MAN RECALLS BIZARRE MARALINGA MYSTERY
By William Reschke
(Investigator #6, 1989 May
Reprinted courtesy of the Sunday Mail — 1987, September 27)
Eerie sightings of flying saucers have echoed in Adelaide after 30 years.
They have been recalled by a new book and an Adelaide man.
Maralinga nuclear testing site and Woomera Rocket Range were then
attracting the eyes of the world and, some said, space aliens.
In October, 1957, British airmen at Maralinga saw an "alien object" over the airfield.
That sighting was amid scores from across Australia and is analysed in
the book, Above Top Secret, by UFO authority, Timothy Good.
Mr Good's story is of alleged cover-up of UFO sightings and evidence of landings on Earth.
But the Maralinga sighting recalled by Good was a year later than that by a Royal Park man.
Harry Woolfall was one of a group who saw a UFO over the bomb test range.
He rang the Sunday Mail to learn more of the RAF sighting when he heard a radio item about the book.
"I was a leading hand truck driver at Airstrip (a Maralinga outpost)," Mr Woolfall said yesterday.
"We were taking boxes of cameras to Rockwell where the scientists were making ready for the explosion.
"That night we were on the way to Watson railway siding to pick up more boxes.
"It was 9.40pm on June 1, 1956. We were working around the clock.
"Then I saw this very bright object, very long and a bit like a rocket,
travelling from west to east, with lights like windows along the side.
"We stopped on the top of sandhills and I got out to see if I could hear anything."
"Well, I couldn't, but the thing appeared to be almost over Watson, about 6km away.
"Nothing fast about the way it travelled.
"It really moved quite slowly actually until it went below our horizon.
"Fellows in the trucks behind us stopped to see it, too.
"'Chips' one of my mates, saw it at Watson and a bulldozer driver farther down the track saw it too.
"We talked about it, but we were flat out and didn't think much more about it at the time.
"I've wondered about it since, a lot.
"Then again, what can you say to people.
"They think you are a nut.
"But today it struck me it could be linked with this latest report."
The aftermath of the 1967 Maralinga sighting is revealed in Above Top Secret and linked with the alleged world power cover up.