TO CELEBRATE the new season of X Files, we researched the reported UFO sightings in Central Queensland. 

This information was obtained from the UFO Research Queensland Incorporated database. 

UFO Research Queensland is a Brisbane based voluntary, non-profit association established in 1956 to receive, research and record sightings. 

A Brisbane based researcher is documenting the history of sightings of UFOs in Queensland and would like to hear from anyone who may have had a personal UFO sighting, past or current, or know of such reports from their local area. 

1. Rockhampton - August 14, 1952 at 12.05pm. 

Note on file from W Scott, Chief test Pilot, GAF.  "Flight Townsville-Amberley at height of 35000-36000 feet, in Vampire, near Rockhampton when looking east toward coast saw large circular light at a lower height which could not be estimated due to bad ground haze, colour of ordinary incandescent light globe.  After observing for approximately 1 minute a number of small lights (6-10) appear to come from main light.  The smaller lights appear to surround big light for about 2 min. then disappeared.  After a further 2 min. the big light also disappeared."

2. Rockhampton/Gladstone - August 1-2, 1971 at 11.35pm

A Finnish couple, Ben and Helen K. left Gladstone at about 11.35 p.m. and upon arrival in Rockhampton found that only forty minutes had passed on a trip which would normally have taken much longer.  In addition to the rapid trip, they could not recall passing through intervening towns, although they did recall seeing an unusual green light at one stage.  Their 1971 Valiant sedan was reportedly covered with a thin film of odourless oil, and unusual marks were noted on the car's bonnet.  Attempts at hypnotising the couple were unsuccessful.

3. Zilzie, May 3, 2006 at 9.25- 10.25pm

Our dogs were barking on the back veranda, so I went out to quieten them down. Looked up at the night sky and saw three lights that were not normal. They were star-sized [evening star] and the top light was about size of the end of a biro, with the two underneath about half the size. The lights stayed steady, When viewed through binoculars the three lights were blue with clearly outlined red around the outside, similar to the top of a police car [only they don't fly]. A fourth identical light was seen about a kilometre away. I called my neighbours and they came over to the backyard, By this time I could only see two of these objects, when the neighbours spotted two more. I tried to ring Rockhampton airport, 40 kilometres from where I live, but no go. I then rang the Bureau of Meteorology, but only reached someone in Brisbane. It was a clear night and the event occurred over the mouth of a large creek system and the small town of Keppel Sands.

4. Rockhampton - Occurred in 1970s

I don't think this is a UFO but is very strange. About 30 years ago in Rockhampton, out on the edge of town, I was driving to collect a family member and had to stop on the crest of a hill to figure out what I was seeing. It was just coming on dusk but from this position I could see for miles over the river and treetops towards Gracemere. It appeared there was a long straight split in the sky about five miles away with a phosphorus ooze coming from it. The length of this "split" had to be considerable for me to see it so clearly. I walked forward of the car and back to see this from different angles. I even climbed up some of the hillside on the other side of the road. The thing that convinced me of the distance was that part of this ooze was blocked by the shape of the end of the Range on the other side of the city. It was too high to be power lines, and if this had looked like it was oozing upward I would have thought it some phosphorus gas from lagoons out that way. I wanted to wait for someone else to come along the road, but had to be on time. Has anyone else reported anything like this? I really do hope so.

5. Bajool - April 10, 2008 at 5.15am

I would like to report a UFO sighting which my husband and I experienced at approximately 5.15am on Thursday 10th April, 2008. This was along the Bruce highway about two kilometres south of Bajool which is just south of Rockhampton, Queensland. We were heading south in our car (a late model Nissan Pulsar).

It began when we saw two lights in the sky ahead of us. As the lights got closer they passed over us and we noticed that there were three lights in a triangular shape, with one light in front and two behind. From our perspective the overall width of the object was tens of times wider than our car. We could not guess how far up the lights were from the ground, but we feel it was a substantial height and that the object or objects must have been quite enormous. Approximately one minute elapsed from when we first saw the lights until they had gone. The lights seemed silent and made no noise that we could hear over the car's engine. The lights could have been three separate objects or one object with three lights on it. We couldn't tell for sure but would guess that it was one large object. The lights then must have gone straight up into the air, as they got smaller and went out of sight.

6. Yeppoon, reported 2001, happened 1997

An object like the moon was seen descending at an angle of 45 degrees. It was perfectly round like a five cent piece with no trail or tail. It was observed for 3 seconds. The witness was looking north north-east and the object was about 10kms away.

7. Marlborough - 1992/93 

A woman and her family lived and worked on a cattle station and had gone to Rockhampton to shop. They were returning at night and saw a light below them while driving over a range. The light then passed over them and seemed the size of a dinner plate. As they approached home, a man walked out onto the track in front of them, and next moment the light was there. She next remembers arriving at their bungalow very tired, and decided to leave the groceries in their vehicle and go straight to bed. Her partner refused to talk about the incident. She has had encounters since.

8. Mt Morgan - June 6, 2003 at 7pm

A man was looking east and saw bright light flash across his view moving south to north. It was incredibly bright compared to the stars, had no tail, and made no sound. It was too fast to be an aircraft and appeared to come down as it moved, changing its angle of elevation from about 30 degrees to 25 degrees as it crossed about 20 degrees of sky. Its glow remained constant and it was lost behind a hill.

9. Tieri - 1982-83

In about 1982 or '83 my family moved to a new mining town called Tieri which is about one hour north-east of Emerald. At the time there was no street lighting so the night sky was very clear. At about 7.00 or 8.00 in the evening I was riding my bike down the street not far from my home. For some reason I looked up at the sky and saw what I thought was a very bright satellite moving across the sky. It moved at a steady almost satellite-like speed, but then began doing perfect and seemingly random 90 degree turns in the sky. It did this for about 10-15 seconds and then shot off and disappeared.

10. Thangool - July 2003

A woman reported that a couple of years previously she went to bed and woke up before dawn to see a being standing at the end of her bed. It had a wide head going to a narrow chin and round eyes that were completely white. It was dressed in tight fitting outfit. She felt this was an ET and it was evil. The experience 'creeped' her out and she had not had any other experiences since.

11. Rockhampton - 1990

A man was driving on the highway about 30 minutes south of Rockhampton. The incident occurred in the evening when he drove up a hill to then look down into a valley. This is where he saw what he first thought was a plane about to crash but which turned out to be a cigar-shaped object about "the size of the body of the largest plane and about two storeys high" which came to hover just below tree height. He pulled his car off the road and got out to get a better look at what he was seeing.

The object travelled about 20kms/hr and silently glided over him only 15 to 20 metres above without "making a whisper". It was very brightly lit and seemed to be shiny [not metallic] but like colour bonded steel in a "bright orange colour". It had 10 windows around it "about 3/4 the size of an average bedroom window" which were all square at the bottom but coming to a peak at the top like "windows of a church".

The front "windscreen" of the object had "full panel windows" [meaning from floor to ceiling] that were completely black which went right around the front and slightly around to the objects sides. The windows were so black the witness could not see anything inside and he "got the impression they were one way windows". The object looked very solid and had "no seams" which made it look like it was "pre-finished". It also appeared "very solid" to the witness and "well built, not like anything we have here".

The witness said he got the impression the object was made for underwater travel as well as through the air. I quizzed him why he thought this but all he would say was "that was the impression I got". He estimated the object to be as bright as 1000 watts and he said he "got a really good look at it since it was so close". He also saw what seemed to be square landing pods underneath it that had "the roughness of acorns" on them "possibly for good traction". He watched the object for 3 minutes in total "enough time to get a really good look at it".

While he was parked and looking at the object another car came over the hill and ran off the side of the road but did not stop. It was obvious to the witness that the driver of the other car saw the object too.

12. Rubyvale Rd, Clermont - April 18, 2007 at 10.40pm

I witnessed a very bright, to sharp white light, seemed sharper than the white background of this email page, and not to be likened to any Automotive 12- or 24-volt lights, or lights from a residence or camplight. It seemed as though it may have landed, due to the shadows of what seemed like lights behind tree branches, and the way the light seemed to be going in a upward elevation. The light was very, very bright.

13. Rockhampton - April 19,  2001 at 7am

A woman observed and obtained video footage of a black object well out to sea and travelling straight. It was white on top and red underneath. The video was posted to us and examined. It showed a pencil shaped object and a contrail about 10 times longer than the object. It is understood that military exercises were being conducted in that area around that time, and it is likely that this was an unusual but conventional aircraft.

14. Rockhampton - October 20, 2005 at 9.30pm

We were in the car park of the Rockhampton Airport around 9:30pm. We had not long landed from a flight from Brisbane, and were heading to our car when I noticed a light in the sky moving quite strangely, It was in the northish area and it was a quite far away. It was coming towards us, but at intervals it would speed-up then stop, then go again then stop, It must have done this ten times or more before it was nearly right over head. The light was white and strobe-like, dull to very bright in no apparent order, It also seemed to do small circles in the sky. Myself and a friend could not explain what we were looking at, as neither of us have seen anything like this before. It did not act like any plane or helicopter I've ever seen before.

15. Rockhampton - July 20-21 1999 at 9.10pm

An orange light was observed in the east-south-east sky by 3 witnesses. They made no noise as they watched for 5 minutes as it went overhead. Then they saw another one moving smoothly before hovering in one spot. The lights were brighter than a star and 3 to 4 times bigger than a star.

16. Rockhampton - 1973

Have you any reports of UFO activity over Rockhampton around 1973? I was in the army at the time on the original Kangaroo 1 exercise. We saw some really strange sightings over three nights. At the time I think it was the biggest peace-time international military exercise since WW2. We heard a lot of radio traffic from Rocky airport relating to the activity of these strange craft, which our unit could not explain - they were not supposed to be there at the time. The military have probably hidden any evidence, but you may be able to track down a former air traffic controller of the time. [If anybody has heard or knows anything more about these events please contact us - PP]

17. Rockhampton - 1972/73

A man was driving at dusk when he got a bit tired and pulled over to have a cigarette. He saw a white light in the Northern sky which travelled across his line of vision from left to right. It then did a complete 90 degree turn to the east and disappeared out of sight behind trees. The whole event happened very fast and only too about 4 seconds.

18. Emerald - March 15, 2002 at 8pm

Six witnesses observed an orange light steadily approaching them and making no sound. 3 flares shot out and it stopped while one flare came down. Then it moved southwest and faded. It was first seen in the southeast at an elevation of 45 to 50 degrees. The witness also reported seeing a UFO over a big dam in the area [Fairburn Dam] about 10 years ago. He observed it for 10 minutes. When he was a kid [30 to 35 years ago] he saw a saucer nest on a golf course which was about 20 feet in diameter. There was a circular depression in the reeds and the top of the grass was flattened.

One of the other witnesses called in with her version of events. She stated that an orange light was travelling west going slowly in the direction of Fairburn Dam. It was going across the sky, lower than a satellite, higher than a plane, and round in shape. It was travelling across the sky getting lower. She was looking south to begin and looking SW when she lost sight of the object. She estimated it was about 60 degrees above the horizon and 3 times bigger than a star. She also observed there were a lot of shooting stars that night.

19. Clermont - June 5, 2010 at 6am

At about 6.00am, Saturday morning 5th day of June 2010, I saw a weird light in the eastern sky. It was travelling very slowly, and looked to be about 200 meters above the trees. This was on a mine site in central Queensland. There were no flashing lights as on planes or choppers. It had several lights on it, the main light was on the front and seemed to be pointing downwards. The object was slightly covered by fog or cloud, but the morning was crystal clear with no cloud or fog. The object slowly turned away from me and faded and totally disappeared from sight. Several people saw the same light -- maybe some one else saw this also.

[Editor's note: As this sighting took place at the same time a mysterious spiral light was observed over the Australian east coast, the witness was asked if televised film footage of the spiral light matched the object he saw over Central Queensland. His response follows:]

I saw the spiral light on TV but it looked different -- the one I saw looked more like a machine of sorts. It would only have been a kilometre away from us. It seemed so slow, but I probably only watched it for a minute or so before it veered away and disappeared. The one on TV looked a long way away. Also some friends in north Queensland on a remote cattle property saw something similar on the Saturday morning, low to the trees, about 6.45am.

20. Blackwater - July 22-23, 2006 at 7.25pm

I would like to draw your attention to a possible UFO sighting at Blackwater Queensland on the nights of July 22nd and July 23rd.

At about 7:25pm on the 22nd of July I returned home from work and noticed what I first thought was the Southern Cross star formation which was very bright. I looked again and noticed there where only three stars. Thinking that I had made a mistake I searched for the Southern Cross and found it in the correct place, then rechecked the position of the three other objects -- they had moved. I called out to my wife and she saw them as well. The objects appeared to be very large bright stars, orange-red in colour, to the right side of the Southern Cross and moving slowly west. They were visible for about five minutes.

Sunday 23rd July: On returning home tonight my wife and our next door neighbour witnessed another sighting at about 6:25pm. except there were twelve objects moving east to west and lower in the sky, the same colour and brightness, except this time one of the objects broke away and moved in a southerly direction. I would like to know if there is any natural or other explanation for what we witnessed.

21. Blackwater - August/September 2006

In August or September 2006 my sister was living in Blackwater about 45 minutes east of Emerald. She had just finished afternoon shift at one of the local mines and was driving home. She said she saw 20 orange/gold coloured flying objects in the sky. They weren't flashing like normal aircraft but maintained their colour. There was a car in front of her who she thinks must have seen them too as they began to swerve a little, but she doesn't know who they are. She called my mum who lives in Blackwater to see if she had heard or seen helicopters fly overhead as she thought that's what they might be. My mum heard and saw nothing. I now live in Sydney but always remember the strange things that happened in Central Queensland. I don't know what UFOs are but I know I saw one. And I'm pretty sure my sister saw 20 of them.