Ufo Mysteries of The Burragorang Valley By Rex Gilroy
Australasian Ufologist Magazine

Copyright (c) Rex Gilroy, March 2000.

Ufo Mysteries of The Burragorang Valley

By Rex Gilroy

UFO MYSTERIES OF THE BURRAGORANG VALLEY. BY REX GILROY. Director, Blue Mountains UFO Research PO Box 202, Katoomba. 2780. NSW and Blue Mountains Unexplained Mysteries Discussion Group, 12 Kamillaroi Rd., Katoomba. 2780.

As every member of the Blue Mountains Unexplained Mysteries Discussion Group knows, from regular reports in our Group's newsletter, since late 1999 there has been an increasing number of strange lights and objects sighted in the southernmost region of the Burragorang Valley, south of Katoomba beyond Mt. Solitary.

This is the region notorious for the mysterious disappearances of a number of people over many years, of strange sounds heard by campers late at night, seemingly emanating from below ground; and the area where so many strange objects and lights have been seen to appear from out of and disappear into, remote gullies which have long given rise to the theory that an underground "UFO Base" , or perhaps a secret military weapons testing base of some kind, has long been established there.

In my first book, "Mysterious Australia" [NEXUS 1995] I presented evidence of the "UFO Base", which, while it attracted the interest of fellow Ufologists both throughout Australia and overseas, also attracted the attention of American and Australian government security agents, who for some reason seemed to have an interest in the area.

My phone was tapped, and I am still unable to have UFO articles published in the Blue Mountains press; a sometimes slanderous campaign was launched to discredit my book, and the chapter dealing with the UFO Base ridiculed in the media by hand-picked journalists [no wonder "Mysterious Australia" was so popular with the public who snapped up every copy!]

In August 1999, during a visit to Brisbane, to deliver a slide talk at a public meeting organised by Australian UFO Research Network, operated by my friends Diane Harrison and Robert Frola, I was met by an American which whom I'd earlier had contact over the phone, who appeared extremely interested in these matters, and had invited my wife Heather and I to spend a couple of days at his home outside the city on the Brisbane River.

This man was quite wealthy and lived with his wife and children in a mansion overlooking the river. Once inside the grounds, surrounded by a spiked fence, the gates automatically slide shut behind us and we were virtual prisoners. He operated the gates from a gadget in his pocket where he also kept a mobile phone. He was constantly using his mobile phone while we were guests/prisoners in his home and I more than once overheard our names mentioned to whoever he was phoning.

Both he and his wife were highly educated university people, and we were informed that he had been involved in White House security, operating his own security service in Australia.

The first evening we were in his home he held a private lengthy discussion with me on my theories concerning ancient civilisation contacts with Australia and pre-Aboriginal stone-age races, but appeared far more concerned with my work on Australian UFO's. I was quick to realise that he was very careful with his words and especially so when he directed the discussion to the Burragorang Valley mystery.

Realising from experience that I was being 'bugged' [and that our bedroom was also], and that he was undoubtedly concerned to find out everything I knew about what was to me merely a theory, I wisely played dumb and just directed him to the book chapter as being all that I knew.

After this gruelling session he went decidedly 'cold' on me and abruptly stopped the conversation. We were 'released' after two days with artificial smiles as they farewelled us and drove off glad to finally 'escape'. The punch-line is that, recently in a casual UFO discussion with friends, talk turned to the undercover activities of ASIO and the CIA, and this man's name was mentioned to me as one American CIA agent in particular who operates from Brisbane, and who also has close ties with ASIO!

Something is undoubtedly "out there" in the southern reaches of the Burragorang Valley wilderness, about which some high-ranking American and Australian government security agents are eager to find out what I know! What follows are some of the latest goings-on in that valley south of Katoomba. Glowing spherical objects of gold and other colours have been reported to me hereabouts over the years, seen by campers who have penetrated this vast wilderness. On Thursday 30/12/99 I made a hike to the end of Narrow Necks Peninsula.

On the way out, in clear sky conditions about midday, and not far before the fire tower, I spotted through a gap in the trees looking towards the far end of Burragorang, a silver ball-like object rising high above the valley. I observed with my binoculars as this distant object began moving slowly east, then re-tracing its flight path it stopped, then descended into the valley. On the afternoon of Wednesday 12/1/2000 while walking my dog out on Narrow Neck Road, I spotted from a hillock a large object, box kite-like in shape, but with a glowing reddish-orange flame colours.

It appeared from behind Mt Solitary and proceeded to cross the 'saddle' between the mountain and the Ruined Castle rock formation, to vanish behind the 'Castle'. Then, shortly afterwards an orangey 'ball of light' appeared to rise from behind Ruined Castle and move off slowly to behind the first arm of Narrow Neck and disappear from view. I am not alone in these sightings, for tourists have also spotted at night these strange lights, in the southern region of Burragorang Valley.

For generations people around Katoomba have, day and night observed strange objects flying southward to descend and disappear in an area south of Warragamba Dam's backwaters in the southernmost region of Burragorang Valley.

Similarly, people in the Bowral district have observed objects flying northward over the town, eventually to descent into the same area of the valley to their north. In "Mysterious Australia' I theorised the possibility of an underground "UFO Base" as one hypothetical explanation for this phenomena , which was in fact an up-to-date enlarged version of a 1978 "Psychic Australia" magazine article, my phone tapping began soon after the publication of that article. It has continued on and off to the present day.

In 1990 a group of high school boys claimed they were 'buzzed' by a silver, spherical ball-like 3. object from which small spike-like shafts projected. The sphere, they said, was about 40cm in width and made fast, erratic movements above them. It then hovered about 3m above the track ahead of them before shooting off to vanish over the trees and gullies beyond. Was the strange sphere some kind of remote-controlled observer? In any case the boys abandoned their camping trip then and there.

In the Spring of 1977 during a trip into the Burragorang, three young campers were preparing for sleep one night, when they heard a loud throbbing, grinding sound, coming "as if from out of the bowels of the earth", as one of them later informed me.

The sound grew louder by the minute, and as it increased the ground itself began to vibrate. The boys got to their feet, torches in hand, and began searching the area of their camp, but failed to find the cause of the disturbance. Although the vibrations decreased somewhat, they got little sleep from the incessant throbbing that continued well into the night. The next day a further search failed to reveal the cause of the mystery sounds, and they were glad to leave the area.

These boys were not the first to hear these sounds, and people in recent times have claimed to have heard them at night while camping. And then there are the lights of the "phantom city"' a phenomenon witnessed by numerous people who have happened to be out on the far end of Kings Tableland behind Wentworth Falls late at night.

A mass of strange lights, resembling a town lit up at night, has been observed to appear as if from out of nowhere and vanish again before morning. This "phantom city" lies in the same region where campers have heard the underground machine-type sounds. It was hereabouts in 1970 that a camper, Rod Parker, found a circular burnt-out patch of timber and the remains of what appeared to some heavy object that had left a circular depression in the earth for about 10m across. There was also a strange smell about the place which Rod could not identify.

Whatever it was, he could see that some unknown, large heavy object had rested there only hours before - so heavy in fact that it had crushed over large gum trees with trunks between 20 and 30 cm or more in thickness. Later Rod contacted the RAAF Base at Richmond, north of Penrith, and reported his eerie discovery. The voice at the other end of the phone had the perfect solution to the mystery.

"About this time of year Mr Parker, large flocks of migrating ducks frequent the Warragamba region, congregating to rest at night in large numbers in the swamps leaving circular depressions in the crushed reeds when they fly off. So obviously Mr Parker, what you found was nothing more than a depression left by migrating ducks."

"Yes", replied Rod, "Ninety ton ducks!" and hung up. Saucer and spherical glowing objects are commonplace UFO shapes reported across the Blue Mountains, and the current 'flap' up here is no exception. On Friday 25/2/2000 at 2.34 pm, while visiting friends at Leura, from their front yard I happened to spot a silent silver disc-shaped object shoot across the sky at great height from the south, to vanish into clouds to the north. My friends also spotted it, and recalled another similar sighting they had made a few years ago in this same area.

What is going on in the Burragorang Valley? Why the cover-up? And why is ASIO and the CIA so concerned with people who have been reporting these strange events? We are faced with mysteries for which there seems no possible explanation, other than that, a top secret operation of some kind is going on, as it has been for a very long time, deep in the wilderness of the Burragorang Valley south of Katoomba.