Introduction: A total of 167 UFO sightings were reported to UFO Research Queensland from 1960 to 1969. While the beginning of the decade got off to a shaky start, with a total of only four sightings each for 1960 and 1961, they increased in steady but small increments as the decade progressed. This doesn’t mean that UFOs weren’t being seen, but the media wasn’t then what it is now, and it’s more probable that UFORQ as a reporting body was not so well known in those early days of its incorporation. People literally did not know who to report their UFO events to and it’s likely now that the majority of those reports are lost forever.

1966, however, represented a watershed moment, both for UFOs in Queensland, and for UFORQ. A total of 67 reports were received that year, the majority from Tully, North Queensland. The 1960s meant that humanity had just entered the space race. Rockets were flying all over the place, satellites were being launched into orbit. Commercial airliners were increasingly filling the skies. The army, navy and air force were experimenting secretly with all sorts of aerial devices. How would or could any civilian observer hope to make any sense out of what was going on in the sky?

No surprise, then, that the 1960s produced a range of the most interesting UFO sightings seen in Queensland. Green lights, blue lights, red lights yellow… spherical craft, triangular craft, top-shaped craft, bullet-shaped craft, bucket-shaped craft and more. Sometimes these craft were coming in to take a closer look at planet Earth, landing on the ground and giving unsuspecting humans the fright of their life.

Following are an example of the reports received by UFORQ.

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1960 – 1969

Crows Nest, January 25 1960
A rectangular object about 12 feet long, with six very bright lights along its side and making a sound like ‘pine splinters burning’ was observed by two witnesses.
“My son and I were returning from Crows Nest about 5 o’clock at night. We were in sight of my house when we saw this thing flying in the sky just a short distance away and about 100 feet in the air. We stopped the truck, got out, and watched the machine for quite 15 minutes and could still see it in the distance as we drove home. It had an orange glow around it and the lights were quite bright.”

Townsville, March 16 1960
I was sitting on my veranda looking out over Cleveland Bay when I noticed a cigar-shaped object pass from west to east over the Bay and directly towards Magnetic Island. The nose of the object was of a very brilliant yellow, while the rest of the body was bright orange. The nose appeared to be the size of a golf ball when held at arm’s length. The speed was approximately the same as a meteor or Sabre jet flying at 10,000 feet, but there was no noise. The object was sighted at 10.54pm and lasted for 8-9 seconds. The object passed beneath the moon and disappeared over Cape Cleveland behind a small group of clouds.

Capalaba, December 30 1960
A bullet-shaped object was observed travelling from west to east from Capalaba. A number of reports of this object were forwarded to the Courier Mail and appeared in the January 1 1961 edition, where it was described by one witness from Ipswich as ‘funnel-shaped with an aluminium head’ and emitting smoke as it dove towards earth. A report from the Brisbane Valley described it as a ‘big red ball with a flaming tail’ heading towards Brisbane; a report from Burpengary described it as a rocket that looked in part like a ‘pale green ball with a red tail.’ A Laidley witness said it was a rocket with a long silver tail, and a Yamba witness described it as a rocket that changed from orange-red to white and left a long blue smoke trail.

Ipswich, May 25 1961
Mr Allan first sighted the object and called Mr Reeve, then myself. He said at first it appeared 14 inches long by 3-4 across and the ends were rounded and sides parallel. He likened it to an elongated plastic balloon. No sound was audible. “We had seen a Canberra jet prior to the sighting and on several occasions later in the afternoon. I watched a Canberra jet in the afternoon climb into the sky, in the same general direction of the UFO sighting.”

Brisbane, January 28 1962
At an estimated 9:24pm I first noticed what appeared to be an echelon of birds about 35 degrees above the horizon. Boomerang-shaped, it appeared to be twinkling with the reflected lights of the city. The lights were the colour of stars. I commented on it, so that Bill and Brian had a good glimpse before it disappeared behind a large bank of clouds. We could still see the lights faintly after it passed the clouds. Birds could not have flown so fast.

Surfers Paradise, January 29 1962
Walking along the beach-front at Surfers Paradise main beach at about 12.30am we were suddenly attracted by a bright ball of light which seemed to originate several miles out to sea. On seeing it John thought it must have been a ship on fire but it was too high on the horizon. After about a minute, and further proof it could not be a vessel of any kind, it began to rise and come towards us. The colour can best be described as a bright golden flame colour and it was very bright, giving the impression of a tremendous energy release. After hovering for a minute or so, the object then came towards us again at a very low altitude and its shape became clearly distinguishable outlined against the whiteness of the clouds, which it illuminated to a considerable degree.

We were unable to make out any markings, such as port holes. The object hovered for about a minute at this close range. It was about the size of the largest type of meat-plate and I would guess it was only a couple of miles away at most. The object then rose slightly and receded until it was hidden by cloud. We remained watching and it again reappeared, but this time it was only the size of a small tea-cup saucer. After hovering for a short time it shot upwards and disappeared in a second.

Taringa, May 1 1962
A silvery-white elongated and ‘woolly’-looking object was observed in the west at 5:15pm. Five or six smaller objects were also observed. The smaller pieces merged with the larger object before it disappeared.

Thursday Island, June 15 1962
At 9:10pm a ‘green-glowing’ rocket-shaped object was observed travelling east to west at about 80 miles per hour at a height of 1500 feet. Two ‘black holes’ were seen in the middle of the object. The object was travelling at an angle and abruptly disappeared – ie, the light did not fade away, but instead ‘went out.’

Forest Springs, January 5 1963
Mr H started ploughing about midnight on Saturday (to avoid the heat) and about 1:30am noticed a bright light some miles away below the line of a wooded ridge in the distance. The light was very bright and appeared ‘artificial’ and seemed to
have an orange glow behind it. Later, Mr H noticed the light had moved above the horizon formed by the ridge and had travelled towards the south. Later it moved back almost due east, but kept its higher altitude just above the ridge. Mr H, now convinced that this light came from a flying saucer and impressed by its seeming nearness, tried signalling by switching his tractor light on and off, but received no
answering signal.

Around 3:00pm Mr H woke his wife to look at the object. Later they saw a smaller light of much the same brilliance appear near the larger light. The smaller light took a downward direction southward and following the same course of the larger light, finally disappearing below the horizon. The large light then began to climb in the sky, heading west. Mrs H, who hardly took her eye off the object for three hours, reported that after the brightest star had paled in the morning light, the object was still very bright and easily seen. Eventually, in full daylight, the object appeared like a silvery ball or disc reflecting the sun. at 10:00am it was directly overhead, changing to a white colour as it approached the west. The object disappeared from sight behind heavy clouds in the west about 4:00pm. Mr H and his wife thought the object was a mother ship discharging a small saucer.

Brisbane, February 21 1963
At 22:00 hours my attention was drawn to what appeared to be an extremely bright star, orange in colour, to the north. This object pulsated violently from completely invisible to the brightness of a dynamo cycle headlight, but without beam. The object remained stationary for 27 minutes then moved off southwest at a speed that of a normal aeroplane. The object appeared to have two centres of luminosity.

New Farm, July 1 1963
A sharp white object as bright as a fluorescent light was observed from 3:00 to 5:00am. The object was stationary, but had a tail. It appeared like a disc with a tail, and the tail was observed to lengthen, but the object remained motionless. The object was not quite as big as the moon, and was so bright it appeared to have a halo around it.

Batchelor, NT, August 8 1963
We were proceeding in a westerly direction at 8:17pm when we both became aware of a flickering light to our left, about tree top level. On looking up we observed a blue sphere with a halo effect approximately 12 inches in diameter. The centre appeared as a solid mass about six inches in diameter. Behind the sphere was a brilliant orange tail, similar to a typical comet tail. As the object went overhead it changed to varying shades of orange and gradually decreased in size. The tail disappeared first, the haze then ‘dissolved.’ The object appeared to be about two hundred feet above the ground and moved at a constant speed and was brilliant enough to light the immediate area where we stood. We were standing discussing this phenomenon when approximately one minute later we heard a muffled explosion like a jet plane crashing the sound barrier in the direction in which the object had come.

1963 Mackay, Queensland. As a nine-year-old boy, Warren was fishing near some mangroves when he saw an unusual light approaching, up a creek. It got brighter and closer and he decided to leave the area. However, he has no recollection of making it back to camp where the family was staying. Later he experienced memories and visions of aliens. Over the last 30 years a large amount of information has emerged. Source: UFORA hotline. UFORA92209.

Brisbane, June 10 1964
At the risk of being called a crank, I’m writing of a queer sight I saw at 8:30pm on the night before the red moon was sighted around Australia. I knew the object was not a star and kept watching its swift advance from the north-west. Suddenly it turned south and I saw it was like a top giving off a green (beautiful) light. The object itself appeared green. I thought it would land on the Taylor Range it went down so fast, however it suddenly lifted and sped off at great speed towards the west.

Queensland 1964 onwards A married, 29-year-old, female social welfare student recalled four specific episodes.

• At age three she was in her cot and woke to find the room “filled with people looking like doctors,” 10 to 12 of them. At this stage she shared a room with her mother and believes they examined both herself and her mother. The beings each had a glow of light around them, and for some reason she had a feeling of closeness to two of them. They felt female. This episode was recollected, when she later, for the first time saw a magazine picture of an operation.
• At age 19 she recalls being taken from bed and floated out of the window up to a “spaceship,” which had been hovering over the house.
• At age 20 she was “floated’ out of the back door, on a bright moon-lit night. She can recall the wind in her hair, and being floated back the same way.
• At age 28 a further incident occurred. No known details have been documented. (Source: UFORA90046. Bill Chalker.)

Quilpie, March 5 1965
A silver object with a dark mass in its centre was observed for two minutes moving approximately 150 miles per hour at a height of under 500 feet in a due south direction. After two minutes the object changed to a yellow colour. It was as large as a street light in diameter.

Moonie Oilfield Terminal, March 5 1965
My companions pointed out the approaching light travelling no more than 200 feet above the ground and in an easterly direction. The initial sighting gave the impression of the vehicle drifting silently to a halt from approximately 50 miles per hour. The oil terminal was floodlit, and being the only bright light within a radius of over 70 miles, I received the impression that this attracted the vehicle. After a period of 18 seconds of stationary observation, the unit, while maintaining low altitude made off in a southerly direction at tremendous speed. With increase of distance the lights became smaller, became one, and disappeared over the horizon in four seconds. At no time did the lights waver, change colour or intensity. Nor was there any noise or other physical manifestation. My companion, who ran towards the UFO, did not get sufficiently close to add to my information.

Mackay, May 23 1965
An object shaped like a bucket with legs was observed at 12:05am from the Retreat Hotel on the mail route to Mackay. It was watched for forty minutes by a number of witnesses, including a registered commercial pilot. When it was first observed it was on the ground and had three, or four legs (witness reports vary on the number of legs). The object had a bank of very bright lights and a charcoal-coloured disc/plate on top of about 30 feet of diameter. It was observed stationary for forty minutes whereupon it rose slowly to a height of 300 feet before accelerating rapidly in an easterly direction at a speed impossible to guess. Two of the witnesses claimed to have heard a buzz as it accelerated away.

Cairns, June 2 1965
‘Two-thirds’ of a circle of lights (ie, a semi-circular ‘string’ of lights) was observed around 8:00pm. When first observed the lights were of the brightness of 100-watt globes, but as they faded out they left a bluish glow. The lights were at tree-top level when first sighted, and were estimated to be about 35-40 feet in diameter.

Bogangar NSW, June 6 1965
I noticed a glow behind the clouds and suddenly an object dropped beneath the cloud cover. It lit up the outlines of the clouds as it came through. Then it seemed to level off to the south-west. When it came onto the coast range it rose to clear it and disappeared. It covered a terrific distance in a few seconds, but I couldn’t say how high it was or at what speed it was travelling because it was all over so fast.

Brighton, March 29 1966
An object with red and green flickering lights was observed for 30 minutes from the Weston Garden Hotel. Six observers watched as it dropped at a sharp angle, rose again, then moved slowly in a north-north-west direction.

Tully, March 28 1966
A brilliant neon coloured oval-shaped object was observed for approximately 10 minutes over Mt Tyson. It appeared to ‘slide sideways’ in a skipping motion on the northern side of the mountain, then moved out again. It was estimated to be about 200 feet above the mountain.

Redcliffe, August 12 1966
Two yellowish-white star-sized objects were observed from Woody Point travelling from the northwest to the southeast. They were described as moving in ‘convulsive jerks.’

St George, March 16 1967
A man and his mother-in-law were driving along the St George-Mitchell road at 8:30pm when they saw a greenish-blue light that became brighter and more
silvery as it approached them. The pair turned a corner in the road, and when they came out of a group of trees they saw the object had landed about 100 yards off the road in a clearing. They were too afraid to stop the car, but described the object as being about 12 feet high by 15 feet wide, spherical in shape but with a flat bottom. It had an open ‘door’ in the front of it, and a ramp leading from the door to the ground.

Cleveland, November 11 1967
A top-shaped craft that made a swishing sound was observed from Cleveland. The upper portion of the ‘top’ was black, the bottom silver, and it had a row of six amber lights around it. It was about 50 feet above the observer, and estimated to be about 15 feet wide – wider than his ‘falcon car is long.’

Tarragindi, November 27 1967
At 9.30pm myself, my mother, father, sister, uncle and friend sat in a car in Andrew Avenue Tarragindi. Looking back at the house my eye was caught by a fiery mass beyond the roof of the house in the general direction of Moorooka. As this fiery mass seemed to be coming towards us quite quickly, I became alarmed. The sky around the mass was well lit, outlining cloud for a large area. I called out to the others that a plane was crashing, and as it seemed to be heading in our direction we all moved quickly out of the car and onto the footpath. The object veered off and disappeared out of our view, which was obstructed by a nearby hill.

Corinda, January 17 1968
At 7:20pm a straw-coloured bullet-shaped object was seen from Bethesda Hospital Corinda. It was traveling at a similar speed as a jet liner as it travelled above the treetops before turning and moving south-east.

Zillmere, January 17 1968
A disc-shaped object with a ring of red pulsating lights was observed stationary beneath cloud cover, at an estimated height of 300 feet. The object remained stationary for about 40 seconds before moving off to the southwest at rapid speed. The object was then observed to decrease its speed before descending groundward, where it was lost from sight.

Woodridge, January 1968
It was a very hot day with no clouds. I saw a flying object come towards me from far off in the east. It hovered about 100 feet away, was cream in colour, and was just the same shape as a cup and saucer, without the handle. It was quite large. I could see two windows and electric controls – no people. Then it shot out of sight to the south. There was a humming sound. That night I was awakened by the same humming sound, and it seemed as if something was trying to take my mind away from me. I had to put up a fight to win, and the same thing happened the next night, but not so strong. I know this must sound crazy, but it’s just as I say. Other people must have seen this thing, it was so plain to me.

Silky Oak Creek, February 2 1968
A semi-circular object the size of a large dinner plate was observed for 15 minutes from a residence about five miles out of Tully. It had six white lights around the rim that flickered on and off about every 60-70 seconds. A dark cloud mass formed around the object as it disappeared.

Lutwyche, November 1968
A circular red object with ‘grill-like squares’ inside a ‘revolving capsule’ was observed from Lamington road Lutwyche. It descended like a plane towards the trees and in appearance was ‘exactly like the part ejected from Apollo 7 as shown on TV. Suddenly the flame went out, leaving a trail of smoke.’

Rockhampton 1969, (reported February 2, 2018)
A man reported having an experience in 1969 when he and his brother were children. They were living in a small place near Rockhampton where their father was managing a cattle station. The boys shared a room and one night between 10pm and 11pm the boys went to bed and they lay in their beds, talking as children do, before going to sleep. One of them got up to turn off the light and about five minutes later they began to nod off to sleep. Suddenly a bright light flooded the room which woke them up, so they got up to look out the window to see what it could be. There was a tree about 6 metres from the house lit up by the light, and when they looked up to see the source of the light they could see a shiny object hovering over the tree. It appeared to look egg-shaped on top, with a fried egg shape underneath. The boys immediately became terrified at what they were looking at as this object continued to hang silently over the tree. The light from the UFO was so bright it shone into the forest, located about half a kilometre from the house. The boys watched it for no longer than five seconds before it disappeared, so they got a good look at the UFO. The boys ran into their parent’s bedroom spluttering about what they had seen but their father just cast it off as the boys playing a prank.

However a couple of months later, a cigar shaped object appeared over their father and his stock hands when they were out on a cattle muster. One of the brothers has since died so only one witness remains, and he still feels extremely nervous to this day as a result of his childhood UFO sighting. He said that whatever he saw was not from Earth, there is definitely someone else out there, and ‘they don’t need a passport!’

The witness also reported a third-hand sighting where he had spoken to a couple of men who had a strange sighting while on a cruise ship going to New Caledonia.
They looked out from the ocean liner to see the ocean waves open up, perhaps by a force field, as if to receive something into the ocean.

Baralaba, June 1969
The witness was driving from Biloela to Baralaba when he saw ‘this big bright light in a paddock. I pulled up. It was like an upturned tortoise shell. I could make out what looked like portholes in the side and there was a mast on the top. It made a strange humming sound. I could see coloured flashing lights, and now and then a light would shine on the trees. It was moving along in a jerking motion, and would go close to the ground and then lift up again. ‘Another object seemed to come from behind the trees. I was a bit frightened and drove to a property a few miles down the road. A third one appeared and they followed me all the way.’ The witness woke up the people at the property, then went home and woke his family. They all saw the saucers. The owner of the property studied the objects through binoculars for more than two hours. He said: ‘One seemed the mothership. It had three portholes and gave a consistent yellow light. The other two were changing colours. They were certainly very real.’

Eudlo, March 1969
One morning my daughter heard our dog and a neighbour’s dog both doing a lot of barking. The next day I found footprints in the shed. These measured 8 and 9 inches in length. The 8 inch marks took a step 16 inches length. On looking for further evidence I found something had been in the dam about 80 yards from the house. The grass and reeds were flattened on one side in a clockwise direction. Others were pushed away from the centre on the other side of the dam. The dam was very dirty, as if the mud had been sucked up from the bottom. The area mostly affect suggests a circular object about 17 feet in diameter.

Rockhampton, August 15 1969
We were driving to Rockhampton when my friend asked me if the sun was up, as it was only 6:15am. Looking up I saw a bright red flame with a small dark object at the head of the flame. The tail was like that of a rocket. Photographs were taken with an Instamatic 25 camera, but it is doubtful whether the object will be seen as it was a long way away.

Wacol, Queensland, 1969-1970, reported January 2023 (multiple reports)
A man was aged 10 and staying at the Wacol migrant camp just south-west of Brisbane. He and his brother were pestering his mother to take them to the park, just five minutes away. Eventually she gave in and his parents and the boys walked to the park at 6.oopm. When they arrived they saw three stars in a triangle shape overhead. Then they saw a disc appear about 100 feet above them, which they described as 20 metres in diameter and gun-metal grey, with a dome on top. A blue laser light then came down slowly to the ground which stayed there for a couple of minutes. The witness said a car would have fitted within the beam. All the insects went quiet too. Then the beam withdrew upwards into the UFO and it disappeared. The family walked home around 6.30pm and the witness heard his mother say to his father that she was
surprised it was now after 9.00pm.

In more recent years the witness had just arrived at a friend’s house at Redbank Plains (west of Brisbane) at 8.00pm. He saw a red object moving across the rooftops of nearby houses that was triangular in shape and the size of two cars. The object was only 15 feet away, pulsating a deep red to volcanic red, slowly moving like it was “gliding on ice” at only 2-3 kilometres per hour. It made no sound as he observed it for a full 2 to 3 minutes.

Near Marlborough, Queensland.  December 1969. 3am

At the time I was a medical student, and I was travelling with two of my mates, Paul a cost accountant, and Dave a motor mechanic. We were driving to Mackay for the 1970 Australian Spear Fishing Championships. We had driven from Newcastle and we stopped to have a Chinese meal in Rockhampton in the evening. We were feeling pretty excited about getting up to Mackay and competing – we didn’t drink – we were pretty fit and alert in those days – I was only 18 at the time.

The roads were sealed but very poor quality as you can imagine +55 years ago. We were driving a Ford Cortina towing a 14 foot Quintrex boat full of our diving gear and camping gear plus supplies, with the 35 hp outboard motor. It was pretty heavy and as we were running the small wheels on the trailer something had to give. So as we were going down a big hill about 20 minutes north of Marlborough, then crossing a small bridge down the bottom, the trailer bottomed out and we heard a large Bang! The trailer started to pull the car a bit to the right side and the right hand side trailer tyre started rubbing hard on the mudguard and smoking a bit.

So we went up to the top of the hill and pulled off the road on a flat section and we all got out to see the damage. It was from memory around 3am and we hadn’t seen any cars really since not long after leaving Rockhampton. Well it was pretty much pitch black, except for the stars, but we had torches and we saw that we had broken a spring on the right side of the trailer. Lucky Dave was a motor mechanic so he decided that we had to get all the gear out of the boat, which we did, and get the boat and motor off the trailer, which we did. We had just got the trailer onto its back to start to swap some of the spring leaves from one side to the other when some very strange things happened…

I think where we stopped was in a State Forest. The road was cut through like a slot through the high trees. Anyway, when we were trying to work out how to do the spring swap, these swarms of bright yellow lights started going across the road high above the trees ‘buzzing’ us (sounded like heavy buzzing of bees but pulsing and strong). They were very noisy and were moving, one second slowly, and then they would travel incredibly fast. They then started to come down the road at high speed below the tree level and buzzed us many times. It was a cloudless sky and all the stars were out, a spectacular black Queensland night. The lights seemed to be playing with us and knew we were scared out of our wits. They would come down the road right at us and then at the last fraction of a second go semi vertical and travel out of sight way up above us. The speed was just incredible! They were also changing direction as a group at will. It was a sight to behold, let me tell you.

We just stood there at the back of the car not knowing what to do, just looking at each other. I remember Dave saying, “what the **** are these things?” We had a rifle in the car but we instantly knew that it was clearly of no use against whatever these things were. We were just paralysed, yet terrified not knowing what to do or if they were going to turn from curious / playful to nasty. We decided that the best thing for us to do was to just keep on working on the trailer which we did with our hearts in our mouths. Paul and I were holding torches for Dave to work by and we were keeping a lookout as these things kept buzzing us. We all agreed that we would stop looking at them and maybe they would desist and give up on us and we would be OK. After about 30 minutes or so they seemed to tire of the game and drift off. They came back a few times but not with the same determined purpose and at a greater distance away from us. Being young lads and getting up our courage again we started to signal to the lights with our torches and the mood became one of comic relief. They buzzed a few more times full on and then disappeared.

We fixed the trailer with great relief that Dave could actually do the spring leaf swap, then we rolled the trailer back over and started to load the boat and some of the lighter gear into the boat.  We put the rest in the car and on the roof racks, with just enough room for us all to get inside. When we were just about finished and still joking among ourselves who was s****ing themselves the most, as young blokes are oft to do when they get a collective big fright, when a car came from the south. It was the first one we had seen for hours and it quietly pulled up behind our boat trailer.

We walked up to the driver’s window glad to see another human being after what we had just been through, and said ‘Hello’ to the bloke driving the EH Holden. He was in his 60’s with greyish hair. The chap was clean cut but before we had a chance to say anything at all he said to us: ‘Boys I wouldn’t worry about those lights, just forget about them. We see them all the time out near Broken Hill, they go up and down all night like a highway.’ This gob smacked us.

So we said, ‘so you saw the lights too?’ and then he said, ‘yes I did and the Aboriginal people see them all the time out here, but don’t worry about the lights. You are all best never to mention this to anyone, agreed?’ For all of us we felt the same thing, (we compared notes later). His eyes were very focused right through you, he was a ‘heavy dude’. We agreed and sincerely assured him that we would never say anything to anyone ever and he seemed to be satisfied with our answers, said goodbye and drove off down the road.

Funny thing I can also remember that his car was very quiet and it was out of sight very quickly. Now we were REALLY s******g ourselves. We finished loading all the stuff in super fast and drove off out of there without looking back, praying that the trailer would hold out and that we wouldn’t see that creepy guy or the lights ahead. We got into Mackay the next morning so incredibly relieved. We were all certain that we had been in real danger for our lives and that clearly we had experienced something very strange indeed. So we didn’t speak of it ever again among ourselves, but I have discussed the incident in passing, particularly when someone says, ‘Do you believe in UFO’s?’ I usually say that I had an experience once that has convinced me that something exists other than us and that everything cannot be explained around us. Who that guy was – I have no idea – but he had a very cool, but threatening presence.

It really makes me feel very creepy even when I write this. He was clearly not what he seemed to be. I can’t speculate any more about him, but clearly he had to have had some connection with the swarms of lights.