While Australia’s first UFO flap may have occurred in the winter of 1909, the skies above Australia have long been filled with unknown aerial objects that have left witnesses scratching their heads and clambering to adequately describe what they had seen.

Way back in 1868, Parramatta surveyor, Fred Birmingham, had an apparent encounter with “a machine to go through the air” while other early witnesses, untainted by the modern lore of UFOs and aliens, have reported celestial apparitions, aerial processions of vehicles, phenomenal lights in the heavens and strange meteors.

Are these reports of unknown aerial objects from the 19th and early 20th centuries UFO reports? Perhaps. But like today, many of these early reports continue to defy logical explanations…

read more UFO reports from before the era of flying saucers: Celestial apparitions & phenomenal lights | weirdaustralia.