This article was published in the daily newspaper Warrnambool Standard, Australia, June 14, 2003.
RECENT photos revealing mysterious lights visible around the Grampians mountain ranges, extending 100 to 160km north of Warrnambool, have been released to The Standard.
Known as a 'hot spot' for UFO activity over the past two years, the area is attracting 'paranormal' enthusiasts from around the country.
Victorian woman Jacqueline Purtell spent two days in January observing activity over the Grampians ranges and reported seeing multiple moving and stationary objects of varying colours.
She estimated the closest of the spherical shapes to be 1.5km away.
Victorian UFO Research Society public relations officer Paul Norman has been investigating UFOs since 1954.
He said UFOs had been spotted almost nightly since two flew over the car of a man travelling from Horsham to Halls Gap in June 2001.
"There's a big one called 'the commander' and it operates in concert with smaller ones," Mr Norman said.
Two archeologists and researchers from the University of Melbourne have been investigating the phenomenon.
Mr Norman said the lights were invariably in a straight-line format and often flashed on and off simultaneously before disappearing from sight.
He said lakes high in the Grampians could have had some influence on the UFO attraction.
Ms Purtell used a camera attached to a telescope to photograph the images and said the lights were being manoeuvred in an unnatural manner.
"Car head-lights cannot, to my knowledge, fly over the top of mountain ranges. If they do, please let me know. We might be onto something," she mused on her Victorian UFO Research Society sighting report form.
