Around the world
Cases from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands. 23 events, newest first.
Select any year above to see what happened that year.
Open Australia and the Pacific as a timeline
Media29 Aug 2023
Avi Loeb and 33 co-authors posted a preprint saying some seafloor spherules from their June 2023 expedition off Manus Island had an unusual 'BeLaU' composition suggesting an extrasolar source. Other researchers argued the grains matched coal ash or ordinary sources; Loeb disputed that.
Photo: Christopher Michel, CC BY-SA 4.0
MediaJun 2023
Harvard's Avi Loeb led a June 2023 search off Papua New Guinea for fragments of the 2014 fireball IM1, recovering tiny metal spherules he said might be interstellar or even technological. Other scientists disputed it, attributing the material to coal ash and the seismic trace to a passing truck.
Photo: NASA, Public domain
Government17 Feb 2023
Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles told Nine's Today show that Defence had advised there had been no balloons like the Chinese one shot down over the U.S. in Australian airspace, and that Australia could track and deal with any such balloon.
Photo: Commonwealth of Australia - Department of Defence, CC BY 4.0
Government26 Sep 2022
The Canberra Times reported Defence talking points, released under freedom of information, saying Australia had no plans to work with the U.S. on UAP and saw no evidence they were extraterrestrial. Defence listed natural phenomena, sensor issues or human-made technology as likely causes.
Photo: Nick Dowling at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings9 Jul 2022
Locals in southern New South Wales heard a sonic boom and saw a blazing arc as part of a SpaceX Crew-1 Dragon trunk reentered. Farmers later found charred panels near Dalgety, and the Australian Space Agency confirmed the debris came from a SpaceX mission.
Photo: Steve Bennett, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings19 Jun 2022
People across the South Island photographed a glowing spiral in the evening sky. The New Plymouth Astronomical Society said it was most likely a fuel dump from the Falcon 9 upper stage that had launched a Globalstar satellite that day.
Photo: NASA Headquarters / NASA/Aubrey Gemignani, Public domain
Government27 Sep 2021
Answering an Official Information Act request, the NZDF said it has no role in UFO reports, refers any it receives to the Civil Aviation Authority, and neither investigates nor keeps records of such sightings. The CAA said it looks only at incidents affecting aviation safety.
Sightings27 Nov 2015
Ten Desert Fireball Network cameras recorded a fireball over South Australia. An aircraft spotted a 60 cm mark in the mud of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre South near the predicted fall line, and on Dec. 31, 2015 a team dug the meteorite out from 42 cm down, the digital network's first recovered fall.
Photo: Rmhowie, CC BY-SA 4.0
GovernmentDec 2010
New Zealand's Defence Force released thousands of pages of previously secret UFO reports dating from 1952, including material on the 1978 Kaikoura lights. Most were reports of lights in the sky, and the military did not draw conclusions about them.
Photo: Daderot, CC0
Sightings20 Jul 2007
Cameras of Australia's Desert Fireball Network photographed a fireball over the Nullarbor Plain, letting researchers compute its path and orbit. Searchers found the first stones near the predicted spot in October 2008; the rock proved an unusual basaltic meteorite.
Photo: Rmhowie, CC BY-SA 4.0
SightingsMar 2003
University of Queensland neuroscientist Jack Pettigrew proposed that outback Queensland's Min Min light is an inverted mirage, or Fata Morgana, carrying distant natural or man-made lights over the horizon during temperature inversions, based on his own observations and a field demonstration.
Photo: www.gondwananet.com, CC BY-SA 3.0
Government1994
The Royal Australian Air Force stopped investigating UFO sightings in 1994. According to the National Archives of Australia, it reasoned that only about 3 percent of reports could not be explained by natural phenomena and that these posed little or no security threat.
Photo: Nick Dowling at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
Close encounters7 Aug 1993
Kelly Cahill said that driving home near Melbourne she and her husband saw a lit craft, then lost time, later recalling tall dark figures. Researchers said people in another car gave similar accounts, but no report was released and those witnesses never went public.
Photo: Maksym Kozlenko, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings20 Jan 1988
Driving the Eyre Highway before dawn, the Knowles family said a bright light followed them, lifted their car and left a dark ash on it. Investigators found the residue was ordinary clay and salt and the tyre damage fit fast driving; a meteorologist suggested distorted distant truck lights.
Photo: Nachoman-au, CC BY-SA 3.0
GovernmentMay 1982
Australia's Bureau of Air Safety Investigation released its summary report on pilot Frederick Valentich, who vanished over Bass Strait in 1978 after radioing about an unidentified craft. It said the reason for the disappearance had not been determined and presumed it fatal.
Photo: Ulfl, Public domain
Sightings11 Jul 1979
NASA's Skylab space station broke up on reentry and scattered debris across southern Western Australia. Esperance residents reported sonic booms and several bright orange lights crossing the sky, and recovered fragments are held at the Esperance Museum.
Photo: Rycho626 at English Wikipedia, Public domain
Sightings31 Dec 1978
A TV crew aboard a Safe Air Argosy cargo flight filmed lights off the Kaikoura coast, with returns reported on Wellington radar and the plane's own radar. An Air Force inquiry concluded natural but unusual phenomena; UN-post files released in 2021 show DSIR scientists left them unidentified.
Photo: Richard Goring, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sightings21 Oct 1978
Pilot Frederick Valentich, 20, radioed Melbourne Flight Service that a large unidentified object was hovering over his Cessna 182 above Bass Strait, then the transmission ended. Neither he nor the plane was found; the Department of Transport report said the cause was not determined.
Photo: Australian Department of Transportation, Public domain
Sightings28 Sep 1969
Just before 11 a.m. a fireball broke apart over Murchison, Victoria, and residents heard a series of loud booms. They gathered fragments of a rare carbonaceous meteorite, in which scientists reported extraterrestrial amino acids in Nature in 1970.
Photo: Daderot, CC0
GovernmentJun 1967
University of Arizona atmospheric physicist James McDonald spent late June and early July 1967 in Australia recording interviews with UFO witnesses. Reuters reported him saying in Sydney that governments, backed by the CIA, were downplaying the subject.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
Sightings6 Apr 1966
Students and teachers at Westall High School in suburban Melbourne reported a silvery object that descended toward a nearby property and then left; hundreds gathered on the oval. Local papers covered it, but authorities said they knew nothing and no official explanation was given.
Photo: WestallSC, CC BY-SA 4.0
Sightings19 Jan 1966
Queensland farmer George Pedley said a saucer rose from a lagoon near Tully, and a swirled circle of flattened reeds was found there. The story became international news; meteorologists suggested a whirlwind. It is often cited as a forerunner of crop circles.
Photo: Frances76 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
Close encounters26 Jun 1959
Anglican missionary William Gill and about three dozen people at the Boianai mission reported a large lit object with human-like figures on top over two evenings; Gill said the figures waved back. An RAAF officer who interviewed Gill months later suggested planets seen through moving cloud.
Photo: Project Blue Book, Public domain
