A703 580/1/1 Part 10 — RAAF Department of Air HQ UFO Reports

Brief

On the night of December 29, 1968, more than 35 civilian observers in Hobart, Tasmania independently reported bright white objects — one described as 'long and slim with port-holes' trailing a 2,000-foot tail of sparks — flying below 4,000 feet with no audible noise. The Hobart City Police Radio Room logged more than 20 public calls plus five from patrol vehicles; the Aviation Met Office received seven separate reports. The file compiles a typed ATC summary, a meteorological observation confirming clear skies with a thermal layer between 3,000 and 6,000 feet, and multiple RAAF standard 31-question intelligence report forms from individual witnesses.

Metadata

Agency

Royal Australian Air Force / National Archives of Australia

Release

1968-01-01

Type

PDF • .pdf

Length

249 pages

Tags

multi-witness, Tasmania, 1968, sparks-trail, no-sound, low-altitude, multiple-objects, Hobart, port-holes-description, ATC-filed

Key points

• Two distinct sighting clusters occurred on 29 December 1968 between 0108 and 0120 local Tasmanian Standard Time over the Hobart area.p.4
• First witness (Mr. Treanor, Moonah) described a single bright white object that was long, slim, and featured port-holes, trailing a spark tail estimated at 2,000 feet, appearing below the 4,000-foot summit of Mt. Wellington with no associated noise.p.4
• Mr. M. Jones of Bellerive and 35 other adults reported five bright white objects traveling northerly in parallel to the ground, showering sparks, also silent and below 4,000 feet.p.4
• The Hobart City Police Radio Room received in excess of 20 sightings plus 5 additional reports from its own radio patrol vehicles, indicating a city-wide observation event within a 12-minute window.p.4
• Weather at Mt. Wellington was clear sky, visibility 20 nautical miles or more, wind calm, with a slight thermal layer between 3,000 and 6,000 feet — conditions that preclude low cloud or atmospheric haze as a distortion factor.p.5
• RAAF intelligence report forms across pages 6–13 consistently recorded: no sound, no visible propulsion, northerly direction of flight, and no physical evidence recovered.p.6
• A separate observer report on pages 14–15 describes three lights in formation traveling northerly, with no trail, vapour, or exhaust visible.p.14

Verbatim

• ESTIMATED LENGTH OF TAIL WAS 2 1 000 FT., OBJECT APPEARED IN DIRECT ION OF MT. WELLINGTON AND BELOW THE SUMrliT WHICH WOULD PUT IT BELOW 4 1 000' ALTITUDE . NO NOISE ASSOCIATED WITH SIGHTING .

  p.4

• BRI GHT WHITE OBJECTS, 5 (FIVE) in NUMBER, TRAVELLING IN A NORTHERLY DIRECTION , PARALLEL TO THE GROUND. OBJECTS WERE SHOWERING SPARKS AND MADE NO NOI SE .

  p.4

• AVIATION MET . OFFICE RECEIVED 7 (SEVEN) SIGHTINGS AND THE HOBART CITY POL ICE RADIO ROOM RECEIVED IN EXCESS OF 20 (TWENTY) SIGHTINGS , ALSO 5 (FIVE) SIGHTING REPORTS FROM THEIR OWN RADIO VEHICLES

  p.4

• SKY CLEAR, VI S . 20 NM PLUS , WIND CALM. SLIGHT 150 THERMAL LAYER BETWEEN 3, 000' AND 6 , 0 00 '.

  p.5

Most interesting

• The Hobart City Police Radio Room fielded more than 20 calls about the objects within a 12-minute window, plus five additional reports from its own patrol vehicles — an unusually dense civic-response footprint for a single UAP event.
• The first witness's description of an elongated object with 'port-holes' is a structural detail absent from typical meteor or bolide accounts and is rarely volunteered unprompted on a government reporting form.
• Two independently filed clusters from the same night described different configurations: one witness reported a single elongated object; 36 observers reported five objects flying in parallel — a discrepancy that the file does not attempt to reconcile.
• The ATC filing officer, K. Hansen, held the rank of Air Traffic Control Officer II at Hobart Tower, giving the primary document a semi-official aviation-safety provenance rather than a purely civilian origin.
• This is Part 10 of a 32-part RAAF Headquarters file series under A703 580/1/1, indicating a sustained, institutionalized record-keeping effort for UAP reports across Australia spanning multiple years.