A SHORT HISTORY OF TUFOIC

The Tasmania UFO Investigation Centre, or TUFOIC for short was founded in October 1965. The aim of the Centre was to investigate Tasmanian sightings and pass on associated UFO information to members.
A number of well attended Public meetings were held in the first years including one with Prof. J. McDonald, whilst Prof. J. Allen Hynek, one time astronomical consultant to the USAF, visited the Centre in the early 70s. Sighting investigation and recording were somewhat lax in the early years; however, from the late '60s this shortcoming was eliminated.
TUFOIC aims to investigate Tasmanian sightings in a sensible and commonsense manner, drawing no conclusions from its investigation other than the fact that an unexplained phenomena exists. TUFOIC exchanges information with Australian and Overseas organisations engaged in similar research.
The Tasmanian UFO Investigation Centre is operated by an executive who meet when required to handle business and report to members at meetings which are held quarterly. Typically the Centre now receives calls on its listed telephone number, the sighting is given an initial evaluation, and if the report warrants further attention, an investigation is commenced. The Centre will interview witnesses, check sighting localities, follow up for aircraft, planets, weather etc: in an effort to uncover any possible explanations.
TUFOIC have developed their own Tasmanian data base of Tasmanian sightings, into which all unidentified cases have been entered, dates, types, colours, locations etc: being on the files. The Centre has published a number of Special publications such as Maatsuyker Island Sightings, North East Flap 1974, Cressy 1960, a Landings Catalogue, a report on mystery events at Melodale, plus print outs available from TASCAT. Annual Reports (1969-1999) and newsletters are published by the Centre. The Ufologist Magazine which contains Tasmanian sighting information is now distributed to members. The Centre also has a Website on the Internet.

SIGHTINGS HISTORY

The Centre has had many varied calls over the years, cigar objects, discs, car paces, landings, figures, even dark shapes and poltergeist phenomena. The reports have been state-wide or localised with cases in the TASCAT database from 1948 up until the present.
The first Tasmanian case to make the headlines was the sighting by the Rev Lionel Browning on October 4th 1960. Together with his wife he viewed a cigar-like object at low level. It was caught in the evening sun as 5 or 6 smaller discs came down out of the clouds to take up position around the cigar. The group then disappeared into cloud cover. Other sightings occurred in the Northern Midlands including one from a high flying USAF jet. The pilots reported a "fried egg" type object that passed beneath their aircraft.
Maatsuyker Island, on the state's wild south-west coast, featured in the next series of sightings in 1965-66. The light-house keepers and their families reported a number of mysterious lights that kept appearing near the island over a period of months. Details of the cases were reported to the Department of Transport.
The years 1969 and 1971 gave the first signs of the flap ahead. In 1969 a number of low level cases occurred including a Glenorchy man who claimed a UFO left traces on his back lawn. Two years later, similar cases occurred during May. Noises and landing marks were reported from the West Coast at Lynchford, with a similar event at Norwood.
A dome object was seen at close quarters at Brighton, a car pacing from Cethana, then two landings near Wilmot completed a busy period. However, the year ended with more activity near New Norfolk.
A Hobart Mercury journalist, responding to a call from Lachlan on December 7th, was in time to view the reported UFO. A number of witnesses reported the sighting from different locations.
The ensuing years saw a build up in sightings before reports went off the scale in 1974. The year commenced with a number of Close Encounter cases mainly from the West and North West. However, May 25th ushered in a yellow crescent-shaped object that haunted the far North-East area around Gladstone until October. Close Encounter sightings, auto stops, car pacing's, and objects at low levels occurred over the winter months. Events reached a climax in September with an auto stop case just north of St Helens. The witness's car was halted by a mass of white light, the sighting included a noise, electric shock, and a choking smell. Two nights later the yellow crescent followed a motorist on the same road. The same week in an isolated area in the North-East a woman who parked her car whilst waiting for a friend was surprised by a brilliant white dome object that took up a position over the road 30m away. She bogged her car in an effort to get away as the UFO climbed away into the daylight sky. Another auto stop occurred the next month not far away on the Sideling, but the North East Flap was by then in its final stage.
Sightings showed no signs of letting up in the following year (1975) as the scene shifted to Tasmania's Lake Country. Two witnesses reported a domed UFO that shone a beam onto Lake Sorell and affected their car radio. Other sightings followed in the area before Maydena became the centre of attraction in early 1976. A series of nocturnal lights were reported over the town on about 10 occasions.
By 1977 it was apparent that the flap was over as sightings decreased, although a number of erratic lights in the Hobart area during April and May were of interest. Close encounter reports continued but less frequently, with car paces and effects on motor vehicles occurring at Ross, Sandfly, Grasstree Hill, Interlaken, and Risdon Vale. However, the following year (1978) was dominated by the Valentich disappearance over Bass Strait and its associated sightings.
February 1979 brought a strange case from the Derwent Valley when a bright light mass seemingly affected a motor vehicle's engine and electronics. To complicate the report the witness suffered a memory loss. Another motor vehicle interference case of that year came from the West Coast when a witness's car lost power whilst being followed by a green light, both the car's and the witness's clocks were slowed.
The start of the new decade ushered in the new order of long breaks between the occasional burst of reports. George Town in 1982 brought a run of sightings of an erratic red light which on some occasions appeared to emit a noise. The next two years had isolated cases, a witness had his car stop when a dark elongated object appeared in a roadside paddock, the nearby fence wire giving off sparks. In a repeat of the 1979 West Coast report a witness on the Pieman Road claimed to lose control of his vehicle whilst a round blue object with a beam appeared over his car. A missing time case on the Midland Highway in 1984 was a forerunner of this type of report.
A Derwent Valley property in the summer of 1986 had its own resident UFO that was seen in the area for a number of months. Then late 1987 through 1988 brought a renewed number of close encounters, a landed UFO on the North-West Coast, followed by a case near Launceston which involved an auto stop and a landed UFO. Other reports occurred in the north of the state including a motorist who was chased along a country road, and a report near Hobart of a witness who had two tracer-type lights fired at him from two large lights hovering near his shack. A light aircraft encounter with a flashing red light over the Tamar Valley in early 1989 brought the decade and the close encounters to a close.
Since 1990 there have long breaks between sightings with the majority being lights in the sky events. An interesting photograph was taken at Scamander late in 1991 but little occurred until 1996. A surge of sightings occurred from the Tamar Valley region. A large number of daylight sightings were reported, many of them involving a bright thin cigar seen against blue skies. It had a puzzling manner of disappearing into thin air. The Granton area north of Hobart featured in 1998 with a run sightings of a very localised nature, followed in early 2005 with a spate of sightings from the Lower Midlands, one being a Close Encounter near Melton Mowbray.

Compiled 2008...Keith Roberts.


To be Continued