KEY FIGURES

Born on the 9^th of June, 1915, Julius Pickett served as the headmaster of Brightview Secondary College for eight years, from 1958 to 1966. He’s frequently identified, if not always, in the witnesses’ stories as helping cover up what happened, gathering the children for assembly after the sighting and military arrival. Here he told them to either forget what they’d seen or that they hadn’t seen anything. Accounts differ on this detail. None of the witnesses have been able to speak to whether he saw the crafts along with the children, and if he did, what kind of reaction he may have had to them.

We have since contacted his daughter Judith via email, who suggested she may provide a statement regarding her father’s activity on the day of the sighting. However, this is now some time ago, and she has not responded to further correspondence.

If you knew Julius Pickett, or someone who knew him, please contact us at contact@brightview1965.com to share anything you think may be of help.

Born on May 12^th, 1911, Greg Watkins served as the groundskeeper for the college for at least two decades, until his death of unknown causes (likely to be illness) in 1969 at the age of 58, just a few years after the incident. Those who remember him say he was a friendly man, who got along with the students. One witness noted that their older brother (who had departed the school before 1965) used to smoke with him around the back of the sheds along with a couple of his peers.

It’s striking that in two separate testimonies, he’s referred to as cold and stoic, staring intensely at students on the day of the Brightview sighting. 

Unfortunately, we have not been able to find any living family members to investigate Greg’s account of the day. It does not seem he had any siblings or children, and because he died so long ago, finding people who knew him has been an arduous task. If you did know Greg Watkins, or someone who knew him, please contact us at contact@brightview1965.com to share anything you think may be of help.

It was them that were first to the scene, seeing the crafts zig-zag in the sky. Gene is notable for having ran away to retrieve his camera and returning in time to take pictures of the strange disks. He is recorded as yelling that they had “got them” as he continued to excitedly snap photo after photo.

Later, Gene would claim that the objects in the sky were weather balloons and shot down any theories to the contrary. He passed away of heart disease at the age of 75 on the 29^th of April 1986, and is survived by his children Mark, Lucy and Trey.

In contacting each of them, we discovered little. Mark was not interested in talking to us, claiming that “this mess [had] already brought [them] enough trouble.” Lucy stood by her father’s denial, and Trey, the youngest of the three by two decades, insisted he was never close to his father, who died when he was 16, and could not speak to his involvement in the case.

Is it possible that the ‘powers that be’ got to Gene before he could talk?

If you knew Gene Reynolds, or someone who knew him, please contact us at contact@brightview1965.com to share anything you think may be of help.

Not much is known about Autumn Mackenzie. She would have been twelve or thirteen, and was a friend to Elizabeth Williams and Robyn Moore, who both noticed her disappearance after the 1965 sighting. Elizabeth very clearly recalls her vanishing after running into the bush, and the teacher’s being ambivalent. Robyn and Elizabeth have both recounted that she was absent the following day, Robyn being informed her family had moved, and Elizabeth finding her family home empty (in following up with Elizabeth, she has remarked that the Mackenzie house, along with a lot of the original buildings from the area, have since been torn down).

Some readers have contacted us with theories that the person Bob Dale saw standing with the ‘being’ he described in his account was Autumn. We followed up with Bob to ask him if he thought the person he saw could’ve been Autumn. He told us that he didn’t know or remember her, but it was certainly possible. He doesn’t recall any stories from the time about anyone going missing.

We have also heard and considered theories that she either got lost and perished in the bushland, was abducted (by an individual rather than a craft), or simply ran home and coincidentally moved away with her family around the same time. It should be noted no human remains have ever been found in the surrounding bushland. If you know Autumn’s whereabouts, contact information, anyone who may know her, or any information about her at all, please let us know at contact@brightview1965.com.

Michael Smith, an older student who took photos for the yearbook, is the one of the three people seen photographing the sighting on the day. In her account, Jennifer Taylor recalled that he took hundreds of photos, but who never saw them “once they were developed”. We followed this up with Jennifer, in retrospect cannot remember whether she knew they were developed or just assumed that’d of been the case. She also said that despite being insistent that her memory of the day is as crisp as ever, after reading other accounts she believes there’s every chance that she was misremembering the detail of who was taking the photos because of everything that was going on, and concedes it may have well have been Mr Reynolds.

Leanne Roseanne Barkley (nee Paris) was born on December 12^th, 1938 and was the photography teacher during the time of the 1965 sighting (not to be confused with science teacher William Barkley, nor is there any relation). She was only at the school for just short of two years, from 1964 to 1966, before leaving teaching to start a successful career in portrait photography. Elizabeth Williams remarked that she saw Leanne taking pictures with her camera but doesn’t remember this ever coming up again. These pictures have never been found. In our communications with her, we raised the possibility that she was conflating her with Gene Reynolds, but she insisted that Leanne was taking photos. She offered that it’s more likely, and in their character, that they were both photographing the event.

It’s worth considering the possibility that this is what she told those in her life, but really chose to leave teaching after being harassed for her photos, similarly to Gene Reynolds. We don’t have anything to substantiate her being harassed or her photos taken, but it would be unsurprising if we take Robyn Moore’s account to be accurate. We asked Fleur if this could have been the case, who expressed doubt but said it’s not impossible, as she doesn’t know a lot about her mother’s brief stint as a teacher. As Fleur was only very young in 1965, she has no recollection of any change in her mother’s behaviour. She had a look for us to find photos her mother may have taken from the day but did not find anything of note.

If you believe you have information about Leanne’s photos, please contact us at contact@brightview1965.com.