Wonnangatta Sighting - 8th of June, 1996

On the evening of Saturday 8th of June a four wheel drive club of fifty adults and twenty to thirty children made an overnight stop at the valley known as the Wonnangatta station, which is now national park and is an extremely remote place surrounded by mountains. It lies halfway between Licola North of Heyfield, and Dargo forty miles or more north west of Bairnsdale. Nobody lives in that area permanently.

At 6.05 pm it was dark and the Marquee was up and barbecues were cooking the evening meal.

Suddenly all conversation stopped as an orange light appeared over the Western mountain rim It moved on an Easterly course and after arriving at an elevation of sixty degrees, it stopped.

Shortly after, two more lights appeared on the Western rim, where they paused. Then the group moved on a straight course , stopping now and then. There was no synchronicity between the two lights and the leading light. but altogether six stops would have been made. The lights were steady and unvarying in intensity, and three times as bright as any star visible in the background. When the leading light arrived near the Eastern rim, it paused and one of the two trailing lights, which had been side by side all the way across, moved forward to take up a position alongside the leading light. When this was done the three moved to the East and were soon out of sight.

Mr R was adamant that these weren’t balloons, They were steady and made straight but slow progress across the sky. Because of the mountains all around visibility was restricted to about 120 degrees. If these were balloons released somewhere else , they would have to be released many miles away in daylight. To be released locally, they would have to be taken in by four wheel drive and without any guarantee of an audience to see them.

The duration of the sighting was about fifteen minutes.

Dan HAYLOCK.

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