The UFO Phenomenon

60 years on: Australia's Westall UFO incident continues to intrigue

By T.K. Randall
April 6, 2026

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) The strangeness began on April 6th, 1966 when multiple people, including students and teachers from Westall High School and Westall State School, observed three metallic objects silently maneuvering through the skies over Melbourne in the Australian state of Victoria.

According to witness accounts, the objects, which bore no obvious markings, landed briefly in a paddock near the schools before taking off again and disappearing. An investigation of the field afterwards revealed the presence of several large circles of flattened grass.

Now in their 70s, the school's former pupils remain adamant that what they saw was the real deal.

They are also still desperate to find an explanation.

Joy Clarke, who was 12 at the time of the incident, vividly recalls what happened that day. "I was in class when students rushed in and told us the story," she told The Age back in 2024. "We rushed down to the oval and I saw three flying saucers on that day."

"My personal belief is they weren't of this world."

"They were definitely from somewhere else because I have never seen anything like it at all."

In the years since, some researchers have suggested that a form of mass hysteria might help to explain the phenomenon, while others are not so sure.

"The significance of the Westall case is the fact that there were so many people, the sheer volume of firsthand eyewitnesses saying the same thing 60 years ago as they are today," US documentary filmmaker James Fox told ABC News.


Source: abc.net.au

Tags: UFO, Australia