textfiles/ufo/UFOBBS/1000/1294.ufo

SUBJECT: MARTIANS WARN FARMERS TO STAY AWAY                  FILE: UFO1294


NEWS CLIPPING SERVICE

DATE OF ARTICLE:  August 5, 1989
SOURCE OF ARTICLE:  Australian Post
LOCATION:  Melbourne, Australia
BYLINE:  Denise Dalgliesh
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'MARTIANS' WARN FARMER TO STAY AWAY

     Stationhand  George Blackwell used to be a  dyed-in-the-wool
cynic....until the night he came face to face with a UFO.
     Although  shocked by the close encounter  George,  56,  says
that  if the alien beings manning the spacecraft had invited  him
aboard he would have leapt at the chance.
     George recalled his experience exclusively for POST in a bid
to  assist  the  Victorian UFO Research  Society,  which  studies
reports from witnesses who have observed UFOs at close range.
     George,  who  lived on the cattle grazing  property  "White-
Acres",  near Sale (V),  woke at 1 am on September 30,  1980,  to
hear  a  strange  high-pitched whistling noise and the  sound  of
terrified animals.
     "The  noise was getting louder and I looked out  the  window
and  saw what I first thought was an aircraft about to crash into
the  paddock,"  George told POST.   "Then I realized  it  had  no
wings.
     "I threw on some clothes and raced out to the porch.  It was
a clear moonlit night and I could see the craft clearly.
     "It was dome-shaped,  about three-and-a-half metres high and
roughly eight-and-a-half metres long with blue and orange lights.
It  was moving slowly about two metres above the paddock and as I
watched  it cruised down to the water tank,  hovered over it  for
some minutes and then landed.
     "I didn't know what the hell was going on...my first thought
was I had caught some cattle rustlers."
     George jumped on a motorbike and bolted down to the  paddock
where the craft had landed.
     "I  opened the paddock gate and got a hefty electric  shock.
My  watch stopped right at that moment and my body went numb...it
just didn't want to respond.
     "That gave me a nasty fright so I just stood there  stunned,
watching this thing.  I'd never seen anything like it in my life.
It  was bell-shaped with a smaller dome on top.   I couldn't  see
any  doors,  rivets or seams,  only portholes with lights  behind
them,  and  although I didn't see or hear anyone in  it,  it  was
obviously under control -- its movements weren't erratic."
     The  UFO  remained  stationary for  about  10  minutes  then
started to take off,  and if lifted gracefully off the ground.  I
was  so  close it nearly blew me off the bike and I could feel  a
blast of heat on my legs.   It was incredibly graceful and I felt
quite  calm -- if someone had beckoned and asked me to go  for  a
ride,  I  would  have."  As the spacecraft rose George noticed  a
large  circular  rim around its base which receded as  the  craft
rose.   The  whistling noise leveled off to a hum,  and rocks and
cow  pats fell from beneath the UFO.   It flew straight over  the
ocean.   Stunned, George returned to his bungalow to find that 50
minutes had elapsed.
     Next morning George and Ralph Anderson,  the owner of White-
Acres, discovered a brown ring about 10 metres in diameter on the
ground where George had watched the UFO landing.
     The  ground appeared to be scorched,  and around the  circle
were six distinct spots where the grass was  unharmed.   Upturned
cow pats and rocks were strewn around the circle under the flight
path of the UFO.
     The nearby water tank,  which had held 2200 litres the night
before,  was  nearly  empty.   The tank had been cracked but  the
ground around it was bone dry.
     "It  was like the tank had been sucked in by  some  enormous
force  and had cracked under the strain," George told  POST.   "I
had checked the tank the night before and it was full then.   The
cattle  were  spooked the next morning and refused to go back  in
that paddock for months."
     In  the cold light of day George remained adamant that  what
he had witnessed was a UFO landing.
     "I  can  assure  you  it wasn't science  fiction  -- it  was
genuine,"  he told POST.   "I used to be the sort of bloke  who'd
laugh and pass rude remarks when people mentioned UFOs, but now I
think people who make those sorts of statements are ignorant.
     "Whatever  race of beings made that craft they were  a  long
way  ahead  of us.   I don't think they'd hurt you,  I  certainly
didn't  feel fearful.   Looking back I think the shock I got  off
the  gate was just their way of telling me not to be so  abrupt."
The  Victorian UFO Research Society contacted George  soon  after
his experience.   Paul Norman, vice president of the society, has
spent 36 years investigating UFOs.
     "In  the Blackwell encounter there is tangible evidence of a
UFO landing and his experience is one of the best close sightings
to  occur  in Australia," he told POST.   "It ties  in  with  UFO
sightings  from  around  the world -- many  are  associated  with
water.   I  investigated  this  sighting extensively  and  George
Blackwell  is an honest,  credible man who didn't just  dream  up
this encounter...it happened."
     Judy  Magee,  president  of  the  society,  said:   "We  get
hundreds  of  reports of UFO sightings but you can write  off  80
percent  as  natural phenomenon.   George  Blackwell's  encounter
falls into the 10 per cent of definite sightings -- they can't be
explained in any other way."

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