Australia · 03 April 1966

Tullamarine, 1966

Documented

Three days before Westall, a civil aviation radar operator tracked an unidentified plot at 60 knots across Melbourne, and the file blamed a Laverton balloon - the same answer authorities would give the schoolchildren that week.

Where
Tullamarine, Melbourne, Victoria (radar, 54.5-64 nm)
When
03 April 1966
Who reported it
1 named official observer at a Department of Civil Aviation facility
Entities described
None reported
Handled as
INVESTIGATED / EXPLAINED
Evidence class
GOV-1

The record

An official file preserves that a report was made and examined. It does not, by itself, establish what was seen.

The document is attached to this entry.

What is not settled

The file's own conclusion is prosaic: a meteorological balloon with radar reflector released from RAAF Base Laverton, entirely consistent with a slow 60-knot northeast track. Its interest is contextual, not anomalous.

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