Schoolyard witnesses in mass UFO sighting demand answers | Australian Story

On April 6, 1966, a Melbourne school was thrown into chaos when strange objects appeared in the sky.

It remains the largest mass UFO sighting in Australian history, witnessed by more than a hundred students in broad daylight.

Sixty years later, through the eyes of the now-adult witnesses, Australian Story examines the enduring impact of that day and the efforts to make sense of it that followed.

The episode features new first-hand accounts and investigates several theories about what might have been behind the sightings.



This is the ABC TV Australian Story program on the 1966 Westall UFO sighting, where more than 140 school kids and some teachers saw three objects at close, and very close range. The drawings of the objects differ due the perspective of the witnesses. Those looking up saw the underside, which showed it was round, but those that got a close up view to the object near the ground drew the object as being flat and saucer shaped, with a central dome. One of the teachers who saw the UFOs was threatened with his job. Another teacher reportedly took photos, which were never seen, presumably taken by the military, or police. Also, we know Channel 9 TV news did a story about this at the time, but the film cannister of that report is empty. It had interviews with some of the students.

The importance of this story, and with other UFO cases, is that it's proof that officials LIE to the public, and THREATEN people. It's a lesson to not people in authority.

One of the authority figures appearing in the video, someone from a Skeptics Group, invokes Occam's Razor, to dismiss what was seen. He said the simplest explanation for what was observed must have been a balloon. This is a common tactic from the Skeptics - to sound reasonable, but to put forward a ridiculous and stupid explanation to throw cold water on the issue. Either the guy is a fool, or he's being dishonest - because he's grossly misusing Occam's Razor. While it is true that the simplest explanation is most likely to be correct, it must also fit the evidence. An 'explanation' that DOES NOT ACCOUNT for what was observed is NO EXPLANATION AT ALL! So the guy is either a complete idiot or he is trying to hoodwink the viewers.

Basically, this is an issue of discerning truth from evidence (that a genuinely unique object was seen), and to be mindful of deceitful authority figures, both in the past and present.

[Posted at the SpookyWeather2 blog, April 9, 2026.]