Case Directory
  Category 1, Distant Encounters 
 
  Preliminary Rating: 5  

                                   
     

A Hynek Classification of Distant Encounter is usually an incident involving an object more than 500 feet from the witness. At night it is classified as a "nocturnal light" (NL) and during the day as a "daylight disc" (DD). The size of the object or the viewing conditions may render the object in greater detail but yet not qualify the sighting as a Close Encounter which is an object within 500'. 

Mushroom Flying Over Yarra Valley
Jan. 1, 1954
East Doncaster, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Keith Basterfield:
January 1, 1954; Melbourne, Australia
10:15 hours (EST) Captain Douglas Barker, a pilot with Australian National Airways, reported that he was at his home in East Doncaster, Melbourne, Victoria. He reported a 'metallic, mushroom-shaped object' flying over the Yarra Valley towards Templestowe. He reportedly stated it was travelling at an estimated 700 miles per hour at an estimated height of 2000 feet. It's apparent size was given as four times that of a DC4 aircraft. It was oscillating rapidly in and out of thick cloud. Total duration of the sighting is given as 12 seconds. (Sources: (1) Barrier Miner (Broken Hill) Saturday Jan 2 1954 p.1. (2) The Argus (Melbourne) Saturday Jan 2 1954. (3) The Courier-Mail (Brisbane) Monday Jan 4 1954 p.5., UFOE, V)

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