Tanami Desert, Northern Territory. August 1970. 3pm

A geophysicist and two geologists were involved in mineral exploration and mapping, employed by a mining company in Tennant Creek, were working in the Tanami Desert. At the time of the sighting they were on a property called Mongrel Downs Station close to the western Australian border. They stopped their two land rovers at a location known as the Three Officers Hill, which are several hundred feet high in an otherwise flat landscape for virtually hundreds of miles.

Here they saw two UFOs, same design size with pulsing flame or yellowish lights, flashing from the underneath “exhaust” at about a second between each flash. The distance was about only 300 yards from their position at about eye level with an above ground level altitude of only several hundred feet. It appeared as if they were on a “Sunday afternoon cruise” with the UFOs traveling at slow speed, maybe 50 miles per hour, and remained visible until they disappeared across the horizon, taking a good minute or two to pass the witnesses position and disappear.

Design of UFOs: The UFOs were circular with a cabin on top with portholes with pulsing flame/light flashing at about 1 second intervals. The size according to one of the witnesses was about thirty feet in diameter. The colour was silver the machines were silent and with no exhaust smoke, but the underneath exhaust flashed about each second. From their position looking north the UFOs were traveling west to east at low speed and low altitude, so they had a remarkable view of the objects.

It was a typical Northern Territory winters day, with the sun just to the back of them and not a cloud in the sky. Visibility was about 20 miles. The UFOs were traveling at a slow speed, travelling one behind the other, and maintained that slow speed and low altitude maybe for 500 yards above ground level despite the time it took to pass over the witnesses position. The motion of the UFO traveling ahead appeared to be vibrating at the front the other following close behind in smooth motion, perhaps in the slip stream.

Several days later the three witnesses returned from their bush location and called into Mongrel Downs Station and informed the owners of these events.

The owner of Mongrel Downs Station informed them that several months earlier strange lights were observed late in the evening, coming from the area they had been in.

RAAF: The witnesses informed the Department of Civil Aviation in Darwin of the happenings, and called on R.A.A.F Officers for details. They were subsequently and officially informed that, “surveyors were working in the area”, as an explanation of what they saw and which the witnesses considered was “a load of bull”. The scientists explained that in those days surveyors could not work at night and any human species wondering around that ultra remote area would be known, and permission to be on the property would be sought from the owner.