Incident at Mosquito Hill

Artist impression supplied by the witness.

This all happened many years ago but the images of what I saw remain with me vividly. I have not shared the information with many people as I was scoffed at by someone from the Adelaide University (where I studied) and I have been reluctant to talk about it since.

I was with the South Australian Education Dept, being a Principal for 12 years. I was a student counsellor at the Flinders University for two years. I retired from education in 1992 and became a Director with The Central Irrigation Trust till 2005.

I then became a Financial Counsellor during the drought years and was appointed Chair of the South Australian Drought Task Force being awarded the Centenary Medal for services to the community and the environment in 2005.

I do not usually share my background with people for fear of being seen to be boastful, but I am aware that you need to see that I “still have my marbles” and not given to fantasy.

Not long after the Ash Wednesday fire, I had designed and helped to build the replacement home for a friend who had lost his home and we were celebrating the completion of the building. At the party I met a fellow was a neighbour of my friend, and during the conversation it emerged that he had been a scout leader.

“I used to take groups of scouts down to Mount Compass,” he told me.

“Used to camp at Mosquito Hill near the Trig Point.”

“Good heavens!” I replied, “ That trig point was on our property!”

“Have not been back since October 1966,” he continued.

I began to become interested.

“Don’t tell any of the others , but I saw something on the hill opposite which I still find hard to believe.”

My interest was piqued, as I too had seen something that October night. Like most famers I’d often walked around the property at night attending to maintenance tasks The South Australian sun during the warmer months of the year can be unrelenting and carrying out checks on the property is often more productive in the cool of the night.

That night I was walking around checking the property’s irrigation system, when I saw an object which looked totally out of place in the bush landscape.

The was a reasonable amount of moonlight and a cloudless sky. The overall shape of the thing was similar to that of a plough disk with a flattened base, only much, much larger. I do not know if the craft had landed or was hovering close to the ground. It certainly blocked out the stand of cup gums which capped the hill behind. Our neighbours owned a dairy farm. Their house was only about 100 metres away from where I saw the craft and I was concerned for their safety.

The dome itself looked metallic and a greyish sheen. I think there were five or six oval shaped “portholes” on the edge facing me and these seemed to be illuminated by a dull purplish glow. The underside “what I could see” was glowing purple, but there were no flames, nor was there any increase in intensity as the thing lifted and accelerated away from me.

While my neighbour and I were looking for the cows in the morning I asked him if he had heard anything in the night. He said he had heard nothing. I did not enlighten him. The cows that had disappeared usually camped on the hillside where the craft had appeared and I could understand them taking off in fright and seeking shelter in the shrub enshrouded gully.

Fast forward to the nineteen eighties, to the party at my neighbour’s.

The remainder of our conversation was like extracting teeth with each revelation reinforcing what we both had seen on that night in October. Being camped on the highest hilltop in the district his view was somewhat different to mine. Consequently he saw the “thing” from slightly above.

I had been much closer, a mere 100 to 150 metres away, and looking up a slope, but our descriptions matched exactly, what the craft looked like , its dimensions, its movements , its speed and its direction of travel. More importantly, the time, date place and year matched. We both agreed it was a great relief to share our memories of the experience.

I was so relieved to talk to someone who had seen exactly what I had seen. Both of us had been reluctant to share our experience mainly because it seemed so unbelievable. Both of us were intrigued with the speed at which the craft had disappeared to the west. Also intriguing was the lack of noise other than a hum.

This “craft” would have to had to pass through the sound barrier, yet there was no sonic boom.

The most famous Australian case of 1966

Other incidents in South Australia, 1966

These are the South Australian entries from the 1966 catalogue of researcher, Keith Basterfield.

27 Feb 1966  Keith 
2200hrs  Kirby  CE1
Hovering several metres above a road, 5 miles north of Keith, a saucer shape inverted over another saucer shape, was observed for a while, before it left at great speed. The witness stopped and noted a smell like ozone. The object was described as five metres in diameter and as having six bluish lights on one side. (1.UFORSA files.2. (Hervey, M. (1969.) “UFOs Over the Southern Hemisphere.” Horwitz. Sydney. p143.)

29 March 1966 Adelaide
1830hrs 2secs NL 1F
An oval object, silver-grey in colour with a thick, dark outline was seen low over North Terrace buildings. (“Sunday Mail” 2/4/66.)

6 Jun 1966 Kingston and Naracoorte
Early morning 20mins 2M Armstrong & Polomka
Two ice cream truck drivers saw a white spotlight with a red light on top. The white light was “…interlaced with smaller coloured lights.” At times it seemed to hover and at other time move erratically across the sky. (Adelaide “News” 8/6/66)

8 June 1966
a. Woomera
1939hrs 2 wits 2M
Mr R Sharp, one of the men said : “We saw the object from Woomera village at 7.39pm. It had a light equivalent in intensity to a 200 watt bulb at 200 yards, and it appeared to leave a blue-green trail.”  (Hervey, M. (1969.) “UFOs Over the Southern Hemisphere. Horwitz. Sydney. Pp 145-146.)

b. Clearview Adelaide
0800hrs 2M
Two boys reported seeing an object in the sky which hovered for a fewe seconds then left at speed towards the W. .” (Hervey, M. (1969.) “UFOs Over the Southern Hemisphere.” Horwitz. Sydney. p143.)

 9 June 1966
a. Woomera 3 secs 1M
There was a jet-like sound, but no aircraft were in the area. An object was then seen, white in colour, trailing a bluish-green colour. In size, it was smaller than the full Moon. It travelled from azimuth 110 degrees to azimuth 90 degrees in 3 seconds. (Report from AIUFOFSR citing D. A. Needleham, Engineer/ELDO employee.)

b. Adelaide
1935hrs 5 secs multi wits
Greenish-yellow object moving at speed, travelling E to W and descending at a 45 degree angle.

 9 August 1966 Klemzig
Morning 4 wits NL
Travelling by car they sighted two objects hovering to the NE. “Two round, very bright shiny metal objects, one being larger than the other, hanging in the sky. “(Hervey, M. (1969.) “UFOs Over the Southern Hemisphere. Horwitz. Sydney. p155.)

September 1966 Hilton Adelaide
SA 0650hrs 
“I saw this dark grey torpedo shape with green lights pass overhead from east to west.” No noise. (Hervey, M. (1969.) “UFOs Over the Southern Hemisphere. Horwitz. Sydney. p154.)

23 October 1966
a. Adelaide
0230hrs 2-3 mins 3witnessess Kulman 
A bright oval with a cone beneath was stationary at 20 degrees. It was a bright orange-yellow. .” (Hervey, M. (1969.) “UFOs Over the Southern Hemisphere.” Horwitz. Sydney. p146.)

b. Burnside Adelaide
2025hrs 10mins1M NL
At a bearing of 305 degrees and elevation 35 degrees, was a sodium yellow object travelling NE. It slowed, then turned N, descended, gained speed and disappeared. .” (Hervey, M. (1969.) “UFOs Over the Southern Hemisphere.” Horwitz. Sydney. p143.)

4 November 1966 Adelaide
1915hrs 3 witnesses Russell DD
Two, circular silver objects due E. Both stationary. One went up the other went E.” (Hervey, M. (1969.) “UFOs Over the Southern Hemisphere.” Horwitz. Sydney. p147.)

Late 1966  Eyre Peninsula 
Trace
An Adelaide resident and partner, driving in a remote area, came across a group of circles on a flat stretch of earth. There were eight in total, all identical in shape and size. Some overlapped. Said to be six metres in diameter, perfectly round. It appeared two had been burnt into the earth. ((Hervey, M. (1969.) “UFOs Over the Southern Hemisphere.” Horwitz. Sydney. p146.)

1966/1967 Woomera
1730hrs 1M DD
Looked up into sky and saw at least three lots of UFOs, 40 in all. One broke away and hovered low over him. Big as a football field. Mother told him he walked home in shock and took him to Woomera hospital. (UFORSA)

Keith.

See Keith’s blog at: http://ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com