CONFIDENTIAI UNIDENTIFIED LICH? WETAK AREA, The Range Commander, At Wewak, the site of the Vixen "A" tests, approximately 15 miles from Maralinga Village, are a mmber of static balloons used in instrumentation, At 7.15 pem. on 15th July, 1960, a telephone report was received from Constable Hubert Dave SCARBOROUGH, who is stationed on the aite, that a balloon had burnt in the air, The Balloon Officer made an inspection and found that all. balloons were aot. Ze The Constable was questioned ani said that he was sitting in his caravan at approximitely 7.5 p.m, when his attention was draw to a light, of approximately the power of bright moonlight, playinc on the ground, He left the caravai and saw what he described as a white light travelling from East to West, As it appeared to come nearer, or grow lerger, it turned to a red colour, Because of its position and height he thought, at first, that it was a balloon afire and reported it as such, Owing to lack of knowledge as to distance away it was found difficult to estimate the size of the light, The only fact contributed that could assist was that the light appeared to occupy 15 to two degrees of the 3e Constable Richard Hem-y MAMVELL who was outside the caravan at Roadside, thirteen miles from the Village, saw a Licht out of to come from the direction of Wewnk a distance of 21 miles, As far as he impression it to his companion when he returned to the caravan and recalled it only when he received a telephone call from the Constable at Wewak inpeiring if the light had been witnessed at Rondside, 2/945 Capt. Keith Angus ROSS, Catering Officer, trevor James HOSKINS, Technical Assistant, Health Fhysics Group, Russell McFarlane KINGSLEY, Pitter, Department of Mines, and Ian Kemmeth HASKARD, Supervising Technician, P,1I,'s Department. Al1 gave, more or less, the same description, They saw a light over the R.E.M.E. Workshop Building in the Village and coming from the general direction of Wewak. There was some disagreement aa to the duration of the light; this varied between two and fifteen seconds, The discrepancy eould be explained by some people seeing the light some seconds after it had first appeared, The person who saw it for fifteen seconds was able reconstruct particular reasonable, the exnoet time all apree that it was some time after 7 p.m, De Inquiries, with negative result, were made of Woomera in camped in the vicinity of Im in an effort to discover if they had witnessed any phenomenon such as a meteor, The result was nepative, CONFIDENT: fe. CONFIDENTIAL 6, A suggestion that the light could have been produced by 4 photo-flash from a high-flying aireraft was discounted, No aircraft was heard at Wie Gi ae duration of anything like fifteen seconds, Te Scientific persomel who would have the enowehow" were questioned in case the light waa the result of a practical joke, Assurances were piven that no member of the Scientific parties were responsible, a. One practical suggestion was made by a Scientific Officer thet the light could have been caised by "St, Elmots fire", The Balloon Officer said that, although the balloons are "earthed" sometimes static electricity does bu ld-up sufficiently to electrify the anchor vehicle, Three balloons are in line with the position where the light was observed fron Wewak and approximately half a mile distant from the caravan, At such a distance it is understood that 14 degrees of the horizon could be caloulated to approximately 40 feet, Opportunity was taken during a visit to Adelaide to attempt some research into static electricity at the ideleide Public Library, No reference book produced pave mich useful information, The following deseription of "St, Elmo's fire" was extracted from an encyclopaedia = " eethe glow accompanying the brush-like discharges of atmospheric electricity which usually appears as a tip of light on the extremity of pointed objects such as church towers or the masta of ahips during stormy weather, It is commonly accompanied by a crackling or fissing noise." oe li, Oliver Harry Tumer, Health Physics Officer, who possesses an inquiring mind, made an independent investigation and extensive calculations, He is of the opinion that the light was not the result of a natural phenomenon but caused by an unidentified flying object; either a cone from a satellite or a "flying saucer," 10, It is felt that all avenues of inquiry at Maralinca have now been covered and that it is not possible to positively identify the source of the light, It is felt, however, that the light was the result of either a meteor or static electricity, dle Submitted, ScD, J.J .A. BAN Loy Security Officer, Maralinra CONFIDENTIAT