NAA UFO File Numbers — Researcher FOIA / Access Notes Index

Brief

Isaac Koi assembled this six-page index — built on a table by Keith Basterfield — cataloging roughly 60 NAA file series containing Australian UAP material, collectively 10,837 pages. The A703 580/1/1 series, titled 'Reports on Flying Saucers and other Aerial Objects,' forms the spine, running 32 numbered parts across 1953–1982. The 1978 disappearance of pilot Valentich near King Island generated two distinct file series totaling 532 pages. RAAF Base Williamtown's 1983 'Exercise Close Encounters' and the CSIRO's dedicated flying-saucers file (1952–1957) signal that UAP interest extended well beyond the air force's intelligence directorate.

Metadata

Agency

Royal Australian Air Force / National Archives of Australia

Release

2010-01-01

Type

PDF • .pdf

Length

6 pages

Classification

UNCLASSIFIED

Programs

Operation Flying Saucer, Exercise Close Encounters

Tags

Australia, RAAF, 1952-1994, Valentich disappearance, Woomera, Operation Flying Saucer, Exercise Close Encounters, King Island, UAS

Key points

• The index was compiled by Isaac Koi from a table by Keith Basterfield, with permission from the National Archives of Australia on behalf of the Commonwealth Government, enabling public access to searchable PDF versions of the underlying files.p.1
• The A703 580/1/1 series — 'Reports on Flying Saucers and other Aerial Objects' — runs 32 numbered parts (parts 12, 27, and 29 are absent from the listing) covering 1953 to 1982, making it the largest single RAAF UAP reporting series in the index.p.2
• Activity within the A703 580/1/1 series peaks sharply in 1973, with over ten parts dated entirely to that calendar year, suggesting a spike in reporting volume or a change in filing granularity.p.2
• The Valentich disappearance generated two separate NAA file series: A4703 1978/1205 (217 pages, 'VH-DSJ Light aircraft overdue King Island,' 1978–1988) and B1497 V116/783/1047 (315 pages, 'Aircraft Missing (Valentich),' 1978–1992), totaling 532 pages; the B1497 file's 1992 end date indicates records were still accumulating fourteen years after the event.p.4
• The RAAF formally designated UAP reports as 'Unusual Aerial Sightings' (UAS), a term applied consistently across the A9755 base-level series and multiple other file series from the 1960s onward.p.3
• Operation 'Flying Saucer' was conducted in 1953, generating files at two distinct RAAF units: A705 153/1/1637 (68 pages) and BP349/1 28/14/AIR, described as a 'Report [10 folios]' from No. 82 (Bomber) Wing (12 pages).p.3
• The CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research) maintained a dedicated 'Flying Saucers' file from 1952 to 1957, held as A9778 M1/F/31 (15 pages).p.4
• RAAF Base Williamtown conducted a formal 'Exercise Close Encounters' in 1983 (A9755 8, 99 pages), the same base that also held a 275-page file of 'information and photographs relating to unexplained aerial sightings' running through 1994.p.4
• A 'Flying Saucer at Woomera' incident from 1952–1955 is held in the South Australian regional archives as D174 SA5281 (28 pages).p.5
• The full index spans approximately 60 distinct file series and a running total of 10,837 pages across NAA holdings.p.6

Verbatim

• The information below was developed from a table created by Australian UFO researcher Keith Basterfield and is posted with his kind permission, as part of an effort by me (Isaac Koi) to make Australian UFO files available as searchable PDF documents (with permission granted to me by the National Archives of Australia on behalf of the Commonwealth Government of Australia).

  p.1

• DSJ - Cape Otway to King Island 21 October 1978 - Aircraft Missing (Valentich)

  p.4

• Exercise Close Encounters [UAS - Unusual Aerial Sightings] [UFO - Unidentified Flying Object]

  p.4

• Unusual Occurrences Flying Saucer at Woomera.

  p.5

• Representations on behalf of Commonwealth Aerial Phenomena Investigations Organisation re Unidentified Flying Objects in Australia.

  p.3

• Flying Saucers- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research.

  p.4

• Information and photographs relating to unexplained aerial; sightings [UAS unusual aerials sightings] UFO-Unidentified flying objects]

  p.4

Most interesting

• The file B595 5/6AIR PART1 (1962–1965, 70 pages) carries the title 'Unidentified Aerial Phenomena' — using the precise term later adopted by the U.S. government in the 2010s, some five decades earlier.
• Parts 12, 27, and 29 are absent from the A703 580/1/1 sequence, suggesting either misfiling, separate classification handling, or gaps in the digitization program.
• RAAF Base Williamtown named its 1983 UAP investigation exercise 'Close Encounters' — a direct reference to the 1977 Spielberg film, six years after the film's release.
• The Commonwealth Aerial Phenomena Investigations Organisation (CAPIO), a civilian group, was prominent enough to generate a dedicated 67-page RAAF representations file (A703 569/5/451) spanning 1966–1974.
• The Valentich file B1497 runs from 1978 to 1992 — fourteen years of ongoing records for a single missing-aircraft case — indicating the matter was never formally resolved.
• A copyright registration file (A1336 68837) for 'Australian Flying Saucer Review - Number 8' (registered 23 August 1967) appears in the index, showing civilian UAP publications were tracked within the same NAA archival ecosystem as official RAAF reports.
• The Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology held its own UAP observation file (PP956/1 45/38, 297 pages, 1972–1981) — the largest meteorological UAP record in the index.
• A9755 22 documents that RAAF AF Intelligence and Security in Canberra formally tracked public and civilian-organization UFO enquiries from 1982 through 1994, confirming sustained institutional attention well past the Valentich wave.