Strange Happenings Over The Skies
of Tasmania and Bass Strait

On October 21, 1978, one of the most bizarre events occurred in modern mysteries.  Twenty year old trainee pilot, Frederick Valentich, set out from Moorabbin Airport, Victoria,  to fly to King Island in Bass Strait which separates the mainland of Australia from the island State of Tasmania. HE NEVER MADE IT.  He simply disappeared and has never been seen nor heard of since.  There was no wreckage, body, oil spill or debris from an assumed crash.  What happened to Frederick Valentich on that fateful day in 1978?  His parents grieve for a son not knowing what happened to him.  Officialdom gives incomplete and unconvincing answers.  Writers over the decades have provided many suggestions and some possible solutions.  Locals on wind-swept King Island believe they know what occurred and that the island has a history of mysterious happenings.  The question that must be asked, is there an answer?  Will it always remain a mystery?  By piecing together substantial amounts of material available and looking at the facts, it is possible to draw a conclusion, one which I sincerely believe is what actually took place.

Having said that, it is important to inform the reader about myself and philosophy on life.  I am a sceptic and hopefully a practical person.  I do not hold with devils, demons, ghosts, visions, horoscopes, psychics and the supernatural.  I do believe, however, there are many things, because of our level of civilisation, that we do not understand nor of yet know.  None of these things are supernatural phenomena, but simply matters pertaining to scientific or natural law that we have not yet discovered.  It would appear that because we do not know of such things, limited by our scientific knowledge, we suggest certain affairs and events cannot take place.  Yet, as we have progressed through the decades and recent centuries, we have revealed all sorts of things which previous generations thought impossible.

Thus, the concept of interplanetary travel, covering vast distances and time, may be achievable by means not yet at our disposal.  It may be, that the answer to the problem of time and distance, is basically simple, such as moving into another dimension.  As a boy, like all boys, I marvelled at all the reports of UFOs and Flying Saucers. As I grew older and more mature, I became very sceptical towards such sightings.  It was not until ten or so years before writing this work on the Valentich affair that I became convinced that “something” indeed is out there.  It is also important for readers to understand that I do not read science fiction material, as I do not read novels, outside the classics.  As far as I can recall the only science fictions I have read are Jules Verne, “20,000 Leagues under the Sea” and H.G. Well’s “The War of the Worlds”.  Science fiction movies and television shows do not interest me.  Dr Who and Star Trek do nothing for me.  I make this point to inform the reader that I am not inclined to be easily persuaded in matters pertaining to UFOs and the like.  As a professional writer and, choosing the Valentich case as a subject for an article some time ago, I became fully convinced, after researching the story, that something extraordinarily mysterious happened on that day.   Since then I  have been a ‘believer’.  I’ve read much on the subject of UFOs and allied material, some of which is good and factual, but a great deal of it pure junk.  Many writers seem to get off the track and tie into the subjects God, devils, religion, end of the world, prophecies and all manner of bizarre stupidities.  To me there is a logical answer to it all, it is just that we have not the scientific awareness to know it.

So now after inspecting the Valentich story, I am a believer in the existence of UFOs which possibly has two sources, one interplanetary and the other from our own planet manufactured by  our people from knowledge gained by our scientists possibly  from what they have learnt from crashed interplanetary vehicles.

However, all this is an extension on the Valentich affair.  I would, nonetheless, mention that it was in 1998 when I witnessed my own UFO sighting.  I do not know its source and possibly there may have been a logical earthly answer to it;  but it does remain ‘unexplained’ and it was an aerial sighting so in the strict sense of the word, yes, it remains an Unidentified Flying Object. My sighting occurred on the evening of May 21st 1998.  Briefly, whilst travelling home in my car, I saw a large pink light over the hill.  To quote from my report lodged with the Tasmanian UFO investigation Centre (a group who have their heads screwed on),  I wrote:  “It did not appear to be very high in the sky.  Whilst I thought it was beautiful and interesting I was not at all that curious, because I thought it was a sky-rocket.  As I had attended a bon-fire night at the local school the weekend before, I thought it was a rocket left over from that occasion which some-one had belatedly let off.

“However, it did not cascade into a number of small lights nor did it plummet to the  ground as would a rocket.  Instead it travelled reasonably slow, all the time emitting a bright pink light.  It was not flashing.” (end of quote)

I observed that light between one and one half minutes before it slowly  faded away.  I was not the only one to observe it.  Investigations showed that no plane, helicopter or unusual lights emanating from the ground, were in the area.

Several months later when travelling to Melbourne to interview Mr Guido Valentich, Frederick’s father, I was going over material on early sightings over Bass Strait whilst having afternoon tea at the famous  and beautiful “Shamrock” Hotel in Bendigo.  There I read of reports dating prior to the  late 1940s when the term “Flying Saucer” came into vogue, describing such things as “rockets in the sky” or Very Lights (flares used in war time to illuminate parts of a battle field, often pink in colour) and it struck me that that was exactly what I saw, something resembling Very Lights, excepting of course that it did not cascade to the ground, but simply moved on and faded away.  An interesting connection.  What I witnessed in 1998 was exactly what was being observed in the 1920s and possibly earlier over Bass Strait and along the southern shores of Victoria and the northern and eastern  coasts of Tasmania.

It is important then for me to impress upon you that I am not drawn to the unexplained easily.  True I love mysteries and I have used many mysteries for articles that I have have seen published, but hopefully, I am a sensible, practical person, not persuaded by the supernatural.  That now being cleared up, perhaps my findings will be taken to be seriously considered.

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SOME AMAZING INCIDENTS WHICH OCCURRED  BEFORE VALENTICH  WENT MISSING.

      ... that Tasmania has many instances of convincing UFO reports cannot be adequately denied.  Many of these reports have come from the Bass Strait area and it is  well worth while to review some of the major incidents prior to the Valentich affair.

One of the first instances we will look at in some detail in the book
is the ORION affair.

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