Myself and a friend were fishing on the Darwin wharf for barramundi. I worked at the time for Burns Philp, who owned the wharf, and one of our ships was in, and some of its crew were also fishing from the wharf. Someone said, ‘Jesus, what’s that?’ We looked to the bow, and then up – directly above us and about the size of a full moon and surrounded by light at the edges but with a dark centre, was this thing. We simply watched it for a few minutes, and then the lights changed colour and it slowly got bigger and bigger. It got as big as a room, and then as big as a house, when someone said ‘it’s coming down on top of us!’

My friend and I galvanised into action and raced to our car parked beside the wharf building. It wouldn’t start. The thing made no sound whatever as it stopped, suspended in air. It was round and huge. Then it slid away, like on a breeze, over to the middle of the harbour and then stopped. For some minutes it sort of tilted towards us and we could see the top storeys – ‘we’ meaning us and several guys on the ship.

There were three storeys [on the object], and the two upper ones had windows right around. They were lighted, and after several minutes something could be seen moving inside by the changing density of the light, just exactly like seeing people in a lighted house move past the windows. No-one said ‘aliens’ or ‘UFOs’ or anything. I wouldn’t think anyone knew the words back then.

This thing remained motionless for 10 minutes or so, and then it tilted another way as if showing off. One of the boys on the ship said ‘get the camera,’ and I imagine they did. The thing then straightened up and lights came on the under-edge of it, and it moved to a neck of land across the harbour. It didn’t rise perceptibly because it barely diminished in size. At this point I got the car started and raced up the wharf and into town. People were out everywhere staring at the UFO.

At 3.00am the next morning, or near enough, I was told the object was watched as it moved over the RAAF base at Longshore. All told it was seen in Darwin skies for 1 hour and 20 minutes before it took off in the direction of the Arafura Sea. They had photos for the paper as well, but it was said there was no proof. The RAAF had scrambled some Sabre jets to for a look – at that point in time our entire Northern Defense consisted of 5 Sabre jets. The entire town was agog, and the next day articles in the paper confirmed my sightings and with the promise of ‘more tomorrow.’ Tomorrow never came.

From the records of UFO Research Queensland