Burkes Flat / 'Bent Headlight Beams' Case (1966; Australia)

[Lord Lucan]

NOTE: This thread was spun off from:
Westall / Clayton South Incident (1966; Australia)
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/westall-clayton-south-incident-1966-australia.65893/
===================

Just reading about this case elsewhere, when I cam across the following story about an encounter in Victoria that happened 2 days before the Westall incident that I'd not heard of before.

Interesting, yes! Possibly related? Who knows.

Burkes Flat UFO:

Date: April 4th, 1966 - Location: Burkes Flat, Victoria, Australia

At about 8:00 p.m., Ron Sullivan, was travelling on a straight sealed section of the Dunolly-St.Arnaud road, near Bourkes Flat, in central country Victoria. Ahead in a pasture off to his right, Sullivan observed an unusual light.

He first took it to be a tractor, engaged in night plowing, but as he drew closer, Sullivan began to see a most unusual light display, located at ground level.

The following things happened quickly as he drew closer to the scene, and then passed it. He was paying attention to both the light display in the pasture on his right and the road when he observed the following sequence of light display in the strange phenomenon in the pasture.

Initially, as he approached, Sullivan saw a white phosphorous type of light on the ground that appeared to be about 15' in diameter. It opened up and there was another white oval on top of it, about 30' in height, coming down making the shape of a cone, with a 15' bottom diameter and 20' top diameter.

https://www.ufocasebook.com/2014/1966-australia-burkes-flat-ufo.html

 

[EnolaGaia]

The most complete and detailed report on the Burkes Flat incident was compiled 18 years later by Bill Chalker and published in an Australian UFO newsletter.

Here's Chalker's own 2013 retrospective overview of the 1984 article (images of the published report's pages):

http://theozfiles.blogspot.com/2013/11/1966-burkes-flat-bent-headlight-beams.html

 

[EnolaGaia]

The images in Chalker's 2013 recap are relatively small (for easy reading).

Chalker's 1984 report is more legibly presented in the PDF file of the original newsletter in which the article appeared:

Bill Chalker
The Bent Headlight Beam Case Revisited

UFO Research Australia Newsletter
Vol. 5 No. 3 (May-June 1984)

http://files.afu.se/Downloads/Magaz... Research Australia newsletter vol 5 no 3.pdf

 

[EnolaGaia]

Some initial comments ...

I'd love to pinpoint where this incident occurred. Mr. Sullivan stated he was driving on the Dunolly-St. Arnaud Road in the area of Burkes Flat. This road is some 4 - 6 miles distant from Burkes Flat proper. It's not clear where along this road the incident occurred, and none of Chalker's photos of the scene give any more specific details on the exact location.

The sighting would seem to have happened rather quickly, because he was driving at a speed of circa 60 mph (cf. Chalker, 1984).

The various versions of Sullivan's account give differing estimates for:

- the distance from the road to the spot in the paddock / field where the lights were observed;
- the diameters of the lights observed;
- the height (elevation) of the upper light(s); and ...
- the number of light-objects he saw.

One of the most interesting aspects of this case is the fact another driver (one Gary Taylor) was killed when he hit the same tree Mr. Sullivan almost hit when (over-?) correcting his steering. Another driver was following Mr. Taylor when he wrecked, and at least one of the accounts claims this second driver observed bright lights just before Taylor swerved and hit the tree for no (other) apparent reason.

 

[feinman]

NOTE: This thread was spun off from:
Westall / Clayton South Incident (1966; Australia)
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/westall-clayton-south-incident-1966-australia.65893/
===================

Just reading about this case elsewhere, when I cam across the following story about an encounter in Victoria that happened 2 days before the Westall incident that I'd not heard of before.

Interesting, yes! Possibly related? Who knows.

Burkes Flat UFO:

https://www.ufocasebook.com/2014/1966-australia-burkes-flat-ufo.html

Thanks for posting that, Lord Lucan.

 

[feinman]

The description of the strange light from the object (he describes it as contained and non-illuminating yet somehow extremely luminous) matches my own experience, and the descriptions from the drivers parked on the freeway outside of Roseburg who saw the same objects later, and those from many other UFO witnesses too. The apparent gravitic or magnetic anomalies are also a theme in many sightings too. The beams possibly discharging some type of energy or harvesting some kind of energy or particle are also used on people, animals etc. as a tool or scanning mechanism. There is the Monon case --that quite reminds me of the five objects I and others have seen over time
http://www.nicap.org/reports/581003wasco_edwards.htm
The objects scatter when a flashlight is directed at them as if it could be disruptive. Another EXCELLENT case over in the Historic Newspaper articles section describes that harassing object plaguing people trying to fix a tire after their car went off road; the object seemed interested in the headlights on the car, which iirc, were off at the time.