Westall ’66

Who doesn’t enjoy a good ‘ol flying saucer tale?

In UFO movies and television the setting is almost always in foreign countries, and nearly always America.

Now a documentary made for the Sci Fi Channel brings it all home.

In Westall ’66: A Suburban UFO Mystery, the first local production the Pay TV channel has produced, we hear about a strange sighting on Australian soil. But was it real or a suburban myth?

On April 6 1966 (an ominous date if ever there was one), an incident took place in the outer eastern Melbourne suburb of Westall, that forever changed the lives of those who witnessed it.

200 students, staff and local residents watched as a strange object hovered overhead for several minutes, landed briefly, then lifted off and vanished.

The incident was reported by a local newspaper and Channel Nine News interviewed school students about their bizarre sighting -but the school quickly shutdown all debate, forbidding the children from discussing the incident and telling them they were all victims of ‘mass hysteria.’

Now as adults, some are speaking about the occurrence for the first time for this doco, three years in the making.

Fronting the documentary is teacher turned self-made investigator Shane Ryan (pictured) whose passion in getting to the bottom of the sighting involves a string of interviews with former students, teachers and archival evidence. How Ryan fits into the Westall case is never quite clear but he is determined to right the injustice suffered by the witnesses and discover the truth of what transpired.

Many of the adults interviewed were of primary school age at the time.

They give vivid descriptions of a strange flying saucer interrupting their day at a local state school, when entire classes ran onto the schoolyard to watch with a mix of fascination and fear. Some also followed it to a nearby parkland known as The Grange. A school assembly the day afterwards from the School Principal ended their frenzy.

In talking to the unassuming Ryan, some admit that nobody wanted to hear their stories. No doubt participating in the documentary was a cathartic experience for them.

Ryan also details how evidence of the day vanished, including photos taken by a school teacher, along with the media interviews recorded by Channel Nine. He speculates that a huge cover-up took place, with hints that even the US was quickly involved in a cover up. Where are Mulder and Scully when you need them?

Without actual footage the documentary uses animations to illustrate its visuals. There are images of terrified children watching a glowing flying saucer above large electrical pylons. Together with the drab Westall school and the very-suburban subjects retelling their memories, the effect is uniquely Australian. No big budget Spielberg visitation here, it’s all just a little bit daggy.

Yet you can’t help but be drawn to the passion of Ryan, the injustice felt by the documentary subjects and the thrilling notion that maybe, just maybe, we were visited by some little green men….

Westall ’66: A Suburban UFO Mystery has its World Premiere 8:30pm Friday on SciFi.