On April 6, 1966, one of the most compelling mass UFO sightings in history unfolded at Westall High School in Clayton South, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Around 11:00 a.m., during a morning break, over 200 witnesses—mostly students and teachers from Westall High School and the nearby Westall State School—reported seeing one to three unidentified objects in the sky. Witnesses described the objects as silver or grey, saucer-shaped with a domed top, roughly the size of two to three family cars, and exhibiting a slight purple hue in some accounts. The objects were seen hovering over the school grounds, moving with an otherworldly grace—slowly at first, then accelerating rapidly, often outpacing light aircraft in the area. They descended into a nearby open area known as The Grange, a pine-ringed patch of bushland south of the school, before lifting off and vanishing.
The event began when a student ran into a Year 9 science class, interrupting teacher Andrew Greenwood to report a “flying saucer” outside. Greenwood, initially skeptical, stepped out and saw a round, humped object with a flat base, intelligently controlled, moving in ways that defied known aviation technology. He described how, when five small planes—likely Cessnas from nearby Moorabbin Airport—approached, the object would accelerate away, stop, and then repeat the maneuver, showcasing “the most amazing flying” he’d ever seen. Students like Terry Peck, then 11 years old, recalled feeling heat and hearing a buzzing sound from the craft, with purple lights around its edge, as she stood close enough to sense its presence. Another student, Phyll Tierney, aged 15, saw three silver, dish-like objects with domes, moving silently. Some witnesses, including market gardener Paul Smith, reported seeing the object trailed by light planes before it disappeared into the pines at The Grange.
After the sighting, dozens of students ran to The Grange, finding a landing site with one to three circles of flattened, burnt, or “boiled” grass, though accounts of the circles’ exact nature vary. Within 20 to 40 minutes, military personnel, police, and fire brigades arrived, along with men in black suits, according to witnesses like student Kelly, who was 14 at the time. The school held an assembly where staff and students were told not to speak about the incident, with some, including Greenwood, claiming they were threatened by authorities. Greenwood later said military officials warned he’d lose his job if he spoke out, and Peck noted a girl who got close to the craft was taken away in an ambulance and never returned to school. The Dandenong Journal reported that students were instructed to “talk to no one,” and Greenwood’s camera, which allegedly captured a photo of the UFO, was confiscated by authorities.
Official explanations quickly emerged. On April 7, 1966, The Age suggested the object was a weather balloon released from Laverton at 8:30 a.m., carried by westerly winds into the Clayton area. However, witnesses like Greenwood, familiar with balloons due to the school’s proximity to Moorabbin Airport, rejected this, insisting the object’s movements and structure were unlike any balloon or aircraft. Researcher Keith Basterfield later proposed it might have been a HIBAL balloon, part of a U.S.-Australian project launched from Mildura to monitor radiation from British nuclear tests at Maralinga. These balloons, 100 meters long with a 180-kilogram payload, were tailed by chase planes, which could explain the aircraft seen. Yet, UFO researcher Bill Chalker countered that a balloon couldn’t perform the rapid, directional changes described, calling the theory a “big stretch.”
The incident’s aftermath saw significant suppression. The Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society investigated, interviewing witnesses, but no exhaustive report was published at the time. A 1966 Clayton Calendar article speculated the objects might be military craft from Moorabbin, but no RAAF, commercial, or private pilots reported anything unusual. The landowner burned the field to deter trespassers, and by April 9, air force personnel and UFO enthusiasts found no physical evidence. Decades later, in a 2018 interview recorded by physicist James E. McDonald, Greenwood maintained his account, emphasizing the government’s cover-up efforts, a sentiment echoed by Ross Coulthart in a 2021 7NEWS Spotlight investigation, where he claimed a Department of Supply report on the incident exists but has been suppressed.
Theories abound. Some believe the objects were extraterrestrial, supported by their advanced maneuverability and the consistency of witness accounts across independent interviews. Others suggest a secret military experiment, possibly linked to the Cold War era’s technological race, though no records confirm such tests. Skeptics point to mass hysteria or a natural phenomenon, but the psychological impact on witnesses—many of whom faced ridicule and mental health struggles, as noted by Clarke Watson in 2024—argues against this, as does the physical evidence of flattened grass. The HIBAL balloon theory, while plausible, fails to account for the objects’ reported intelligence and speed.
The Westall sighting remains Australia’s largest mass UFO event, commemorated by a UFO-themed playground at The Grange, built by the City of Kingston in 2013, and a 40th-anniversary reunion in 2006. Documentaries like Westall ‘66: A Suburban UFO Mystery by Rosie Jones and The Phenomenon by James Fox have kept the story alive, featuring witness testimonies and exploring its cultural impact. People still discuss its significance, with some calling it a “top-five mass sighting worldwide.” Despite the passage of time, no official explanation has satisfied the witnesses, leaving the 1966 Westall UFO sighting an enduring mystery that challenges our understanding of the skies.
