WITNESS ACCOUNTS

My name is Gary Anderson. It was May 5^th, 1965 when I was 13 or so. Definitely early high school, because it happened, ironically, in science class. I can’t remember exactly what the class was about that day, I just remember it was boring. So boring that I was counting down the minutes until recess. Around ten minutes before we were dismissed, Mr. Reynolds was about to yell at me for drawing on my school book again. I remember thinking “Oh, shit” when this girl, I can’t remember her name, shot her hand up. She slammed her hand into her desk with her other hand, so she took everyone’s attention. At first I was really glad the attention was off me, I wasn’t known for paying attention in class, but then I saw her face. It was pale. Shocked. Like her face was the physical embodiment of disbelief.

But everyone laughed. We were kids, of course we laughed. I think Mr. Reynolds saw her emotion, though. He shushed the class, and she just said “Flying Saucers”. Then we laughed again. Mr. Reynolds lead us outside to the oval, and that’s when we saw it.

Flying saucers.

Or something as close to a flying saucer as I can think of. They were these weird, oval shaped, vehicles in the sky. I didn’t understand how they were in the sky, just floating. But then they began moving, as if they saw us looking. They kind of zig zagged. They were difficult to keep an eye on as they just kept stopping. I was never able to count how many there was because they were just too fast. That and the noise. The awful, loud noise. It was like what a headache would sound like. I blocked my ears to stop the noise, but it was like the noise was coming from inside my head. I never even saw Mr Reynold’s leave, but I saw him come back, carrying a camera. He pointed it at the sky and yelled, “I think we’ve got them!”

The recess bell rang, and the rest of the student body joined the class on the oval. Not a face was looking straight or at one another. Everyone’s gaze was pointed upwards towards the sky. It was like time stood still. We just stood there, staring. Trying to keep our gaze on one of them before it darted in a random direction again. Then, one zoomed away. God knows where. It just, zoomed and disappeared. Then another, then the last. Three. There were three of them. That’s right. I counted them leave. And then I counted the soldiers, but I never finished counting. There were too many, and I was more interested that they had guns. Big guns. I’d never seen one before. Some of them sounded different. American. There were Australian soldiers too, but that wasn’t that much of a surprise. Though when I would think back on it later, I realised there was no US military base anywhere close to the school. I wonder how they got their so fast.

We all got moved to the school court after. The headmaster moved us all really quickly, as if there was an emergency. He looked worried, but not because of the flying things in the sky. He kept saying that we hadn’t seen anything. But we did. After we were sent home early, I told my dad. He scoffed and made a joke about it. I wasn’t surprised he didn’t believe me. But my brother Tom did. He still asks me about it sometimes.

Look, I don’t think Alien’s exist. It was probably just some government thing that got out of hand. Hence why the military came and shut us up. I can’t help but wonder though.

David Brown

You know when sometimes you only become aware you’re hearing a sound after you’ve been hearing it for a little while? And then you start questioning whether you’re actually hearing anything strange or whether that’s what the room always sounded like? That started happening to me a few minutes before recess and it was driving me crazy. It was a low humming sound that I’ve never been able to properly describe, the best I can do is a far-off lawn mower or wood-chipper but even then, that’s not right. It sounded hollow.

Obviously, I yelped when I saw them and told the class, which made everyone laugh. I thought I was already on thin ice with my teacher, but he surprised me by saying that this was science class and we wouldn’t be very good scientists if we didn’t investigate. So we streamed out into the oval (we were the first ones there) and stared up at the sky for I don’t know how long. There were three disks, obviously, but I hadn’t seen one of them from the window. And the buzzing was so much louder outside, I remember seeing cracks in the earth that I thought had opened up because of how heavy the rumbling was but thinking back it could have been just because of the dry summer. There was also a hot smell in the air that I can only describe as the smell of dead things; bugs and rotting food and things like that.

The teacher ran back inside somewhere and left us alone for a few minutes. A few of my classmates hopped the fence and ran into the trees that bordered the school, I didn’t see them again until later. I wanted to follow them but also there was a girl in my class I liked who I wanted to stay near. Dozens of other kids and teachers were out on the oval at this point and things were getting chaotic. I remember a lot of shouting, I think the music teacher thought we were in danger. My science teacher had returned with his camera and I heard from someone later that he was shouting about how he “got them”.

The disks were edging further away from the school and more kids were hopping the fence. I think I realised these UFOs were probably a one-time-thing, so I tried to go too. I was too late though, and I was stopped by one of the school staffers. Those of us who hadn’t made it out were shepherded into the courtyard and we all stayed there for half an hour, asking what was going on and when we’d be allowed out. Then when the army guys showed up there was a new wave of chaos among the kids, I remember the assistant headmistress handing out a dozen detentions in ten seconds flat. Then eventually the actual headmaster stepped up and told us that we hadn’t seen anything and that we had no reason to be skipping class time. Because of all the time that had passed, we went straight into second period without recess.

The science teacher later said that the photos didn’t turn out, which I believed at the time. My parents didn’t believe me when I told them that evening, which helped prepare me for a long lifetime of not being believed whenever I do talk about it.

George Brydges

I told Mr. McKinnon, and I don’t blame him for telling me to shut up. Three grey disks in the sky? Recess coming up? Yeah, should’ve tried harder in maths. But he caught eye of them as well, and he was, struck. Total disbelief. He got me to help the class move out onto the oval.

When we were out there, they just kinda sat in one place. You couldn’t just see them but feel them and sense them. I could hear this low hum, it wasn’t scary or anything—just like the sound of a fridge. Sometimes they’d sort of zigzag like a solider in the trenches, back and forth but always ending up in the one place. 

By this time the whole class were calling them UFOs, which yeah, they were. Unidentified Flying Objects. Took about ten minutes for the first one to head toward the bushland behind the school. The second hiked out toward the open fields where everybody lived. The third just pissed off up into the sky out of view. It was gone in less than a second, like a blip.

Then of course, army starts rocking up. Massive trucks are letting off soldiers by the dozen. 

And we’re all moved into the court, where we usually have meetings and that. The Headmaster, bald bastard named Pickett. He tells everybody to forget we’d seen anything and that we’d be going home early. I was excited to go home early, no more maths for me, but I couldn’t just forget I'd seen them. How can you forget that? Maybe if I’d been hit by car on the way home, but what are the chances of that? More than seeing three UFOs, that’s for sure. 

So I went home and told my parents. I was sent to my room for telling fibs. 

And then I fell asleep. And that’s when they started—the dreams. Where I go through that day over and over like an endless tape. Every time I dreamt, it would be that day. 

They’d always end the same way. With this voice whispering into my ear, “Do not lose the legs of the heavy horse”. I’ve never owned a horse in my life, let alone been near one—really. But, “do not lose the legs of the heavy horse”. Maybe one day that’ll make sense. 

Here’s the strangest thing though— and I know, it’s all been pretty strange. But, I had actually forgotten about it all. I had, truly. Then, 1995 I think, or around then, I got this call from a gentleman conducting a survey or something on the possible connection between dreams and trauma. Imagine that. And I just started telling this guy about it all and about the dreams like it’d never left my head. 

It was probably the first time I’d talked to someone about it since my parents. I don’t know why, either. There was just something about the voice on the other side of that call that made me trust him. He seemed like he could help me. After I told him everything, he said thank you, that he’d keep in touch, then, nothing. I tried to follow up the survey myself but I never found anything. 

It’s not something I think about a lot these days, but sometimes when I’m out in the backyard of a night, I’ll look up at the sky and wonder if what I’d do if they came back, right now, right at this moment. I’ve never come up with a good answer to that one, but odds are I’ll probably never have to.

Stephen Campbell

I was at work, a spray painter by trade. I always wore my respirator though, so don’t go thinking me mind was all addled from the fumes. It was a late one, so it wasn’t till 8 or so that I hopped in the ute. It’s about 10 minutes later, I’m driving home like normal, and up ahead there’s this gigantic bright light, and it’s getting closer.

I swerved outta the way of it, thinking it was a truck about to crash into me. I’m not usually one to pull over for stuff, but it might’ve made me feel a bit light-headed. Then they stopped too. I started getting outta the car and trekking toward it, still not sure why.

It was hard to see anything, the light was shining right in my eyes. There was a bit of a humming like some kinda generator or a dodgy light switch, y’know how they buzz? Before I knew it I was a lot closer than I wanted to be, so I tried to back up a little, but I couldn’t. It was like fighting a river current. Had to move sideways to kinda break out of it, whatever was pulling me in. I sorta walked backwards, and once I got back in the car though it was all gone. Pitch black, quiet, didn’t even feel dizzy or nothing.

At first I thought I must of fallen asleep at the wheel and dreamt it, but then I started hearing other people had some similar stories around the same kinda places, what with the school thing and that. I’m still not really sure what to think of it, to be frank.

I just wanna know what was going on, y’know? All these years later and I’m still not any closer to an answer, it’s a little frustrating. There were a couple times I tried to ask around but I don’t get out much and I’m not so good on the computers, so it was dead end after dead end. I dunno. Part of me wants to get to the bottom of it, part of me wants to just forget it ever happened.

I’m still not even sure anything happened. I’m not one for all those alien stories or whatever, but it’s not like anyone’s come up with anything else that’s solid. Coulda been anything, or nothing. Unnerving though, definitely. Hard to raise your kids in a place you can’t trust is safe.

Leanne Clark

Hello. My name is Leanne Clark and I am a witness to the 1965 Brightview UFO sighting. 

I was only 14 years old when it happened. I remember I almost didn’t go to school that day. I tried to fake sick but Mum saw through it and made me go. I could have just told her I was being bullied but you know what it’s like when you’re a kid. I’m not sure she’d have had much pity for me anyway. 

First period was home economics (my favourite subject because we got to cook) and the second was maths. I was bored out of my mind, staring out the window. It was right towards the end of class, five or ten minutes before recess when I saw them. 

Four disks. Silver and perfectly smooth, like something out of a movie, hovering in the air. I remember it was four because they were all perfectly aligned like corners of a square. 

I jumped out of my seat and interrupted Mr. Darmody to tell him about the disks. The class broke out in laughter. I swear I could see the steam coming out of his ears. He cut through the laughter like a blade, with one of his tantrums. He was terrifying when he was angry. It kept us quiet for the rest of the lesson but we were still itching to get out and have a closer look. I don’t know if this is the sort of thing you build up in your mind over time, but I swear he took a look out himself and mumbled something about weather balloons. 

When the bell rung I sprinted out to the oval. I left my pencil case and books and everything. I could see them as clear as day now. They were completely still, except for when they would zig zag in these crazy patterns all in unison. It wasn’t like any aircraft I’d seen - they were in one spot and then they’d zoom to the next. No friction, no momentum. It was truly unreal. 

I couldn’t hear anything, but I could feel their hum in the ground. It made me feel sick, like I was going to topple over. I remember the smell of the freshly mowed grass. Normally that wasn’t the kind of thing that upset me but it was so much stronger than usual. 

One of them started to break off and fly away. “The disk is moving!” someone yelled. A few students started chasing it and I followed them. We leaped the fence (they were tall in those days too). Next to the school was miles of bushland - which is now all industrial parks and warehouses - which we ran through for about 10 minutes, the light of the sun shining off the disk through the treeline above us. I thought it was trying to get away, but if I think about it now, it feels like it was playing with us. 

Then like a cat bored with its prey, it zipped off. We walked back to school. Someone was saying it had to be aliens. We made fun of him and I joined in. I feel bad about that now. 

When we got back the other disks had flown off as well. I saw military people everywhere. I was so worried I was going to get in trouble. I remember it was mostly Australian soldiers, which I recognised, but there was men with american accents as well. That was weird. 

Then, out of nowhere, Mrs. Gibson grabbed me by my arm and started dragging me towards the school. She scolded me for jumping the fence. I said I was really sorry. She didn’t listen to me. 

She plopped me down with the other students in the school court, where the headmaster was going on about how nothing had happened and school was over for the day. I was so angry. I had seen something! With my own eyes! 

On my way out of school there was a news van. I think it was Channel 9 but it was so long ago. They asked me what I’d saw and I told them everything. I was so proud of myself, I was going to blow this whole thing wide open and no one would be allowed to tell me what I had or hadn’t seen. They told me that it’d air on TV that night. 

I went home to tell my parents but they thought I was just telling stories and wagging school. It wasn’t until Tommy Grove’s parents called in with the same suspicions to ask if their kid got home early too that they let me off the hook. 

I sat in front of the TV all night watching the news, but it never aired. I stayed up the whole next week waiting for them to air it. My parents were shocked, because I was always the one whining about how boring the news was. 

The day after before school I went to find my pencil case and workbooks but they weren’t there. I got in trouble for not having my things and my mum had to buy a new pencil case and books. She wasn’t happy about that. 

I’m still in Brightview to this day. It was a real shame when the school shut down. I’m surprised they didn’t tear it down. People go in and out of there so it must still be used for something. I’ve talked to Renee who does the reunions and whoever owns it never gets back in touch with her about hosting them there. It’d be lovely to go back.

Bob Dale 

The date was the 5th of May, 1965. The day was business as usual. I was perched, in spot, by the window. I could see the yard from there and would often gaze at the birds fluttering about. It was first period; science class. We were learning about Volcanos. I remember that. 

We were receiving our lesson when I experienced a low hum. Not a sound though, it was within my head. Suddenly people began yelling and pointing out the window, I looked and saw the discs in the middle of the yard. Three of them. Sometimes people will say two, at reunions and that, but I think they must of been standing in the wrong spot. Not sure how you could miss them, but they would’ve had to. 

Soon, the entire school body was out on the oval and our teacher, Mr Reynolds, had no option but to dismiss us. When I got out, there was only one disc left. It began to move away, off the grounds. A handful of ‘heroes’ – myself included – were dumb enough to give chase. I fancied myself a bit of an athlete and was soon a good shake in front of the pack, keeping up as the disc slowed, then descended behind a cluster of trees. 

I darted through and emerged, still ahead of the others, in a clearing where the disc had stopped. It was 50m away and about 5m off the ground. 10m wide and half that top to bottom. Polished chrome shell. The trees behind swayed in the wind but it was unaffected. Dead still, as if on the ground. It made no sound; only, the humming in my head, which was now louder. 

Being closer, I could appreciate its scale, but somehow it was less clear. It was as though I viewed it through a warped lens. Its details were distorted, little more than a silhouette. 

Someone stood directly under it. No discernible features, I couldn’t even tell you if they were a boy or a girl, but I knew it was a person, around my age. Next to them, floating just above the height of their head, was a of blueish mist of light. Its’ form behaved like a swarm of bees, constantly moving, and changing shapes until it settled into the form of a tall being stood next to the person. Although it was in the shape of a man, its proportions were elongated. Looking at it gave me no sense or recognition that I was looking at a human. Instead, I felt awe. The feeling one gets when seeing a magnificent vista, or your child for the first time.

I wanted to watch on but the more I stared the less I could see, and in no time, my vision was so unclear that I started getting afraid that I would go blind; as if I was staring at the sun. I closed my eyes tight and kept them shut until the humming stopped and it was replaced with the other students behind me, arriving at the clearing. I opened my eyes and I was relieved that my vision was restored. The craft, the person and being were gone. 

This recount is as true as my memory and vocabulary allows. Whether you believe me or not, I no longer mind, but nevertheless, I thank you for reading.

Tim Edwards

Looking back, it feels like it yesterday, but by now it’s about a lifetime ago. 

We were in a boring class with whoever took year 7 science, which was probably Mr Barkley. The bell for recess was going to ring any minute and I was thinking about 4-square. All of a sudden, a student from the back of the room piped up claiming there was a UFO outside! Naturally, Mr Barkley told him to shut up and made his classic threat of “the strap”. I couldn’t see from where I was but everyone else clamoured to the window and were all certainly in shock, awe or disbelief

The teacher was becoming angry but there was no way he could punish all of us, so I rushed over. And sure enough, floating above the oval was not one, but two silvery saucers! It felt unreal! 

It was super surreal, like we were in a movie. Granted, I didn’t have the best view, not having had my growth spurt yet (my family are late bloomers) but I’m fairly certain they were just hovering there. I just wanted to get a closer look. I kind of hoped they would land while we were at the window and we could see who was flying them. 

One of the other classes had been let out early and we wanted to get there first so some classmates complained to Mr Barkley that it wasn’t fair, which in hindsight they should have just waited a few more minutes for the bell, because that’s when Barkley snapped. He smashed the worn ruler against the blackboard so hard it sent woodchips flying. He refused to let us out even when the bell rang. Probably because we weren’t paying attention to his class. But who could when science fact is happening outside the window?! I was more antsy than annoyed, but the longer he kept us, the more my (and the collective) frustration grew. It must have been ages, but he finally let us out. But as I was running to join everyone for this once in a lifetime opportunity, fucking Mr Barkley grabbed and pulled me back inside. He blamed me for causing this ruckus, like I had flown the bloody spaceship. Boils my blood. Shocked to say the least. 

Two drawn out thwaps on my knuckles and then a lengthy lecture about some bullshit on disobedience. After he was done droning, he granted my freedom and I sprinted hoping I didn’t miss anything too important. But when I got there, it was too late. My heart sank and my anger at Mr Barkley reached new heights. I was a quiet kid but if you crossed me, I would rip your fucking eyes out and you’d wish you kept your mouth shut. He’d soon regret his actions. But that was just a phase, you know how high school is. 

I did see there was a lot of army people swarming into the school, so something was definitely up. I tried asking people what I missed but no one filled me in. The principal then called an impromptu schoolwide assembly. He was adamantly saying that we didn’t see anything, which I really feel like I didn’t. He immediately sent us home from school. I sulked the entire walk home. I tried to my parents what happened, and they didn’t believe me. They said “Tim, what have we said about making up stories?” and then said I deserved my punishment. I thought about it often after that, but you know what happens. Other things fill your brain space like girls, cars, that sort of thing. 

And if I think of it now, what good does it do? I don’t even know if what I saw was real to be honest. You know how fallible memory can be. Even in the case they were real, if I dwell on it and think about it too much, I’d go insane from not knowing. But if they are, I hope they came back in the night and took Mr Barkley to experiment on. As a science teacher, I’m sure he’d love that.  

Nicole Johnson

I was sitting in class zoned out looking at those visual orbs you get sometimes – you know the ones? Like visual snow, just like random orbs and squiggles. Are they scratches on the surface of your eye? A strangeness in your brain processing light? I don’t know, but when I zone out and focus on them, I can see quite a lot. So it didn’t really grab my attention at first when I first saw those disks in the sky – they weren’t like the holographic orbs, they were darker, more solid – but sometimes stuff like that can happen if you stare long enough and pay enough attention. Eyes play tricks on you. It was a bright day too, I’m pretty sure. I can’t totally remember but you can see things like that on days when the sky is really bright. It must be hard to be a teacher – you’re trying to tell this group of people about something important and they’re more interested in transforming their eye orbs into UFOs. 

That particular teacher was pretty done with trying to deal with me – I wasn’t rowdy or anything but I was pretty neglectful of my school work. I just zoned out. At this point they had given up on trying to keep my attention and just let me daydream, but whenever I tried to interact with them it was obvious that they found me frustrating, annoying even. We had a general contract of silence – if I didn’t bother them they wouldn’t bother me. But I knew I had to break that when those disks held their shape even as I blinked rapidly and rubbed my eyes, all my usual techniques for dispersing orbs. The disks were there, they were solid. “Sir”, I said, tapping rapidly on my desk to get their attention “sir, there’s something outside”. Without even realising I had stood up to try get a better look. The teacher snapped at me to sit down and be quiet, the bell was going to go in ten minutes. I normally didn’t feel much rush either to leave or start class but waiting for that bell to ring I felt an agitation of a type I’d never experienced. I kept tapping my feet and fingers, and shifting in my seat, even as the teacher shot annoyed glances at me, I couldn’t help it. I just felt so uncomfortable. 

Then I thought I saw one of the disks do this little movement – zigging and zagging around in these sharp motions. My head started spinning, I felt sick. My ears were ringing slightly. When the bell went I practically jogged out of the class immediately. The fresh air was a relief to my nausea, but the ringing hadn’t stopped. It had congealed into more of a high-pitched buzz. I squinted at the sky to try see the disks again. I was kind of surprised to see that other students were doing the same, craning their heads to the sky, forming clusters of fast-whispering bodies. It wasn’t that I had thought I was hallucinating, or not consciously at least. Just something about what I had seen had felt deeply personal. The words ‘up close’ come to mind for some reason. But the objects in the sky enacted the same force on everyone that saw them, and we flooded the oval in a mass. We were like a swarm, a pack. There was a generalised, low, frantic whispering. Or maybe it wasn’t that everyone was whispering but that their voices were drowned out by that buzzing. The buzzing pressed against my ears like cotton wool. People weren’t panicked per say but there was definitely a tension, a bodily uneasiness in the crowd. A seriousness that was more like the potential for disaster than an actual disaster. 

Sometimes I wonder about the impact of that day, if anyone got PTSD or anything. I have dreams about it sometimes, and dreams about aliens, but apart from that I think I am alright. I do always feel compelled by a wide expanse of sky – uneasy, but compelled none the less. I like sometimes to just take the time to search the sky with my eyes, to scan it thoroughly. For some reason when I think about being on the oval I remember the sky being this oppressive, woolly grey thing – but I know that can’t be right, because outside my classroom window it had been so bright. 

We could see the objects more clearly from the oval, see their darting movements, how they spun on their axis. They were flying saucers, that’s for sure. The spitting image of an alien spacecraft. At first I thought ‘that’s interesting’. I felt a strange distance from the situation – not apathy, just a distinct lack of anxiety. The thing that got me caught up in the situation was the thought that if there were intelligent creatures, aliens, on those ships then this was a chance for humanity to actually make a direct connection – a communication – with something outside ourselves. Something entirely new, something innocent. It struck me – please don’t laugh – as a fleeting opportunity to experience a truly massive extension of love. The immediate contradiction of that is that it was also an opportunity for a massive extension of aggression. And I was there. I was seized by a sense of responsibility, the desire to do something, I needed to intervene in some way. But I couldn’t, I didn’t know how. I started saying to anyone I could that there were aliens in that ship, that we had to do something, we have to do something, we have to do something. Panic was starting to build in the crowd. Everything felt desaturated and very intense, my memories feel scattered. Then they zoomed off – flying at incredible speed in different directions, out of my field of vision. I felt a blow of incredible loss. Something inside of me crumpled. Mourning. That’s what I felt. I was mourning. 

Then the military turned up, in big trucks. Soldiers got out and started corralling everyone out of the oval. They were aggressive. I tried to demand answers, but they wouldn’t speak to me, they didn’t treat us like real others, like intelligent beings. It felt like we were livestock, or objects to be manipulated, a problem to be dealt with. A soldier grabbed my arm and shoved me into the crowd that was now funnelling out of the oval. I wanted to cry when I thought about the aliens being gone, but I didn’t. In the school court the headmaster told us that we hadn’t seen anything. The students broke out in this incoherent jumble of shock and confusion, but I knew it was hopeless to be outraged. Eventually things quietened down and the headmaster just reiterated – we hadn’t seen anything. 

We got to go home early. I sat outside waiting for my parents to get home, and I felt a lot better. When I tried to explain what had happened, they just didn’t believe me. I guess I can’t blame them. My mum told me I was a dreamer, and my dad said I was bulls**t artist. They let me keep the TV on during dinner though, after I got pretty hysterical about it being sure to turn up on the news. There wasn’t a report during dinner, or after. I stayed up with the TV on all night waiting for a report. Late at night – like around 10:30 or 11- a report did come on. I can’t remember what channel it was on. I’ve searched for the logo but I haven’t been able to find the station again. There was an interview with a girl around my age on – I was fourteen at the time. The picture wasn’t too good but I remember she had the same colour hair as me. Long hair. And we had both worn it in the same style that day. I remember that. I thought it was strange. Two long braids going down over our shoulders – I didn’t know how to braid myself, but my mum had done it for me the day before, and I slept in them overnight. I fell asleep around 2 am, waiting for another report. 

Now I think the UFOs probably were there to charge their power. See, there’s these powerlines that run through the area. No one talks about them, which is just insane with me- these great big electrical lines radiating off all sorts of energy that’s imperceptible to humans. How are we supposed to know what’s really happening with things like that? What could they be doing to the people that live here? I live out in the country, so there’s not much of that stuff there. People like to mess with stuff they don’t understand, like electricity and wifi. It’s dangerous. There’s no powerlines out where I live. And there’s a big open sky.

Andrew Jones

It’s been a long time since I’ve talked about that day. I always reckon no one would believe me if I did. 

Here I was, still a kid in school, wouldn’t have been more than fifteen or so. I was sitting in class, might have been English. Hated the bloke who taught it. I’m looking out the window and all of a sudden I see some strange clouds over the oval. But the longer I looked, the more I realised they were smooth, smooth as metal, and pure white too. They had a sort of orange amber glow about them, but that could have been the sun reflecting off them. But I was sure they weren’t clouds.

 I wanted to see them up close. I asked the old timer if I could go have a look, but he wouldn’t listen to me in the best of times, so I had to wait in my seat for what felt like a century.

I bolted out of that room the moment the bell rang and burst onto the oval with what felt like the entire school behind me. We all had to see those… things, just floating above us. The stench of rusting metal filled my nose when we were all below them. God, every time I get whiff of that kind of metal around the house or what not, it brings me back instantly. These disks started to sort of fly erratically in small, sharp movements all around the oval, never leaving it. It looked like they were trying to say something or do something, to this day I don’t know what. 

Then all of a sudden, one of them flew off towards the shrubland behind the oval, towards the local bush ranges. Couple of the older kids ran after it, and I would’ve joined them, but in the commotion another one sped off towards the old sheep farmlands in the other direction. No one seemed to be trying to follow it, so I took after it. I just had this feeling like if I didn’t catch up to it, I’d never see it again. 

After about five minutes or so, I saw it slow down in the middle of one of the old abandoned grazing fields, no one around but me and the disk. As I got closer, it started to float down to the ground, and I don’t know if it was just me or what, but the thing started to disappear the closer it got to the ground. Made me want to run faster to catch up to it before it was gone. But the closer I got to where I thought it was gonna land, the stranger everything started to look and feel. My head started to thump with this constant rhythm, it was hypnotic. By the time I got to where I thought the thing was, I started to get strange thoughts… like I wasn’t good enough to be here, that I should head back, that I shouldn’t have come up here at all. Weird thing is, it felt like someone else’s thoughts in my head.

Then I was on the ground, the smell of metal gone, and the sun starting to set over the shearing station creating a sunset over the field. I must have passed out or something, I’m not sure. But what I was sure of was that the disk was gone, and not just gone like it had been before, but actually gone, left for wherever. Only thing around me was this ring of scorched grass, perfectly uniform. I had to get out of there, back to school before anyone noticed I was gone. 

But by the time I got back, the gates were shut closed with these massive padlocks, the likes I hadn’t nor have ever seen since. Couldn’t get in or out. I tried jumping over the gates like I had in the past, but by the time I was at the top of the gates, some soldier with a weird accent started shouting at me to go home. No idea where he came from at the time, but looking back I recall seeing a bunch of them around the place on the brief glance I had at the top of the gates, all running around with the biggest guns I’d seen. Didn’t jog in my memory til I was watching the telly later that the soldier must have been American, what due to his uniform and all. 

So I walked home, I didn’t have the energy to run anymore. Or I just needed time to think about what I saw. But you couldn’t think about it, what we all saw was beyond thinking. Those things, the flying saucers or whatever you wanna call them. It’s one thing to talk about them like they’re some kind of movie or something; but it’s another to actually see in the flesh. It’s why I never told my folks about it, or my kids, or anyone who hadn’t been there in the oval. You just didn’t think anyone would be able to understand. Doesn’t help the next day when I went back to school, it was like nothing had happened. After school I made a point to go to the field where the thing had landed, but the ring was gone. Just burnt grass everywhere, like someone had tried to cover it or something. 

But I know what I saw. I know what I felt and smelt and thought. Those things weren’t natural, and they were like nothing I’d seen or have seen since. Sometimes when I think about them or the day, I just feel sick for some reason, like remembering a car accident. Strange day that was.

Bert Jones

I know what I saw. I won’t ever forget seeing those things in the sky. 

I was sitting in class (English I think) and someone yelled out to the teacher that there was something... flying over the oval outside. 

People started to get up, going over to the window but the teacher yelled at us and told us all to sit down. So we waited, for what felt like a really long fucking time. And the chatter around the class spread like a fire. Honestly, we were pretty restless and loud even on normal days, but this was something else. Underneath all the excitement and noise in the class I remember feeling... unease. Fear, almost. Not just in myself but y'know... the mood, everyone seemed a bit scared. I don’t know, maybe it was just me. 

I couldn't pull my eyes away from the window. Trying to see something. But all I saw was shadows moving around. Moving fast. 

By the time we were let out of class I felt like I was gonna be sick. Whether it was nervousness, excitement or whatever else, I'm not 100% sure, but just like everyone else I rushed to the oval. Even crabby old Miss Wilson wanted to come see what all of the fuss was about. 

And there they were. 

There was three of them. Silver discs flying in the sky. They were zig-zagging around like crazy, sort of like how my dog Japser would dart around the yard when he got too excited. But it was more of a sudden, staggered kind of movement, if that makes sense. 

All you could hear was the humming noise they made, sort of like a guitar amp but lower and less buzzy. Next thing I know they all came to a stop, hovering in one place... and the humming got a bit quieter. 

Everyone was quiet. In awe. These things had finally shut us up. 

Then, SNAP! 

It was Mr. Reynolds. He had his fancy new camera on him and was snapping pictures. Bastard nearly made me shit myself. I don’t know if the noise spooked them as well but soon after one of the discs took off towards the bush.

I'm not sure exactly why I did, but I went after it. Any excuse to wag school, I guess. 

Once I got to the fence I noticed Ian and a few other kids had followed me. We hopped the fence and chased the thing into the bush. We must have been running for 10 minutes or so. It wasn’t going too fast so we managed to keep up with it pretty well. 

Eventually it looked like it landed ahead of us, couldn't have been more than 500 meters but there were trees in the way so I'm not exactly sure. But I'm sure I saw it landing. 

We kept running towards it but somehow, we couldn't find it. We stopped running and searched around where I thought I saw it land but... nothing. It had vanished. 

And by the time we got back to school, the other discs had gone too. We must have been off for almost an hour. And now the army was there. Even stranger, it was American Army. In our school. Which is weird because, and you can look this up yourself, but there were no US Army bases anywhere near us. Where the hell did they come from? 

It felt weird. And it got weirder. 

Miss Wilson told us off for jumping the fence, as if we'd just nipped down to town to get food or something. It felt like every other scolding I'd gotten from her. Like she hadn’t seen us chase after some flying fucking disks. Then we all got rounded up and the headmaster told us all to calm down, and that we hadn't seen anything. Yeah right! 

I was a dumb kid but I wasn't that dumb. They we're trying to cover it all up. I don't know how they got the adults to go along with it, but once they did no-one was gonna believe any of the kids. Not the parents, police, the papers none of them. They all though we were pulling a prank, or that we were on LSD. Ridiculous. 

Never heard anything about it, except from the other kids. Even then, after a year or two it was hardly even mentioned. You got in trouble if a teacher overheard you talking about it. They thought we were still trying to pull the prank, or we had been reading too many books. 

Well, I don't fucking read. 

Makes my skin crawl when I think about that part. The lying. The covering it up. They made us think we were all crazy. 

I'm not crazy.

Ian King

I'll be honest, my memory of the day is pretty shit. My classmates from around then say they'll never forget any of it, but all I've got is the image of those things in the sky stuck in my head. Most of this is from what others have said at reunions

It would've been before recess. I think it was Bill who saw the things out the window and we all went out to look. Everyone else must've had the same idea because after a bit the oval was packed. My mate Bert, and a couple shitheads from the year above ran after them when they took off over the trees towards the bush. 

The girl from the reunions, I forget her name, but she always says they were darting back and forth or something. I don't remember that but I do remember they way they looked as I say. They were a sort of yellowy golden colour; could've been darker but they reflected so much it was hard to look at them for longer than a second or two.

The weird bit though was the army showing up. It wasn't just a few guys either, there were easily 50-60 of them. And I mean, look, at the time I didn't think of it as weird. I'd seen movies and we'd all heard of what was happening in the States. I'm pretty sure Bert and I even discussed it on our way back from the bush but I can't say that for sure, you'd have to speak to Bert. 

I admire Mr. Pickett for trying to hush the whole thing up though. There's no way anyone was going to concentrate on schoolwork from then on but he had to try. I don't think he was trying to cover anything up, I reckon he just wanted us all to get back to it. He was pretty useless though as a headmaster, so he ended up with the exact opposite. 

That's all been put off as kids imagination though which to be fair, I can't blame someone for thinking that and as I say, at this point, I don't know what memories are mine or other people's. I know it happened though. If it was aliens then so be it, but I hope it wasn't. I hope it actually was a government balloon and that we were all just excited teenagers.

Gregory Lee

My name is Gregory Lee, and I was a student at Brightview in 1965. 

Before they appeared, it was just like every other day. Woke up, had a quick breakfast, and was late to class as usual. It was English first and we were learning about Romeo and Juliet. I didn’t get it. Still don’t. I was never much one for that kind of thing. 

We had maths, which was much more my speed. But today I had trouble paying attention. I heard this light humming and I thought it was coming from Bobby Fenwick because he was always humming the Skippy song in class, but this was different because the hum was the same note. It didn’t change and it definitely wasn’t coming from Bobby. The next thing I did was look over to the school oval, and no kidding, I saw a flying saucer above the oval. It was round, like a vinyl, but it was silver and big like an overgrown pan.

There was about twenty minutes left until recess, so I asked to be excused to go to the bathroom. By some miracle Mr. Darmody actually let me out and I ran straight for the oval to get a better look. I’m smart enough not to yell “there’s aliens above our oval” too quick but you should have seen it. It was right above me. The next day in the papers they’d call it a weather balloon. I don’t know what a weather balloon is meant to look like, but whatever this thing was wasn’t that. 

And then, another one came, and it started doing some dancing or something. I’m not quite sure what was happening. The two flying saucers were mirroring each other and moving around the sky like they were communicating, but I couldn’t hear anything other than that same, droning hum. Then there was a third saucer, and by that point the hum was basically deafening. It was kind of like the old TV static, if you listened to it for too long. 

I saw a whole class come out from the far end of the school around ten minutes before recess, including Mr Reynolds, my science teacher. I could make him out because he’d always wear these poncy tweed jackets, with patches and everything. Made it seem like he thought he was better than us. I like to think this might’ve put him in his place a bit.

I stepped back a bit so I was between some buildings, so I wouldn’t get in trouble with him or anything. Which looking back is bit thick but getting in strife with a teacher back then meant a hell of a different thing than it does now. 

When the recess bell rung, all the kids rushed onto the oval. Mr. Darmody managed to find me, and was about to hassle me for wagging. I’ll never forget his face. So furious, and then just looking up at the sky with that dumb look. He kind of backed off, and just plopped himself down on the grass, like he would’ve passed out otherwise. Wasn’t so afraid of him after that. 

The saucers kind of just sat in the sky for a bit, until one broke off and started heading towards the bush area. I started following it, and a couple mates of mine followed me. The teachers didn’t care about who ran off, or there was so much going on they weren’t paying attention. So we jumped the fence and went on the chase. 

This might be my memory, but while we were running into the bushland across the school, I could’ve sworn I saw a fourth one, way in the distance. I remember because it made me think there might have been an invasion going on or something. We’d been hearing a lot about that in the news at the time, so for all I knew this is what nuclear war was meant to look like. But everyone else says three, so maybe I’m wrong. 

Anyway, we chased the first one through the bush for a little while before we lost it. It was too fast, and by then all the others were gone. At least they were once we’d got back to the school, and the military had shown up. We were all shovelled onto the courtyard so our headmaster could explain to us what was happening. I wasn’t paying attention though, I couldn’t. 

Greg, the groundskeeper, was up at the front with the teachers, but he wasn’t listening to Mr. Pickett like they were. He was looking at me. Just… staring. I won’t lie, it was a little strange. I tried to pay attention to Mr. Pickett, but I still couldn’t focus on what he was saying knowing I was being watched. I looked back to Greg, but he’d already gone off somewhere. Not sure where, or how I didn’t see him go. Not that I minded. 

Weird thing is he was normally harmless, and a pretty good bloke. You could have a decent chat with him if he was out on the oval. Sometimes he’d kick the footy around with us. Maybe he’d seen me go over the fence or mess up the grass when I’d landed. Who knows? It was probably just the day we were all having, honestly. 

I didn’t tell my parents anything. I’d already had a shit enough day without them piling on about how I was telling fibs. And look, like I said, I’m not saying I saw aliens that day. But I know I saw something, and nothing will ever change my mind on that.

Debbie McQueen

I remember sitting a few rows behind the girl who first noticed what was going on. A few rows behind and to her left, I think. Yes! Yes, that’s correct because when she pointed out the window I remember leaning over my desk and almost falling head over it while trying to see what she was fussing about. Keep in mind these were those old thick wooden desks where the top comes up and all your stuff is packed inside. Not easy for a girl to climb over, but very sturdy. But here's the thing. When I leant over, I couldn’t see anything. It was an overcast, gloomy kind of day so I could just see the clouds and trees.

I thought the girl was a loon. We all did. A bunch of the kids were pointing and laughing. She didn’t care at all. She was just focused on that window. I remember she was yelling, ‘UFO, UFO’ over and over again while pointing. She was almost screaming. So Mr. Reynolds comes out from around his desk and begins trying to calm her down.

I remember he came down to her level, and he was speaking very softly and calmly then he looks out the window, and he freezes. I’ll never forget that look on his face. Just this shock, wide-eyed. He was still. For about a minute. He just stood there in silence. The pointing girl had stopped screaming by that point. Eventually I think he picked up the girl in one arm and ushered us all out to the oval. We weren’t allowed to take anything with us.

I remember once we all got out there, he started going up to us one by one, grabbing us by the shoulders and shaking us. He was asking, “Do you see? Do you see it? Tell me you see it”. Now some of the kids just stood there. A few went to the bathroom in their uniforms. But most of us just stood there in the oval, staring up at the clouds trying to understand what was going on. Mr Reynolds was scaring everyone. Mass hysteria is what they called it. We had this bonus class or something with a special doctor, who said that it passes from one person to another like a cold.

But that pointing girl. He didn’t ask her. They were just… strange. Like they were on the same wavelength or something. I can’t really remember what the girl was doing, but I remember no one wanted to be near her. God knows, I didn’t!

To be honest I can’t really remember what I saw. Like I said, it was overcast, and Mr. Reynolds was scaring us all. I think I remember lights? Like the sun shining through the clouds. I don’t know. Some of the kids got really into it. The playground was all about spacemen and aliens for the rest of the year. Mr. Reynolds wasn’t there for very long though after. Same with that girl. My mother told me she got moved to a special school. I tried looking her up on the internet a few years ago. Nothing. Didn’t turn up to our reunion. No mutual friends. Can’t say I’m surprised after what she did. Scaring everyone.

I do remember some of the kids began joking that Mr. Reynolds was actually an alien and that he had taken the girl with him into space, to his home planet, or some nonsense. I never really liked that science fiction stuff but apparently one of the guys in the class has a conspiracy blog or something about it. He tried to reach out to me but I didn’t really have anything to say to him.

Like I said, I don’t really know what I saw that day. I just remember being frightened and confused and cold. And there were all these army guys here, yelling and pulling all the teachers out. I think the whole school ended up on the oval that day.

I think that it was all just a bad prank that got out of hand. My mother told me that Mr. Reynolds ended up in the looney bin and that he wasn’t allowed to teach anymore. Good riddance I say.

Robyn Moore

My parents never let me watch movies with monsters, aliens, or space-ships.

In the movies it’s always night time. This was daytime – it was real. I remember the light reflecting off the things into my eyes, and making me look away. It wasn’t a movie.

I was at school. We were in a class. I noticed something was happening when – I think a boy said something to Mr Reynolds – and suddenly we were all being shuffled outside to look at the oval.

I heard this low humming sound and looked up to see disks – flying saucers just like in all the movie posters – floating and darting about the sky.

I remember hearing the sound of Mr. Reynold’s camera go off.

One of the things sped off out towards the trees and a few kids from the years above me started chasing it. None of the teachers or headmaster said anything – so I think I felt safe following too. The others were faster than me, though, and I started to worry about getting in trouble. It was a strange thing to think about – but at that age we’re all terrified of our parents, I suppose.

I headed straight back to one of the buildings, but once inside I heard some adults arguing. Two men in suits were yelling at Mr. Reynolds and grabbed his camera from him. They took him towards my headmaster’s office. They didn’t see me.

I don’t know how long I stayed there out of sight – but a call rang out to go to the courtyard at some point – so I went.

The headmaster was there. He said that nothing had happened. I was still thinking about the men and Mr. Reynold’s camera. We were all sent home.

I want you to know that I had never lied to my parents before. But when they told us that nothing had happened, I felt very easily inclined to believe them. I think – looking back now – when something truly strange happens and even if you see it – if someone offers you a more palatable explanation, you’re inclined to accept it. Embarrassment likely played a role too, if I’m honest. I didn’t want to be called a liar.

The day after – I think it felt strangely normal. But I noticed my friend Autumn wasn’t there. I can’t say how relevant this last piece of information is, but I thought it worth mentioning just in case. I asked around about Autumn and I was told her family moved. Every time I try and remember if I had seen her the day before – or when I had last spoke with her - I can’t remember for sure. Sometimes the more you try and think about something – unravel it in your mind – the less you seem to remember clearly. But I do know I never saw her again.

Paul Norman

I would have been fourteen when we saw them. Everything used to be quiet then, so empty. There didn't used to be all this noise, you know? It's all busy, busy. You could walk in any direction and not find a single blip. It was so easy to skip out on school - that's what I was doing at the time. Julie was there too - we used to go out. We'd decided to say fuck off to second period, climb the fence and hide out in the bush together. Pretty juvenile. We didn't care much for school, or much for anything really. I was fourteen, alone in the bush with a girl and no one knew where we were. Made it a little shocking when, after about an hour we could hear other kids shouting from somewhere in the trees.

I thought we'd been caught, we were going to get suspended, not that I would have cared. But I could see the kids now, and I realised something really strange. They were running towards us, and saw us, but didn't so much as acknowledge us.  

It was like we were a distraction from what it was that was really grabbing their attention. And they ran on past us. And I remember this feeling, of the bushland being loud. There was no sound that I could actually hear or describe to you. But the emptiness was gone. Everything felt full, and overbearing, even though I could see that all the trees and grass were completely still. There was a bright reflection of light from around the treeline, and we saw it.

It felt completely unreal to me, like I was dreaming. A giant silver round shape was there just above the trees. I could see the sky reflected in it, trees and the ground reflected in it, and for just long enough the thing was still enough to see ourselves, Julie and I, reflected in it, and the thing was suddenly zipping across the sky, back and forth, without any sound whatsoever. But my ears started aching by this point. Julie was trying to get me to follow her and chase the thing. And I was just trying to bear it. I don't remember too well what was happening at this point, but after some time I heard Julie shouting again, really clearly. She told me that the thing had just sped off into the horizon. The other kids, there were three of them, they were back as well. They were really excited, saying that three of these shapes had appeared above the school earlier, and that all the students had spent recess just watching them from the oval, like an improvised show. And finally that they had chased one of them after it moved out towards the bushland, where Julie and I were. As one of them pointed towards the spot where we'd been hiding, I could make out the groundskeeper through the trees. I had seen him around the school before, but he never really spoke to anyone. He must have been checking out where the shape had gone, but he was looking directly at us instead of the sky. I was expecting him to call out, to ask us questions about what had happened, or even reprimand us for sneaking away, or something. But he just stood there, unmoving. Holding a paintbrush.

The headmaster told us we didn't see anything that day. It wasn't out of character for him at all, I remember feeling that it would have been more surprising to hear him actually acknowledge it. I snuck away from the court while he droned on to the students, knowing the droning would have put the teachers to sleep anyway. For a while I just wanted to get away from anyone, and be somewhere quiet. I walked through the school without a destination in mind, and saw the groundskeeper packing away supplies in the shed. He looked at me like he hadn’t seen me today, just nodding and smiling. "I won't tell if you tell," he said, making some weird joke. I felt so tired suddenly, and wanted even more quiet. I walked home. Don't really remember anything about the rest of the day. I must have gone straight to bed - and forgotten to tell my parents the school was visited by a fucking UFO.

Helen Robinson

My name is Helen Robinson, date of birth 14/3 1952. I was 13 in 1965; the memories from that year – that day, really – are stronger than anything throughout my 20’s or 30’s. Where the events of my life blur and fade and morph in my mind, this day is sharp and crisp.

I was in home ec class. I quite liked home ec but acted as though I didn’t. Growing up I’d seen my mother sighing as she whisked eggs or wincing as she mashed potatoes. I resented the idea of cooking. But I’m very good at it. I’m known for my lasagnes these days. Italian’s my favourite to cook, but I don’t care much for eating.

It was early morning, two minutes before the recess bell. I was cleaning up my area, washing dishes and wiping counters.

I moved the bin to my bench so I could wipe flour straight into the bin with a dry cloth – we’d been baking sugar cookies. I walked to the window which faces the school over to grab a cloth when I saw it.

Something was floating across the oval. I can best describe it as a silver disk. I can see it now, but I can’t tell you how big it is cause I had pretty bad spatial reasoning as a young girl. Still do, really. It was about the size of, say, a VW bug. But shaped like a discus.

I shouted out to the teacher, Mrs. Horricks, telling her to come look. Mrs. Horricks was very no nonsense, so without even glancing through the window she told me to finish cleaning my station and keep my daydreaming to myself. I did as I was told, snatching glances out the window all the while. What felt like centuries later the bell rang and I walked briskly out of the room and straight to the oval. A flood of students surrounded me as we all scurried to get a better look at this strange thing hovering above the oval.

It’s about 11 am now, students all over the oval, and in fact three silver disks. One smaller than the buggie sized disk and one slightly larger. They pretty much stayed still except for sporadic, zippy little zig zag movements at seemingly random moments. They emitted a low humming on and off, which seemed to swell inside my skull. I remember my nostrils filled with the smell of rust and then I must have passed out, because I woke up later in sick bay.

Of course, I thought I’d been dreaming but the nurse assured me I hadn’t been. She always smelled of cigarettes and black coffee. Weird how nurses never seem healthy themselves. Anyway, she told me not to worry too much, try to move on and to head home. The whole school had been let out early.

I walked toward the public bus stop, cutting behind the gym. Mr. Reynolds leant against the back wall of the gym, smoking a cigarette. I pictured him and the nurse sharing a cigarette back here now and then and felt blood rush to my fingertips. I’d had a crush on Mr. Reynolds since he winked at me in year 7.

I could have sworn he wasn’t a smoker – didn’t seem the type. Maybe he was having a stressful afternoon, too. I guess we all were. Usually he was a fast talker, made a lot of eye contact, gave the impression of actually giving a shit about you. He just mumbled something absent mindedly when I said goodnight.

I walked away, upset, but he called after me asking how I was feeling. I told him fine, a bit better, thanks for asking. He seemed to come back to his body, gently telling me to get some rest and have a good night.

That’s what I did. I went home, after an hour of walking around aimlessly so to avoid questions from my mother about why I was home early. I ate dinner silently, went to bed early. Didn’t sleep much. I tried to move on best I could. I didn’t tell my parents. Partly I didn’t want to worry them but partly I didn’t want to relive it. I was tired. I told them eventually, in my mid thirties.

I still wonder about Mr. Reynolds sometimes. He kept up his enthusiasm for teaching and science, but something about him was missing. He seemed… older? I don’t blame him. I’m not sure I’ve slept through the night since that day. I dream of silver disks. I curse myself for thinking about it during the day. I’ve avoided obsessing, avoided making a theory. Something I can never understand happened that morning, and I’m too old a woman to pretend I could ever understand.

Margaret Ryan

Hello, my name is Margaret Ryan. And I am writing this statement today because I have never been able to do so. While I didn’t attend Brightview Secondary College like the others who have given their accounts, now that there's talk about a UFO sighting that sounds so close to my experience, I feel it's important to share my story.

So it happened in 1965. My birthday is at the start of the year, so I would have been eight years old. I can't honestly say that there was anything of interest that happened before what I saw. That day, I woke up as normal – I had my breakfast, my mother walked me to school as we always did. Then I had class – once again, not much out of the usual. I believe we had our English class at that time. And then it came to recess.

I was with my friend Abby - we were very good friends. She was known to be a troublemaker, and, you know, being a young person who just doesn't know anything about what's good and what's not, wanting to test the boundaries and such, I hung out with Abby a lot. And so, at recess, we decided to just not go to class. I don't know why.

That day, we just were having a really good chat about just dumb things, talking about someone having a beat up the day before, stupid things like that. But I remember vividly that we were at the monkey bars. And I had first noticed that there was a real pickup of wind. And in Brightview we never really had any major natural disasters like hurricanes or tornadoes or anything. The most we've had is maybe a bit of a storm, but hardly more than that. So it was really quite odd to suddenly feel this very large gust of wind and start to pick up, and so we got off the monkey bars. We weren’t sure what was going on. But all I remember is this massive, silver circle above us.

I cannot tell you how close this was to the ground. We were right beneath it. We could see it clearly. You could see all of the details in the thing. I could see the lights - you could see the reflection of the ground on its underside. And it was so close that we were basically thrown back by the gust of wind it made, and I fell to the ground. I remember being so overwhelmed by the impact that it had made, let alone seeing the actual thing. I all I could see was the underside and that was just as big circular disk. It was so loud as well - it was just making this very big whirring sound and I remember looking at Abby as if to say, “are you seeing this?”

There were some other kids near the playground at the time. I don’t know if they saw it too, but I guess they would have. I mean, it was it was clear as day, we had this such a large gust of wind, and then we can see a massive disk in the air. I cannot believe that no one else had seen it that day. And that's why I'm writing this, because of all the stories coming out now from the high school kids. And I tried to get up, I couldn't get up until the thing was gone. And I only saw it for about a minute. And what made it so scary was that it was almost turning invisible a little bit. So sometimes it was silver, and sometimes you could almost see through it to the sky. It’s been so hard to talk about it, but I truly believe it must have been there. I just know it. I know what I saw that day. And then, suddenly it just flew off.

But what was wild is that no one else talked about it. There was evidence on the ground as well. You can see all of the dust that was picked up at the at the point you could see you know, there were branches that had fallen off trees where it covered. There were patches of dirt strewn everywhere. I was covered in dirt too - I had scratches all over my legs and arms because I'd fallen over. I think both of us were in shock at the time, but we went back inside. When the teacher saw us, we were scolded so heavily. We were nearly pulled into the principal's office because of it. And I just cried. I didn't know what to say to the teacher. Who is going to believe you? Who is going to believe two kids who look like they may have had a fight with the cuts and bruises and dirtied uniform? Who's going to believe them when they tell their teachers and friends that they saw a UFO and no one else did? I just did not know what to do in that situation. And so I cried.

My mother picked me up from school early that day – and I couldn’t tell her either. And the only other person I know who could confirm that was Abby, but Abby and I had a falling out a few years later because of this incident. I remember the rest of the day was uneventful. But for me, I could not shake what had happened. I couldn’t shake it off for years. I went to a psychologist for a while, and he had put it down to a hallucination and all sorts of mental illness diagnoses. But I can say for certain that I've never seen a sighting like that since. That was the only time I saw it. I cannot explain it in any other way, other than that it was not from this planet. Or that it was a UFO.

It’s taken me a long time to get to this point. I don't think there was any other explanation. And I didn't know what to do with this information. I remember Abby getting so defensive every time I had asked her about that day, and she just didn't want to talk about it. Even on the day, she did not want to talk at all. I knew she saw it. I knew she saw it because she was looking directly at it with me. She acknowledged it and yet she has denied that it's ever existed. And now, now that others are talking about it, I hope that those who were with me, like Abby, and those who saw it that day can finally come forward and talk about it because it needs to be talked about. We can't hide this and try to brush it off as mental health issues or a hallucination anymore.

Anthony Scott McDonald

I remember I was sitting in Mr. Reynolds’ science class, which was already odd enough because Mr. Reynolds’ had also been my English teacher the previous year, so I never quite got over that novelty. I always liked science but didn’t like Mr. Reynolds much.

Anyway, this girl that was sitting on the other side of the room shot her hand up while he was writing on the board. When he did turn around and she didn’t wait to be called on and blurted out there was a flying saucer (which is what we’d call UFOs in those days). Everyone just kind of giggled. Some kids stood up and wanted to go look. I had begun to stand up, but obviously back then teachers had a bit more control of the classroom, so before I had the chance to see anything Mr. Reynolds sat us all down. I was itching to get outside and see. I didn’t think it was a flying saucer, but I had always been obsessed with flight and so I wanted to see just what could make this girl so positive that it was a flying saucer. The wait for the bell to ring felt longer than anything else in my life.

When the bell finally rang, me and a bunch of other kids went outside where others had already started to gather. Honestly, the rest is a bit of a blur. I saw 2 things in the sky, definitely saucers, as they didn’t look like any plane I had seen before. I remember watching one speed off into the distance, and I’m not sure where the other one went. I think I wanted to go to the library, to see if we had any books on different planes I may not have known or recognised, but before then recess was over and vans with men started arriving. We were gathered and told to go home. I told my parents what had happened, seeing 2 things flying in the air, one whizzing off, and that I didn’t think they were planes. They seemed to believe me. I think they were both excited that they could potentially sell off the story to someone and make some money, but nothing came of it, not that I know of anyway. That was kind of it. We went back the next day, no one really spoke about it, and Mr. Reynolds didn’t really want to answer any questions. I couldn’t find any info in the library, and any other adults that I asked were dismissive.

Thinking back to it now I’m more annoyed than anything else. I know I saw something; I know it wasn’t a plane or a helicopter or anything I had seen before. The whole thing just leaves me bitter, knowing I’ll never get answers for something that I know I saw. I know with life you’re meant to move on and just accept that you can’t explain everything, but this is just, so many people saw this. How can so many people have been there, and we still have no answers?

Graham Smith

I want to start off by saying that I'm not a bad person. And I wasn't a bad kid either. Sure I told white lies every now and then, but didn't everyone?

To set the scene I should mention that I was in the middle of a rough patch with my parents. At the time I was getting in trouble a lot from Mum and Dad because I kept coming home late from school. I was supposed to be home by 5 at the latest from school everyday, but I wanted to hang out with my mates at the milkbar instead. Buy some sweets, a soft drink or two. It wasn’t anything bad, but it did mean I'd usually be back just before dinner, sometimes during. So Mum and Dad weren't really happy with me then. I always said it was because I was doing school work, but I'm pretty sure they knew no 14 year old boy was busy doing geometry.

Anyway, that's where I was with my parents at the time. I'm sure that's something which contributed to them not believing what I told them. It also might be because this is the first time I was home before 5 in a week or two. I don't know.

But I distinctly remember telling them exactly what I saw.

Grey discs. Almost like stones that you'd skip across water. They were the perfect shape for that. Moving about on their own in the sky above the oval. And our oval was pretty big. Plenty of room for at least three soccer teams to practice without getting in each other’s way too much. But these three discs, they took up almost the entire thing.

I saw them during maths, and I know it was maths because I remember how Mr Adams reacted when I said they were there. Only he could have such a little reaction to something so ludicrous. Boring as bricks that teacher. And I'm not saying I was a bad student, but my focus can wander quite easily, which is probably why I was gazing out of the window. Usually I look at the oval and count down the minutes until I can be on it again, as opposed to being stuck in a classroom.

I tried to tell him that there were these three, massive, grey discs floating around the oval and he thought I was making it up. He was having none of it. But come one. Just look the window once and you'll see it. Or that's what I did anyway. That's all I looked at for the rest of class. These grey discs floating in the sky. I wasn’t afraid. It was kind of beautiful.

Anyway, the bell rings and I couldn't have been out of that room any faster. I rushed to the oval to see what was outside. I'm pretty sure everyone else did too because, I swear, every kid from every year went out to see it. That's when I got a better look at them.

They were spinning. Constantly, but barely moving. It was like one of those optical illusions in books. It was captivating. Honestly, it felt out of a dream. All I could do was watch them spin. Spinning in place. There were so many people on that oval, so many loud kids shouting about these things in the sky, saying it was aliens or something. But I couldn't move. I just stood still, staring at these spinning discs. There came a point where I was so entranced by the things I forgot where I was for a minute. Everything went quiet. Except for a low hum emanating from them. It was so low that I could barely hear it, but I felt it. Like it was next to me and shooting right through me. That only lasted for a second. But I know I felt that, and I've never felt anything like that ever again.

After that, one of the discs moved. In the sharpest line I've ever seen, it shot just above the football posts. Then just as suddenly, stopped moving. If you happened to look away you probably wouldn’t have thought it had.

Then it was like that for a while. Moving every once in a while. Then stopping. Then moving. Then stopping. It was like.... a dance.

Anyway, not long after that they all just shot off. One went to some bushland, one to a field. But I just remember the one that shot straight up the most. Almost in the blink of an eye.

And just like that they were gone.

Most of the kids started heading back to recess after they'd left for a bit. Most of them trying to figure out what it was or spouting some theory. But I just stood there. I wanted them to come back.

And then as the trucks came rolling in, we were hurriedly ushered off the oval and sent home.

As I said before, Mum and Dad didn't believe anything I said to them when I entered the door. They just thought that I was looking for an excuse to leave school early and I got in trouble. Thankfully after the school sent out a notice to all the families that they sent us home I got let off. But seriously? I got in trouble for that. Shows how much my parents trusted me.

But that was it. That's how that day went.

Looking back on it, it feels like one of those things that I may have dreamed up. I was always one to daydream, so thinking that aliens had come down from the sky is definitely something my mind could have concocted in a class.

But something that I know was real was that feeling. The feeling of being completely entranced. The hum coming from everywhere at once. That is something that I could never create in my mind. I know that was real.

I have no idea what happened on that day. I don't know what those grey discs were. I don't know where they came from. It's all a bit foggy at this point. But that feeling. That hum. That will never, ever leave.

Melissa Smith

As I remember, it was a beautiful morning, not a cloud in the sky. I was sitting in science class. We were all finishing up a practical experiment and needed to write a prac report to conclude. This is the part of the class where kids tend to switch off, the fun part is over. Our teacher probably saw it as rebellion, but we were all just a little restless. After all, it was nearly recess. As I listened to a vengeful plea for attention by the teacher to get us all back on track, I turned my view to the window to where something caught my eye.

Everything outside was more calm than usual, the slight breeze was blowing the blades of grass one way, while the trees were slightly swaying the other. But within a single moment, everything outside became extremely still. I found it odd enough to take notice, but not enough to spark anymore thought than that. I had other things on my mind.

That was until I noticed something shiny in the sky, illuminating off the rays of the sun. It wasn't a helicopter or plane, no noise of a motor. There was just complete silence, from what looked to be silver disk hovering about the school oval. I glared harder and harder out the window but couldn't unsee this completely smooth silver object outside. Questioning myself, I looked around to see if anyone had noticed what I had, and of course, I wasn't the only one. After feeling a slight relief that I wasn't seeing things, the growing feeling of excitement and awe crept over us all. As the eagerness grew, everyone went to race to the window to get a better look. Immediately we all got told to sit and to wait for the bell. Defying the teacher at this point could result in the strap so we reluctantly did as we were told.

Just as it felt like I couldn't be contained anymore, the science class across from us left with others to investigate, and boy I complained to no avail. I wanted to get in on the action first hand, bear witness to whatever was going on. Finally, the bell rang, and we all ran to the toward the oval in hopes it wasn't gone.

By the time we got out there, there were three. My heart was pumping out of my chest, it was riveting to see everything. Three silky smooth looking disks, it was just so perfect looking I didn't believe it at first – it was like living in a comic book. When I looked around I remember the deafening silence, silence from the sky, and silence from everyone admiring the sky. Here we watched these huge saucer things zoom around. Their movements were as perfect looking as the disk itself.

I had never seen such a thing maneuver in the sky with such power. At first, I recall being mesmerized, but then the movements became more erratic and unpredictable. They were hovering in the sky together, evenly spread. But suddenly they zig-zagged around, stopping and starting in mid-air. It was in no way clear what they were doing. As quickly as this air show started, it ended. The first disk I had spotted seemed to completely vanish right before our eyes without any indication, there was nothing but clear sky. The second disk seemed to head towards the bush area that bordered the school. It was already too far away to try to chase it as the other kids had. I tried to find the last silver disk but couldn't, realising that it was probably long gone like the other two. Baffled and confused, we stood looked at one another in disbelief of what we saw.

Best thing ever.

It didn't take long before military personnel arrived at the school. This is when more of a feeling of fear started to set in. Was this organized by the military? As a thirteen-year-old, you see a flying saucer and military in one place and you want to get far away. My stomach was doing backflips thinking that I saw something I wasn't supposed to, and that I may pay a price. Before our brains had time to process anything, an emergency assembly was gathered.

As we all awaited what would surely be the most interesting update that the headmaster had ever given, a different series of events echoed through the school court. We hadn't seen anything, that was all we were told. We knew not to question anything further at that point. Who would have gone against the words of the headmaster with the military there?

The only thing I could think about at that time was how I was going to explain this to my parents when I got home, surely this would be the most thrilling story I would ever tell in my life. Lo and behold, they didn't believe me. I understand looking back, who believes a thirteen-year-old when they come home from school and claim to have seen a UFO? Not that I had any reason to lie, I know what I saw.

The innocence of children is astounding, I had no idea what these disks wanted or why they were at our school that day. I do know that I oozed with adrenaline and excitement, incomparable to anything I've ever felt. If this happened today I would be terrified. Who knows what they are capable of doing? Unfortunately the older you get the more cynical your mind gets. A dream of witnessing a once in a lifetime phenomenon slowly turns into a slight nightmare, because there is no one to believe you. All I know is that after that day in 1965, my curiosity ignited with no real hopes in being able to appease my lingering questions.

As they say, sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Jennifer Taylor

My name is Jennifer Taylor (Jen), and I’ve seen a UFO. It was 1965, I had just turned fourteen and my least favorite teacher Mr. Reynolds, was prattling on about Chemistry. I’ve never been good at science, or maths for that matter, and Chemistry seems like the perfect overlap of my two most hated subjects. Anyway, there were lots of formulas that I was zoning out by looking at the clock. Never in my fourteen years have the hands moved so slowly. With seven minutes exactly left on the clock, Debbie McQueen, who was always mucking about, stuck up her hand and told Mr. Reynolds there was a flying saucer outside. We all packed up. It was typical of Debbie to disrupt lessons, especially boring ones like Chemistry. I was relieved to have something to do besides counting down the seconds. Mr. Reynolds looked out the window, curious as ever, and he saw it too! Except he said he saw at least three. Since there was only five minutes left of class, he said we could all go outside to take a look, as long as we took notes about our findings.

We all ran outside, excited to go to recess early, and about these weird objects. I have to tell you, I never believed in UFOs or aliens or any of that stuff. I always thought people made this stuff up to get attention or on the news or whatever. But I can’t explain what we saw in any other way. Above the oval were three flying discs. They were silver, and I couldn’t see any openings or marks anywhere. They just looked like perfectly smooth, round chunks of metal. I still can’t figure out how anything, or anyone could have been inside them. They were darting around everywhere. they didn’t move like anything I’ve ever seen before. they sort of zig-zagged in straight lines and then stopped abruptly before shooting off in another direction. I have no idea how they did that. I remember some of my classmates shouting that. “How are they doing that!”. Anything I’d ever seen move that fast took ages to slow down when the driver wanted to stop. This was instantaneous. They also had this sort of humming, buzzing noise that stopped when they weren’t flying. If that was the engine noise, how come they didn’t fall out of the sky? And how could they fly without wings?

Michael Smith, who always took photos for the school yearbook was so excited. He must have taken hundreds of photographs, but I never saw any of them once they were developed.

By recess, the whole school was on the oval. Everyone was buzzing, yelling about what we were seeing, and what they thought the discs were. About five minutes into recess, one of the UFOs moved off into the bushland near the school. We spent plenty of time out in that bushland during school hours for geography and stuff, so I have no idea why it was such a big deal, but a group of us decided to chase after the buzzing disc. Henrietta Maxwell (swoon) was there. She was two years above me and I was obsessed with her. That’s the main reason I followed. I guess there were about 15 of us total? We ran for about 20 minutes before it sped off too far for us to keep up. I wondered why it had slowed down for so long while we chased it if it could go that fast? I remember thinking, if it was a UFO, wouldn’t whoever was inside try to hide as quickly as possible?

We walked back to school, confused and excited. I remember Henrietta talking to me! She said to let her tell the teachers what had happened. I didn’t mind, I was just excited that she was talking to me. But when we got back to the school grounds and jumped back over the fence (they kept it locked most of the time), Mrs Penrith was there with that horrible expression on her face. I knew we were in it deep, but she also looked a bit confused too. There were also all these men standing around in army type uniforms, and I saw a big truck in the carpark. That was when I realised what we had seen was serious. Mrs Penrith went off at us. I tried arguing that we had important information to tell these men, but she put her hand up right in front of my face and marched us to the courtyard in the middle of the school. I couldn’t see the other two discs anywhere.

The headmaster, Mr Pickett, got up in front of everyone and told us that all we had seen was some weather equipment that had blown free and over the school. I remember how there was no wind that day. How could those massive things have stayed in the sky without any wind, or blown free in the first place? We all got to go home early that day. No more Chemistry. As we left, I checked in the carpark, but the truck was gone along with all those men. I ran home to tell my mum what had happened, but by the time I got home, she had received a phone call from Mrs Penrith telling her about the “weather equipment” that had blown over the school, and how we were lucky to all be alive. Especially those who had jumped the fence during school hours. My mum would hear nothing of UFOs then. She dismissed me as “utterly ridiculous” and said she was embarrassed to have received such a call from the school. I was to go to my room immediately. Later, when Henrietta Maxwell called, I heard Mum saying that I wasn’t allowed to talk as I was grounded.

Looking back, I can’t find any other explanation than aliens for what happened that day. I always thought people who believed in that sort of stuff were crazy, like the man down the street that said he had been abducted. Now I just wonder if he’s alright. It sends a shiver down my spine to think what could have happened to us that day. At the time we were just kids, and it was the most exciting thing ever to have happened at our little school. I now see that the army must have been involved in covering up the UFOs. Most of those kids say that we’re stuck in the past, Henrietta and I. That we should move on with our lives instead of living “childish fantasies”. Some of them came into money, and I wonder if they were bought off, or just became more successful after they stopped believing. I know I never will.

Patrick Wilbert

Back in 1965 I was working as a builder on all those fandangled new developments in the east. It was otherwise a normal day, you know? I was working on the roof of a new home. The sun was shining and I was in a good groove. We’d just come back from 10:30 smoko where I’d had the usual meat pie. They don’t make them like they used to. I miss a fresh bakery pie – none of this fancy shit you see these days. Anyway, I was working away and my mate, another builder, grabbed me on the shoulder. “Get a load of this” he says.

I looked up into the sky and dropped my tools. There were three shiny metal discs flying in the air, near the high school. I first thought it was some sort of science experiment with kites of something from the school, but it couldn’t have been. I’d say they were about 150 feet away from each other and they were zipping around everywhere. It wasn’t like it was something caught in the wind.

I looked down at the high school and saw all the kids had run out on the oval to have a geez. It was something you needed to see with your own eyes for sure. The discs hung around the school for a while, about 10 minutes. One of them all of a sudden whizzed off into the distance. Then another went over to the bushland. The last one whizzed off somewhere else, can’t remember. All of us boys just looked at each other – thinking “did you just see what I saw mate?”. Then it was back on the tools.

About ten minutes later all these army trucks came rolling in towards the school and the bush. It looked like a bloody German ambush mate. I have no idea where they’d come from. The nearest army base is well over an hour away. There were also yankee soldiers – and there were none stationed in Victoria at the time as far as I know. Seemed really suss. Anyways, after having a yack with the boys, we got back to work.

It’s was pretty bloody out there. I reckon it was probably some sort of cold war military experiment or something to use on the commies. Even still, there’s nothing out there now that’s as advanced as whatever these were. They were really something else.

I’ve told this story to my mates many times over the years, but they still don’t believe me. I don’t know exactly what I saw, but it was definitely suss. After all these years, it still makes me think what else the government is hiding from us and why we still haven’t had a proper explanation. What is there to hide really?

Elizabeth Williams

It was May 5th. I remember that day because it was very warm, the sun was out, and I was thinking about getting to sit on the grass with my friends during recess, and what we would talk about. But, unfortunately for me I was in science class! I think it was something to do with biology.

Anyway, I wasn’t exactly paying the most attention, but one of my classmates, I think her name was Emily, told our teacher that there were these large, silver flying disks outside. I only heard the last couple of words, and then lots of lots of laughter. When I snapped out of my daydream, the boys in the back had gotten quite rowdy, as though they were waiting for an excuse to be off their chops in class.

Mr. Reynolds, bless his soul was a lovely teacher, and settled us down. I couldn’t keep my eyes off that window. I remember the view so clearly too. Two trees, overlooking the oval, and on the other side was the big metal fence, which went off into the bushland. Mr. Reynolds told us all to pack down our books, we were going outside to investigate. I remember so much chatter and excitement, and I was more than happy to get out of class a bit early!

Our class, 7G, went onto the oval. We were the first, but the other classes came out not long after. All of us were glued to the sky, and Emily was right! These flying saucers hummed as they darted around in the sky, they didn’t move like normal planes at all, they zig zagged, like they were looking for something, I’m not sure. I had only seen these kinds of things in movies my father used to have when I was growing up, although these looked, and acted differently. The funny thing is, I remember them making no noise at all when they were still, the only thing you could hear was the wind blowing in the trees, the children chattering, and the lorikeets chirping. Maybe they were just as confused as us.

Soon after our class, the others followed. From year 7s like us to the year 12s. One of the other teachers, I believe it was Mrs. Barkley, had her big camera from photography class, and was taking photos, trying to get it in focus. I’m not sure if Mrs. Barkley ever showed us the photos, nobody really mentioned it after. Also, in the crowd I found my best friend Autumn in 7A, such a gorgeous girl. Beautiful smile, and a kind heart. We had been friends since we were in kinder, our mums were friends as well, so it was kind of natural. When we saw each other, we were both laughing and joking about the saucer. That’s when it moved further into the bushland.

One of the older boys went after it first, and because of how many kids were there the teachers couldn’t organise all of us like this. Autumn said we should follow him into the bush, to see if we could get a better look. I wasn’t sure about it, but Autumn seemed so excited, I couldn’t really say no. We were both swept up in a small group and all headed into the bush.

I hadn’t been in the bushland much, not without supervision. And I remember being a bit nervous about launching in. I felt like my stomach was doing flips out of anxiety over the whole situation, but Autumn kept telling me to keep up with the others. The saucer always one step ahead, wherever it darted to, we tried to match it. Eventually, the humming got even louder, and I could feel it in my heart. We started to sprint as a group, and Autumn was much quicker than me. I had to stop to breathe, it was only just for a few seconds, I’m positive. And I looked up again, there was no saucer, and no Autumn.

The group disbanded and headed back while I stayed around to look for her. I remember the sun being unbearably hot, I was surely getting sunburnt, and dehydrated, but I kept calling her name. I tried even going to the outskirts of the bush but, she wasn’t anywhere. I was at it for half an hour, but it felt so much longer. I hoped she made her way back to the oval, or maybe she left earlier and couldn’t hear me. I was the last person to return from the bushland.

The Headmaster at the time was this grouchy old chap. I can’t recall his name, but I remember him terrifying the entire school. He brought as all together onto the school court, we couldn’t stop talking about what we just witnessed, but I kept looking for Autumn. He explained that we had not seen anything of note today, and we were all allowed to leave early today. This wasn’t met with much protest, but we were confused. Why did we have to pretend nothing happened? More importantly, why did they not do a headcount? Surely, they knew if anyone was missing.

I made my way to the podium where the teachers and the headmaster stood and told them about Autumn, and how she’s been missing since running into the bushland. I still can’t believe the way they responded, the teachers insisting Autumn saw it as a good reason to leave school early. It was so dismissive and cold of them. I was dumbfounded, none of them believed me.

I couldn’t get it off my mind. How did nobody but me notice she was gone? I told my parents that night what happened. Maybe I sounded too erratic, but they didn’t believe me either. They weren’t angry, but I could tell they thought I was just exhausted, but I couldn’t get it off my mind. I could barely sleep that night, I kept thinking about how nobody even asked about Autumn.

Next day was like nothing had happened. Nobody mentioned the saucers, the teachers were their usual selves, the world had gone back to normal. Except, Autumn was nowhere. I had photography in period 4, and that was the only class Autumn and I had together. Mrs. Barkley called Autumns name 3 times during the roll, no answer. I was so terribly anxious that day. After school, my father came to pick me up. I begged him to drive me to Autumns house, which was a block away from our own. He caved in after a while. ‘Only for a minute.’ He said. I promised him that.

Autumn’s driveway was empty, the house was so quiet. I went up to the door and I remember pressing the doorbell several times. It had been more than a minute, and my father got out to look with me. We were about to leave when he nudged the door accidentally, the house was empty. No lights, no tables, it had been abandoned. Dad was very gentle with me that day, offering to buy me ice cream on the way home, but I didn’t want anything.

This next part is hard to talk about, and I understand if it isn’t necessary information for you. But I feel like Autumn was… alone out there. I had these dreams, I guess they were more like nightmares for a few years after. Always the same. Autumn in the bush, Autumn afraid and lost in that bushland. Autumn screaming for me to help her, but I couldn’t do anything. I was rooted to the ground or something wasn’t letting me. She looked so scared, I wanted to do something, anything. I never told anyone about those dreams, because that’s all they were. You’re the first person I have told. Maybe you’d understand how I felt. These dreams went away, I got older and my memory got a bit worse. I I moved away from school not long after. But I remember the Autumn from that day, beaming at me with her brilliant smile, and the scared, lost Autumn who cried out to me in my dreams.

They were horrible dreams, but they were all I had left of her.

I’m not sure what happened that day. Autumn’s disappearance shadowed my mind more than the questions over what the flying saucers were. I assume they were secret aircraft, maybe military. I am honestly not sure, it’s one of those things I forgot because nobody ever mentioned it again at my school before I moved. I can’t say for certain, because I am not even sure if it was as real as I remember. Maybe it was just different because of what happened afterwards with Autumn. I don’t like to dwell too deeply on the strange things I have seen; I have a beautiful family, I’m a grandmother now. It’s wonderful. I would like to put it all behind me but, it’s not the easiest thing in the world.

Judith Wright

Back in ’65 I was in grade six. Dad was the principal at the high school right next door, and from what he’d told me of the school, I was delighted to be starting there the next year. I was a really bright young kid, and my principal father had told me of the challenges and excitement that high school would bring. Later I realised having gone to the high school where your father is principal would not, in fact have been a good thing, but at the time I thought it made him a sort of celebrity, and it was my ticket to making some really cool friends.

My name is Judith Wright, named after my grandfather Jude. I have never been a Judy, as hard as some of my friends and family have tried to make that happen. Dad’s last name is Pickett (he’s Julius), which some of my schoolmates always found weird. In that way I’m named after my mother. I guess that’s another reason going to the high school where my dad worked could have been a disaster. I needed something for myself.

My dad was somewhat distant by the time I actually started high school. I have always pinpointed that to one particular day. I was home sick (really, I’ve never faked a sickie in my life) and mum was making soup. Her chicken noodle soup could make you dream of getting sick. I was sketching her. Dad was never home early. I know because I was home by 3:15 every day, and we never saw him before five. In fact, we never much saw him after five either. His home life began at 5pm on the dot. So you can imagine my surprise when he ambled through the door just past one.

He didn’t look good. He never so much as flinched at the wild things he had to deal with in his day to day job. Which is why I was surprised to see him so...moved. He was never one to show his emotions this close to the surface, aside from the occasional angry outburst when a student had really insulted the pride of his school. On those occasions he went to the shed and we heard him hammering away on some project all weekend. He was totally silent as he walked toward my parents’ bedroom. Mum asked why he was home so early. He mumbled a reply. When she asked him what he had said, he slammed the door. I was sure he'd spend all weekend in the shed. Mum made more soup.

Then the strangest, most alien sound began to come from the room. Was my dad… crying? Mum immediately started prattling on about all sorts of nonsense as if neither of us could hear the cries of agony emanating from her bedroom. I didn’t reply. My throat was still sore and I had the feeling she was ashamed of my father’s display rather than attempting to protect him.

At dinner time, he finally dragged himself from his room. He seemed distant, but neither Mum nor I attempted to learn about his distressing day. Mum continued her incessant chatter.

I’ve always wondered whether Mum knew what had happened. It must have been the talk of the town. What I’m certain of, though, is that she and my dad never discussed it. They were a well matched pair. Mum wasn’t particularly political or engaged with serious issues, and Dad hated talking about things that stressed him out. After a few days, it was like (to strangers at least) nothing had ever happened. Except that it clearly had, and my dad was changed forever. He worked every weekend in the shed (perhaps every work week made him angry now) but I never heard any hammering or tinkering anymore. He was no longer the confident, stoic man I had known.

The next year, as I transitioned to my new high school, he transitioned away. He moved down the road to the local Catholic school, claiming that my school life would be more secure if we were at different schools. As I said, that was probably true, but I’ve never believed that that was really why he left.

It was years later when I first found out about the UFO sightings. I was trying to find a nice photo of my dad as principal, when I stumbled upon an old newspaper article about them from the day. When I asked some of my teachers they laughed it off, but senior students said they’d seen the UFOs but weren’t allowed to talk about it. I asked Dad when I got home that day and he told me they were nonsense rumours, but I saw his face harden and he disappeared into his shed as I began to ask more questions.

Over the years, any questions I had were shut down immediately. To be honest, this made me feel as if something untoward had definitely happened. Had he answered my questions truthfully, I would have dismissed the rumours myself, but I felt as if he was hiding something. I realised at some point in my musings that the new shell of a man that was my father had emerged around the same time as these alleged spaceship sightings, but I’ve never known what to make of that.

By the time supposed witnesses began to gather to share their stories, Dad had died. Breast cancer had gotten him just before his 68th birthday. It was only then that I found out how major a part he played in these UFO stories. Mostly, by witnesses, he was described as cruel, arrogant, or overly stern, but to me he was just my dad. I could only ever see our good memories together. The times he took me bowling, when he would help me with schoolwork and later job applications. He was a much more hands on father after the incident, and more so than anyone else’s was in those days. I wish he had found more peace than he did, and lived long enough to enjoy it.

As for me, I’m not really interested in what happened. Sure, I've been curious over the years, but those supposed witnesses stole more years of Dad’s life than he had to give. Now that he’s gone for good, I can’t help but resent them for that. I’ve been gathering sketches that I created of my parents during my school years. Chronologically, they improve as my skills did. But there is something more sinister about them. The look in my father’s eyes hardens gradually until the very last picture I drew as he took his final few thousand breaths. The lines on his face cut deeper and harsher than age alone could possibly warrant, and he smiles less through the series, until his mouth becomes a flat line, and eventually a permanent scowl.