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Fred Birmingham's Vision (Airship Sighting / Contact?; Australia; 1868)

EnolaGaia

EnolaGaia

I knew the job was dangerous when I took it ...
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A 2002 Fortean Times article reported an investigation into a little-known and 'high strangeness' experience of one Fred Birmingham in 1868. It's not clear how his experience should be categorized, but there are sufficient grounds for considering it an early UFO / contact story.

A MACHINE TO GO THROUGH THE AIR

Did a UFO buzz New South Wales, Australia, in 1868? was a local surveyor invited to board this incredible flying machine by its strange pilot, Or was it a dream? Bill Chalker examines a curious outback tale.
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From FT 162
SEPTEMBER 2002
A machine to go through the air: AD 1873. Such was the title of a very curious document that came to my attention in 1975. It was 15-pages long, dated from the 1950s and described itself as a “Copy from the Memorandum Book of Fred Wm. Birmingham, the Engineer to the Council of Parramatta”. Although somewhat sceptical of the account’s authenticity, I was intrigued enough to investigate whether there was anything of substance behind this potentially significant first-hand testimony of what could be one of the most significant early UFO sightings in Australia.

Fred Birmingham was a surveyor. His extraordinary series of experiences began with a strange vision of floating heads – or, as he put it “a wonderful dream” – on the night of the 25–26 July 1868. He was standing under the veranda of his rented cottage in Duck’s Lane, Parramatta, close to what is now the geographical heart of Sydney ... when he saw, up in the sky to the north-east, a bizarre apparitional procession. ...

" ... I saw an ‘Ark’ and while looking at it – moving along the same track as the head had taken – I said to myself aloud, ‘Well that is a beautiful vessel.’ I had no sooner ended the sentence than I was made aware that I was not alone, for to my right hand and a little to the rear of my frontage a distinct voice said, slowly – ‘That’s a machine to go through the air.’” ...
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The full article is accessible via the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20030207191436/http://www.forteantimes.com/articles/162_ozufo.shtml
 
Those are great EnolaGaia! TROVE newspapers had a huge number of UFO articles; many more than I would ever have suspected. Really great stuff. They often seemed to be coming from the ocean; some were seen to come out of the ocean in formation and fly over land.
 
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EnolaGaia said:
A later implementation of the now-defunct FT online articles presentation offered this 2002 item again, but under a different title.

Australia's 1868 UFO Buzz
https://web.archive.org/web/2008090...es/articles/229/australias_1868_ufo_buzz.html
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A great story and one I've not heard of before. I spent a lot of my younger years around Parramatta (meaning: place of eels) as my mother was a part time social worker at the infamous girls detention centre that was located there.
After a little searching, I've discovered these videos on the story:
And part 2
 
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