Westall '66: A Suburban UFO Mystery
Westall '66: A Suburban UFO Mystery, directed and edited by Rosie Jones, is a riveting and unique look at what happened in the Westall suburb of Melbourne in 1966. Westall High School was the center of the biggest mass UFO sighting in Australia, yet the event was deliberately suppressed. Jones and her team try to find out why.
At the mention of UFO's, you may be bracing yourself for a film peppered with tin-hat wearing conspiracy theorists, but you may have to revise your opinion.
Candid eyewitness accounts reveal active, attentive people who have lived with a memory that brought them ridicule, and censure, but the stories they tell and the pictures they draw show that they have not forgotten what happened.
As the film progresses, a variety of techniques maintain the delicate and deliberate balance of fact and opinion. Jones marries the austerity and somberness of statistics, recordings, and interviews with playful sketches, poignant clips, and animated narration. This approach underscores a commitment to present an objective, transparent film that is visually diverse.
Jones' commitment to neutrality has a similar effect on the participants and overall tenor of the film. Consequently, we hear students, laborers, community members, researchers, and others talk about what occurred on that fateful April day, and the curious happenings that followed.
They all report seeing something above the paddock that did not look like anything they had ever seen. Some saw it land; some saw it fly away. However, they were all told by school authorities, or police, or other officials in uniform to keep quiet. Many of them were punished and ridiculed if they tried to talk about it, and so they kept silent. Still, they remember what they saw, and thus, the mystery persists.
In the end, Jones successfully delivers a film that may fascinate you, intrigue you, or simply encourage you to keep listening.
wish we knew more about the girl Tanya who seemed to be the one who got closest to the extraterrestrial craft. She came back hysterical was taken away in an ambulance and never returned too school. her friend went to her house the next day and an English woman answered the door and said that she never lived there. apparently someone did get in touch with her as an adult and she says she has no memory of the event nor does she ever wish to talk about it. something happened to her for sure! Tragic I believe she suffered from the experience although I hope she is doing ok.
The one thing wrong with this (and many other) presentations on you tube, is the loud background music , which prevented me from understanding the conversation. It doesn't happen in nature....we don't need dramatic music.
clearly gov technology not Aliens.
Why would an intelligent race come all this way just to hover about and hide from us. Picture the colonists from Spain and UK travelling the atlantic arriving in spain and creeping around hiding in the bushes! It wouldn't happen, they either trade with, teach and mingle with the less advanced natives (rare) or kill pillage and loot.
Government technology testing an exotic craft over an elementary school? Sorry that doesn't work.
This is a good comment because of your context of using the past as a precedent of the present. However, you could easily debunk your theory by saying that what the children saw was actually us coming back from the future to observe and not interfere.
Contemt prior to investigation is evidence of indoctrination.
Good answer.
An interesting video.
As I was not present at the time of this alleged event, I thus have no way of knowing what actually did, or did not, happen that day. I have only the video doc. to rely upon for comment.
First: I suppose that is natural, even prudent, to take the extraordinary claims espoused by the children (at the time of the incident) of Westhall regarding the events of April 6th 1966 with a healthy measure of incredulity as to their actuality, much less their accuracy.
Indeed, one need not be a skeptic to realize there is no possibility of ever proving that what they say occurred actually did occur. And even if there were substantive and undisputed evidence supporting their claims, this would still not constitute absolute proof of UFO's having landed near their school. And while it appears that many of the former students have arrived at exactly this conclusion, this is simply a product of what they experienced that day, but is not proof.
Second: All of the evidence presented by the doc. is of an anecdotal nature, but it is NOT typical eyewitness evidence drawn from normal memory. There's a type of memory called a "flashbulb memory". This is an extremely accurate, indelible, Visual type of memory that is encoded in the brain when one is confronted with news of a powerful, emotionally charged event. A typical example of this might be the shocking and/or unexpected birth/death/return/betrayal of a person intimate to you, or any other circumstance, event, etc with which you identify closely. A flashbulb memory lets you remember in great detail exactly where you were, what you were doing, saying, thinking, and feeling at the moment you received the news. For me, one unforgettable flashbulb memory was when I and my entire 6th grade class watched the shuttle Challenger explode before our eyes. Such memories Never fade or even become fuzzy. There is no doubt that every child at Westhall has exactly this type of memory of what they saw that day.
This is telling evidence that SOMETHING extraordinary happened to ALL of them that day.
Third: I find it beyond extraordinary that the intelligence services of Australia, and likely the US as well (the only military in camouflage at that time in Aus. thus the soldiers who rapid responded to the grange landing site) would find it necessary to bully and intimidate school children into silence, and threaten the only adult witness with career ruin if they ever mentioned what they thought they saw that day to anyone, even each other. Clearly it must have been a matter of highest national security for them to do this to these implausible witnesses, else they wouldn't have run whatever super-secret operation they were running in broad daylight in the midst of a highly populated urban center. (It is also noteworthy that, 45 years later, the only witness wishing NOT to be interviewed on screen in the video was the science teacher. Careers are not the only that can be threatened with ruin, I suppose.)
Fourth: The fact that the Military did seriously investigate the Westhall incident and yet not even a trace of such an investigation can be found, even by civilian researchers trained to uncover such clandestine investigations, bespeaks of the importance of the event in terms of national security interests. (What happened to the channel 9 news reel reporting on the event??)
Fifth: To my mind.... there are still several other minor, yet puzzling, facts a concerning the authorities acid reaction to the alleged events at Westhall, no matter if it were a secret government project gone awry or extraterrestrial/extra-dimensional/etc. UFOs finding earth, or something else in-between. But this one stands out amongst them all.
What did happen to Tania???
postscript;
Here I will assume that most (if not all) of the facts presented are factual and accurate and I will speculate on Tania's possible fate and the reason for the Government smothering of any and all info regarding Westhall.
Remember..... Tania seems to be the only student likely to have come into some sort of actual contact with any of the craft. So maybe...... the reason why the military arrived so quickly is because they were told just before the crafts landed, exactly where to go by the pilots of the saucer-like craft themselves. The authorities were being taught the lesson of just how easy it is for the saucer pilots to go at anytime, anywhere they like, and do anything they wished. This includes landing at a children's school during recess in broad daylight and then luring the students to their landing site where they could then be mortally afflicted in either mind or body.... or both. And after making good in this demonstration, the authorities realized they must NEVER EVER allow the public at large to have the slightest inkling of just how powerless our governments and militaries are in protecting our children and planet.
This fanciful deduction unfortunately does seem to fit the observed facts........ and I sincerely hope absolutely none of it is right.
Like your comments! I too think Tania is a big part of this story maybe the biggest.
Someone was paying attention in English class, evidenced by his willing display and broad vocabulary.
An intersting account of your thoughts.
What happened to Tania?
The teacher committed suicide - Mmmmm, I just bet he did.
I had a daylight sighting. It was a perfect sphere, no seams, no wings, no sign of propulsion. Completely silent. Color of polished lead. I looked up metals later and found that beryllium was the closest visual match. Ever since that day in Florida I have been fascinated with finding others who might have had a similar experience. I found the interviews in this film to have a strong sense of truth to them. Also, thru the years I have grown to have a distaste for skeptics. They always hide behind their smarty pants comments. They truly have no idea how completely stupid they are.
Having been there at that time I can tell you all this was no balloon or man-made device. Nothing...not even today...moves that fast and in silence
Another famous case, at least in Australia, is the "Disappearance of Frederick Valentich" (see Wikipedia page). Interesting.
I have seen a so called UFO in 1994 the Netherlands. It was an experience that made a lot of impact. It flew low and made a full stop from I guess 300km/hr to 0. It then made a cross shaped sign horizontally (left/middle/right/middle and continued its journey. My mother said...do you see it! Do you see it! I said yes yes and by then it was gone. It changed my view of life and I am 100% convinced we are not alone in this universe. My opinion: They only show themselves to individuals. They will not land on a square in a big city because they respect our lives. They do collect organic material and perhaps they terraform other planets with our life. Earth may even be terraformed in the past. After all life developed on earth with an enourmous speed. One earth layer it was not present, the next it was.
excellent although it's no longer available?
Its a real flying object, but its highly likely from the evidence in this film, that this was a secret black project, and not an alien craft. The fact that military type people were on the scene in minutes is significant, they were on standby.
The governments lie to us in clever ways, just enough spin and staged acting to put us off the scent into thinking its aliens.
I am not ruling out possibility that alien / interdimensional beings and craft could exist, but dont choose the choices presented to you, make your own informed choice.
Your response, because it's easiest to believe, does not make it true. An open mind would begin by not assuming that this must have been an event based a prosaic explanation.
I think the people who are living with the blinkers on and believe everything they are told and follow all the rules are usually the skeptics - the more open minded individual is usually the non skeptic when it comes to the subject of alien life - but the fact remains we are not alone - whether you like it or not
I wish everybody would learn a bit about how eyewitness testimony is incredibly unreliable. We like to think "we know what we saw," but we really don't. I know that can be unsettling, but it's true.
If you're looking to kill 45 minutes watching a fun documentary, just watch some TED talks about eyewitness testimony or watch any brain-centric programs about perception. (Just consider the sources, beware of neuro-bunk!)
Those sorts of programs may help you consider these types of cases in a new and interesting light :-)
That's wrong. Eye witness testimony is more often than not factual. Degree of reliability or the lack thereof doesn't make a testimony inaccurate.
Different from the norm and I found it very interesting.
if i could only have one question answered with a full explanation id accept theres no such thing as a ufo...so heres my question what do we have that can travel from one end off the horizon to the other in a click off a finger...still waiting ...guess ill be waiting as long as the dead people in this video ...
I want to know what happened to Tania!!
I am always cautious and skeptical regarding this topic. However, I do believe there is something to these types of encounters, as a whole. To those immediately dismissive of the subject, I suggest a couple of points to consider relative to "evidence":
1) Relative to first-hand accounts: When it comes to eye-witness accounts, many of us in the Western world live in society, with systems of justice, wherein people are convicted by their peers and punished based solely on the first-hand testimony of others.
2) Relative to lack of photo/video proof: how many photos/videos exist of automobile accidents taken right as they occur? Probably as many as there are of anomalous objects available on social media currently.
3) Credibility of witnesses: Certainly there are those out there that are eccentric, simply seeking attention or straight mentally ill that report these types of encounters. However, the scope and scale of the population involved, across every geographical boundary and culture, there have been reported encounters and/or sightings.
Just 20-30 years ago, study of black holes was border-line pseudo-science, extremely controversial and considered detrimental to careers of those in scientific community. Theoretically, it was likely, but no one had first-hand account. Conversely, with respect to the phenomena here, there are plenty of former military officials, pilots, and even astronauts that have provided their own encounters. Statistically, can we rule them all as insane, delusional, mistaken or suffering from mass hysteria? What if just one is right?
This offered One thing, the part about the headlights of the car. How when the object began to move(operate), the headlight beams at a point near the object, were curving towards the object. The only One who knew where the objects came from when speaking was the old lady in black and white:)
Oh dude, Bill Chalker! that's the ex Vietnam vet who got abducted by aliens who then did [sexual] tests on him and now he's an alcoholic who dusts crop fields for a living.
Great documentary, thoughtful and informative. I meant to give it 10 stars but accidentally hit the wrong spot, which lowered the scale. Sorry…
I agree with the author that it’s NOT likely this flying object was
a military test. As the author points out, if this was a test, surely decades later we would see the military openly operating a functioning version of the prototype. Hasn’t happened.
And why would the military conduct top secret tests next to a populated area? Doesn’t make sense. Furthermore, the docu points out that there were sightings in the area a couple of days prior to the sighting at the school. Those previous sightings might explain the military presence in the area by the time this object was seen at the school two days later.
Sad that the witnesses were bullied into silence… This documentary helps redress this wrong to some extent. Thank you!
Good documentary,I like the way you present to hole docu including the style of drawing. Nice background music plus Australian accent witch I like a lot.
I like how everyone always imagines that UFO space ships are about the same size as we 'think' they should be,
to house aliens roughly the same size as us...lol... they could be as tall as building's, or as tiny as microbes.
My theory is that these ufos we see are real but don't have little green men flying them but are either actually living anomaly with AI that have been in our skies for eons,some kind of drone or satellite watching us from god knows where or something the government own and if so they have owned them a long time as sightings go back before the 30's nothing can move like these spherical balls that are regularly seen and must be intelligent especially when there seen in space or maybe there is some pot smoking alien flying these by name of Paul ??♂️
Good documentary, now we know how Kissinger got his orders.
An entire documentary of anecdotal evidence (read as not evidence.)
safe to say my skepticism hasn't been challenged...not even a little bit.
After watching a few minutes of this documentary, reading the blurb again made me laugh...talk about an oversell!
i think the quote that made me laugh the most was at 40:20.
"I believe truth can exist without proof of it."
sums up this documentary in a nutshell as well as the attitudes of the films makers.
How did you manage to be the ONLY sensible comment and remain here up the top, nice and visible! Well done. Yes, the fact this got made encourages me that I too can make films!
Hmmm, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find out that "nudda_non" and "a_no_n" are in fact the same person? (hah)
because coming up with kooky conspiracy theories certainly beats trying to come up with a rational argument eh?
Naaaah, it's because you not only write very similar to each other, but even your name's are similar to each other as well. (shrug)
because it's so hard to imagine that 2 out of 8 billion people might come up with a vaguely similar name based on a popular internet term...
I am going to settle this so we can get back on topic. As far as I can tell they are two different people. Also while I do not always agree with a_no_n I have never felt the need to question his credability. Unless you can prove they are the same person this avenue of discussion is closed.
That's quite a strawman you're building and there's a glaring fallacy in your argument. Truth can exist with proof and also if certain elements we know to be true are purely self evident and don't rely on the search for definitive proof to define or explain it to others beyond their rational logic.
As an example, I can say unequivocally that it is a true statement that life exists in our universe. I'm not talking about UFO's, I'm talking about microbial life. The extent and size of the universe makes it statistically impossible for this not to be true. It is also true statement that if you held an object in your hand and dropped it, that it would fall to the ground. There are many more examples of these that do not require an argument or investigation of proof to compel others to accept an assertion as true because of their inherent nature.
In the case of Westall where it is said that something extraordinary was witnessed by a large group of individuals who could describe the same thing, that against your (ironically) anecdotal assumption in the previous comment, I'm inclined to take their word as being more truthful because there is no deviation from their description of the event nor their discomfort in discussing it, which are the 2 most compelling facets of the topic. This despite my being agnostic towards the topic of UFO's
Conversely, and this is an important statement for skeptics, it is also a true statement that lack of evidence for something existing isn't proof for that thing to not exist "period". If the idea exists, then it just means you haven't looked hard enough to clarify the thing in question into something rational and universally acceptable. Denying something on the basis of your skepticism, without giving it any investigation and construing red herrings to divert the issue doesn't assert a profound argument against the topic. It only belies your position of ignorance.
Ergo, I find nothing compelling about your comment to think otherwise
what exactly is it about my comment that makes it a Strawman argument?
MY question to you is how can you know something to be true if you have no proof of it? You can't. You can only believe...dispite what your local pastor tells you there is an entire world of difference between truth and belief!
You can't be agnostic about UFO's...you're mixing up you terminology there.
Also how is striving for evidence "Ignorant"?
That's my only gripe, that there's no evidence. There's nothing ignorant about having standards...It's better than just blindly believing everything you hear on the internet!
I'll bet you believe in god.
You'd lose your money.
You could have had a better guess, and said that he was a skeptic, probably a skeptic in the vain of Michael Shermer.
Other than that he is probably an orthodox, rationalist, materialist scientific minded person.
And of course, entirely ignorant in his knowledge of reality, such as the skeptic so often is.
Why would your "skepticism" be challenged?
You would stop being skeptic if what?If this video gave you irrefutable truth?
That's not skepticism.
I mean even if the video contained a head of sate saying UFOs were real and showed you an alien you could remain a skeptic while simultaneously believing completely in UFOs and aliens.
Your comments reveal your own bias,I do agree the doc is just blather though.
I would stop being skeptical if it showed me evidence...Simple as that, showing me an alien would certainly do the trick.
Show me god, then I'll believe. Simple as that.
I agree with you there.
That's the problem with assumptions...sometimes they're wrong.
I'll bet you believe in god. For which there is absolutely zero evidence. Not even anecdotal.
nope, athieist.
....a fine documentary, I gave it 8, but hesitated between 7 and 8...
Complaints would be about sound...again...mixing, background music and dialog and so forth, plus Australian accent is not my favorite and would sometimes merit subtext...imo
But the case dealt with here is definitely compelling...
I knew a person who used to work at Area 51 and I just...wanted to "interrogate" him to no end! – ..but never did...he is gone now...when asked about something he would just smile and the only thing he would talk about was the incredible food they were served there...I have no doubt about that...
most UFO sightings are actually classified military projects—not extra-terrestrial beings visiting from another world. in fact, the military establishment even cooks up UFO conspiracy stories in order to confound a gullible public and divert scrutiny away from these secret military projects. it's a shame so many people are still being duped to this day.
you got the words right out of my mouth! I would also have started the phrase with "most" as there is always a possibility that "some" may exist.
i say 'most' because i have no evidence that extraterrestrials do not exist; while conversely, UFOlogists also have no evidence that intelligent beings from other worlds do exist. let alone visit earth.
meanwhile, in real life, the simplest explanation is 'most' often the correct one. in the case of UFO sightings, i just assume it's the military up to their usual tricks... wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on futuristic weapons of some kind.
You also took the words out of my mouth. Just look up "Haunebu" - the Nazis were experimenting with flying discs 70 years ago and the US and USSR snapped up all their scientists so it stands to reason the technology would have advanced quite a bit since then.
Couldn't have said it better myself. The whole UFO business is a fine thing for the military; let the sprogs giggle over the prospect of little green men in neon frisbees, it only helps as a cover for the real truth, which is top secret defense projects.
" party-pooper's......all a'ye!!!!no pop-corn for non-believers!"
-one p*ssed off E.T.(pilot of mentioned 'flying object' in the doc.) -
Let me run down to the local watering hole real quick for a six-pack of Dos Equis and I'll be right there with you in half an hour. :)
Evidence? You're thinking too much in black and white, just look at the historical drawings and cave paintings to get some of that needed evidence for a start.
oh i doubt an advanced alien race would find us humans all that interesting. we're far too primitive, still... endless conflict & warfare, a planet awash in guns & bombs, terrorism, violence & murder, greed & gluttony, environmental destruction, yadayadayada.
we have nothing to offer them.
I never said they would find us interesting. The only thing I said was that that you are wrong when it comes to there being no evidence or clues. The evidence is all around us-from mayflower to ancient paintings, texts, even cave paintings!
cave paintings? you call that 'evidence'?? hahaha. please. there is no verifiable evidence of extraterrestrial life, period.
If we found that life can exist in extreme conditions and even in outer space-given the sheer size of the universe, I'd say it's safe to say that extra terrestrial life does in fact exist.
The only reason they'd come by here is either to study our planet or to keep an eye on us so we don't blow ourselves AND the other species along with it. I agree, we are quite self centered and deluded to think that they would want to make contact with us. The only thing they might be interested is making sure humans don't blow the world up, they know just how primitive we are. I like the case of our missiles being disabled by one of these things, even some people claim tunguska to have had et intervention. ( of course this is all speculation) I and my roommate have seen some incredibly weird ****, i guess this was the only reason I felt like I wanted to share.
They call that plausible deniability,
There are millions of stars and galaxies in the known universe it's inconceivable to believe that intelligent life didn't evolve elsewhere other than on earth.
Whether they are able to travel such large distances is another issue.
When agencies conduct ruthless disinformation campaigns... threats made to silence the witnesses... it isn't to prevent panic, as no one was panicked. Most likely, the cover up was to prevent folks from realizing there was something much more evolved out there, and somebody's power base would be diminished by it.
unless all the "Silencing of witnesses" is just hearsay...after all besides anecdotes there isn't a single scrap of evidence for ANY of this. and as i've said earlier on anecdotes are not evidence.
Why is the government so afraid of the truth? It must give them a feeling of smug superiority to know something we don't.....and to keep it secret for many years is unbelievable! What power!! Hate them for it!!
Because, like what Jack Nicholson said in "A few good men", you can't handle the truth! They are doing their jobs to protect the public from the truth. If you trust your government, then you should trust them to know what is best for you.
who in there right mind would ever trust there Gov.
Some of your countrymen probably voted for them for one. What if what the aliens claim would shake the very foundations of religion and social organizations in our current world, causing mass chaos and social upheaval? Introduction of superior technologies would also cause jealousy and war among nations.
Disclosing alien presence to a world that is not ready would do the world more harm than good. If you have watched Star Trek, there is some wisdom in a system like their Prime Directive.
government is made up of people... So it should be..."Why are people so afraid of the truth? It must give them a
feeling of smug superiority to know something other people don't.....and to keep
it secret for many years is unbelievable! What power!! Hate people for
it!!
Define truth.
good ol' pop-corn documentary!fascinating entertainment,if you will.
enjoy
with feet-up (anti-gravity-flying-position),aforementioned popcorn in
lap(space-pickles) & an open minded smirk (no galactic void blank
stare with gawking dropped jaw of disbelief!) on a rainy/snowy sunday!
-one space cadet-