The object which glowed with a reddish-orange colour, continued on the course at great speed until it quickly vanished northwards.

The object was seen by a great many residents on the Blue Mountains. For the interest of photographers Barry Taylor photographed the object on TriX 400 ASA film at f3.5-1/ 30th of a second. The film was processed in stack solution Microdel-X for 20 minuets and is rated approximately 2300 ASA.A keen Ufologist, Barry Taylor has spent many years investigating UFO's. During 1973 he was UFO-watching one dark night in June out on King Tableland, Wentworth Falls, when he sighted a strange craft hovering high above the DCA {now DoT} air navigation towers. The object was emitting four lights each of dull yellowish-white colour. It is a point of interest that a large number of Blue Mountains UFO sightings have been made on King Tablelands, many of which have taken place above the DCA tower, dating back at least 30 years.

Blackheath Council Depot UFo

The year of several major local Ufo reports was 1973, including one belated disclosure by Mr Anthony Look of Blackheath who in the winter of 1958 experienced one of the most spectacular sightings ever witnessed on the Blue Mountains. Mr look while a workman of the Blue Mountains City Council was walking into Blackheath council depot one July morning at 6.30 am. At that time of morning in winter the sky was still dark although dawn was about to break. Mr look was joined by several other workmates. As they stood there in the yard of the depot talking, Mr Look happened to glance up at the sky. There directly above the depot and at least 10,000 ft above the ground was what appeared to be an enormous circular craft.

At this stage the other workmen also looked up as Mr Look drew their attention to the strange object. As the workmen were all early arrivals at the depot there were no other witnesses to the strange visitor. Because the object remained stationary in the sky above, Mr Look and his friends were able to make a detailed description of the mystery craft. A ruler was produced and held up at arms length to make a rough estimate of the object's size. It measured 130 cm in width, which implies the craft must of been of considerable size. The craft now began emitting blinding white light that appeared to come from a row of lights arranged around the side of the craft, and Mr Look was able to count at least 10 such lights.

The lights projected a glow which shone directly down to within 50 ft of the council yard.In fact the glow from the craft appeared to light up the surrounding city area. After spending a full 10 minutes hovering above the startled workers, the craft suddenly rose upwards at a phenomenal speed to disappear into the clouds overhead. Following the expected ridicule that their story received from the rest of the workmen at their depot to whom they later told their experience.Mr Look and his friends {all but Mr Look are now deceased} agreed to talk no more of what they had seen. The incident might have been lost had not Mr Look broken his silence in 1973 to tell me the story.

Police Officers Ufo Sighting

One night in 1972 two police officers were driving along the Great Western Highway coming from Wentworth Falls and heading in the direction of Lawson. As they proceeded down Bodington Hill they sighted in the starry sky ahead of them a bright silvery object approaching earth ahead of them. The object appeared to be heading in their direction and they slowed down. The object passed over their vehicle lighting up the surrounding area as it did so. No other cars were in sight as the constables, perhaps seeing that what they had seen was no earthly craft, picked up speed and headed off down the road. However, they soon became aware that the mysterious craft was still keeping pace with their vehicle, which it did for some distance. The officers could detect a humming sound above them, then the glow fades as the mysterious object gave up the chase. By now other cars appeared on the highway as the officers stopped their car and got out to try to get a better look at whatever the strange object was. But, whatever it was, it had vanished from sight. The two policemen decided never to discuss their experience for fear of the possible ridicule their story might promote.

Bodington Hill Ufo

The Bodington Hill area has often been the scene of numerous UFO reports. One such incident which took place during 1966 concerned Mr and Mrs Alf and Nancy Hook of Blaxland. The Hook of Blaxland. The Hooks and their children were driving from nearby Wentworth falls down Boddington Hill on their way home about 7pm. Directly ahead of them passing high above the town of Lawson, they sighted a group of five reddish glowing objects, which Mr Hook estimated with a ruler to be 4 inches above the horizon. The strange craft was travelling north to south. So great was the glow emitted by them that the town of Lawson became lit up with the reddish glow. The objects made no sound as they passed over at great speed. By this time the Hooks had alighted from their car to get a better look at the objects, and they were able to observe them until they disappeared southward. It was through hearing of this earlier incident that the two police officers were encouraged to report their own experience to me through a friend.

Kanibla Valley UFo

On October 1973 Mr Jason Bentley of Mount Victoria sighted a UFO as it passed silently over the nearby by Kanibla Valley heading east to west. The time was 8 pm and the valley was covered in a layer of mist. Mr Bentley estimated the object to be about one mile high and about the size of a one cent piece held at arm's length. A row of bright yellow lights emitted an eerie glow from the lower section of the craft which reflected up on the valley mist as the object passed over at great speed. About half an hour afterwards people around Bathurst were reporting having seen the same mystery craft to police.

Blue Mountain Ufo's

In fact of all the countries scattered across our globe from which UFO sightings have been reported, Australia would appear to possess a very high proportion of the worlds Ufo activity. And of al the areas renowned for UFO activity, the Blue Mountains of New South Wales may rival all others by the sheer mass of reported sightings, many of which date back to last century.

Aboriginal Traditions {Bird Man}

Perhaps unidentified flying objects and their crews have been seen hereabouts from far earlier times. There survive Aboriginal traditions of mystery "Bird Men" who, far back in the Dream Time, descended from the skies to live among the Aboriginals, only to return to the sky from whence they had come. Chief of these was the culture-hero Birramee the Bird Man. Birramee was depicted in local rock art as a human figure clothed in strange garments reminiscent of what we today would call an Astronaut.

My First Sighting {1959}

I am not only a firm believer in UFo's from the mass of available evidence for them-I have seen them myself. My first sighting of a Ufo occured in 1959 when one bright cloudy day in February that year, I sighted a stationary silver object hovering among clouds over Katoomba. What appeared to have been the same object was later seen near Medlow Bath a few miles west of Katoomba by a number of witnesses.

My Mothers Sighting {1963}

Some years later in 1963 my late mother was among a number of people at the Hydro Majestic Hotel, Medlow Bath, who watched for about half an hour while a saucer-shaped silver object hovered about in an erratic fashion among overhead clouds.

My Second Sighting {1969}

My second Ufo experience took place on Boxing Day night 1969 at Mount York reserve 4 kilometres from Mount Victoria, and the site of my natural history museum. It was to be the first of five sightings that I was to experience at Mount York. I was seated upon a clifftop about 10.30 pm on a clear cloudless moon-less night. Suddenly as I was looking toward the eastern horizon I sighted what at first I thought was an aircraft emitting a silvery light coming towards me, heading west. However, as the object appeared to be gaining height it began to slow down until it finally stopped, remaining motionless for several minutes. As I continued to watch the strange object it began moving northwards some distance, stopping just above the northern horizon where it ceased movement again for several minutes.

As I watched in amazement the object began to move off again,, this time towards the south until it was almost directly above where I sat. There it stopped again and stopped for a full ten minutes.. By now I estimated that the object was far too high above the earth to be any normal aircraft, and by its strange movements it was certainly not a satellite {yet the RAAF would claim exactly that when it received my report soon afterwards}. Finally the strange object began moving off slowly towards the northwest, gathering speed it then shot across the heavens to disappear over the north-west horizon.

My Strangest Ufo Experience {1973}

The strangest Ufo experience I have ever had to date took place at Mount York during the period of 17 to 20 May 1973. On the late afternoon of the 17th of May I stood outside my museum entrance looking westward across the Hartley Valley and in the direction of imposing Mount Tarana on the horizon. The sun was setting behind the mountain and it was at this instant, 5.06 pm that the last rays of the sun seemed to light up an hitherto unnoticed object high above the horizon. The object which was too far away to be clearly described, seemed to glow with a golden colour. The object remained motionless until 5.10 pm when it began moving slowly north-ward over Mount Tarana tuning toward the north-west. At 5.12pm the object had disappeared behind a mountain. The following afternoon I stood outside my museum waiting, hoping the mystery craft would make another appearance.

I had left my camera inside, a mistake I regret. Suddenly and without warning round pointed silvery craft appeared in the center of the Hartly Valley hovering a mile above the earth. Seeing the craft I dashed inside to get my camera, however in the instant it took me to do this the craft had vanished. About this time Heather {my wife} arrived at the museum and as we stood talking I suddenly caught sight of what I now realised must have been the very same craft hovering above the earth over Mount Tarana in the same position as before. The time was 5.06 and this time the mystery object began moving off it emitted along vapour trail which remained in the sky for upto 30 minutes after the object had disappeared. However, unlike the previous encounters we had a dozen witnesses this time, tourists who had arrived at Mount York to admire the view, and instead were to see something they would never have dreamed of. Was an attempt being made to intercept by the RAAF to intercept the strange object? If so the RAAF made no mention of the incident.

Another Katoomba Sighting{1966}

Another Blue Mountains resident Mr Gordon Pereira made a spectacular sighting in 1966. ON 23 April of that year he was returning from his job, he had been on night shift, to his home at Katoomba. The time was about 8.15am on a clear cloudless morning. Turning his vehicle on the corner of Lovel and Govett Streets, he was proceeding towards his home when he noticed high in the sky a bright silvery object directly in front of him and about one and a half miles away to the south. The craft he said later was so brilliant that it reflected the rays of the sun into his eyes. The object remained stationary in the sky. Realising that whatever it was the object was certainly not an aeroplane, Mr Pereira drove on quickly to his house, and racing inside bought out his mother on to the front yard to see the strange object.

A next door neighbour with her three children also happened to notice the craft as they stood in their front yard. Up until now the mysterious object had remained stationary.It then began moving slowly in a westerly direction over the Katoomba township. Then accelerating rapidly it flew off at terrific speed to disappear over the western horizon. Mr Pereira who is a good judge of distance was luckily able to make a sketch of the mystery craft and also an estimate of its size. The object which was disk-shaped would have been about 25 ft long and possibly 15 ft wide at its centre. It did not appear to show any other features. Two days later residents of the Camden area south of Sydney reported seeing an object answering to the same description.

Two Craft-Bowenfels {1973}

Not all Ufo sightings around the Blue Mountains have been of solitary craft. On Monday 5 1973 Mr Alf Holloway and his wife Jan of Mount Victoria west of Katoomba were driving toward Bowenfels along the Bell Line of road. The time was 11 am on a bright cloudless sunny morning. Looking out of the left hand side of the car Jan sighted two silvery objects moving slowly across the sky from east to west. Stopping the car the Holloways got out to get a better view of the two craft. Mr Halloway quickly grabbed a ruler and holding it upright at arms length could see the objects were about 7 ft {relatively}above the horizon, which indicated the craft were flying at considerable height.] The objects were at least 25 ft {actual} apart and were perhaps 30 ft {actual} wide. The objects were soon lost to view and vanished over the western horizon.

Katoomba {1973}

One clear night in January 1973 Mrs laurel Austin and her husband John were watching their television in their Katoomba home. The set began flickering badly and after a few minutes of this they decided to go outside their back door to see if a next door neighbour was using machinery. No sooner had they set foot outside their backdoor than they saw in the sky going from east to west several starlike objects. Realising that this was probably the cause of their television playing up they watched as one of the "stars" ceased moving. Then another "star" suddenly moved off and away from the rest of the formation in the same direction to vanish rapidly eastward. The remaining objects continued eastward also, but at a much slower pace. The objects were also seen by many residents of the Blue Mountains that night, who promptly jammed the switchboards requesting some sort of official explanation. They got it. The official RAAF explanation was to be expected-what the people had seen were nothing more than stars, extra bright due to the crystal clear night.

Local Police {Katoomba}

If the RAAF officials are not being hounded with UFO reports from the Blue Mountains, then the local police force is certainly getting its share. Local police involvement with Blue Mountains UFO's can be said to have begun with the incident in 1957 which took place at Echo Point, Katoomba. On this occasion large numbers of tourists who as usual flocked to see the Three Sisters lit by floodlights witnessed a saucer-shaped object. It re-appeared on two successive nights and on the third night was replaced by a cigar-shaped object which floated over the Jamieson Valley to the south of Echo Point Lookout, police officers were among the many eyewitnesses to these events. These then have been only a small percentage of the many UFO's that have been reportedly seen throughout the Blue Mountains over the years, the full list is far too great to relate in its entirety. Blue Mountains UFO's are a subject which I shall return to in future Psychic Australian articles.

Paranorma and

Psychic Australian July 1978

The Yowies Of Katoomba

By Rex Gilroy

The Yowies Of Katoomba