A GIANT triangular UFO “100 times bigger than a plane” that emerged on the Tablelands on the weekend has shocked a young family.

Kyle Mathiot was playing with sparklers with his two young boys and partner Deborah Price in the front yard of their Herberton home on Saturday about 7.30pm when they spotted something strange in the distance.

“I notice one light up in the sky and it was way, way too big to be a star,” Mr Mathiot said.

“I went to get my partner’s phone, and started taking pictures of it and all of a sudden there was another two lights, and it was in the shape of a triangle, with a big light up the front and another two lights up the back.”

Mr Mathiot, 21, took several photos of the aircraft as it hovered in the same place for about half an hour before it disappeared.

“It was zipping around like no plane or drone we’ve ever seen,” he said.

“The lights were about two centimetres apart in the sky.

“It had to be a massive object.

“It definitely wasn’t a drone. It was 100 times bigger than a plane.”

He said he was amazed by the sheer size of the unknown object.

“I kind of like that type of stuff. I’m kind of a believer but I’m not freaked out, just in shock,” he said.

“I’ve never had an experience like that.”

An Australian Defence Force spokesman said there was no evidence of military aircraft in the Herberton area at the time of the sighting.

Alec Brimacombe, the Far Northern investigator for UFO Research Queensland, said Mr Mathiot’s photos certainly appeared to show a triangular object.

“I’m not aware of any reports from Herberton but there were sightings of smaller objects around Tinaroo last year,” he said.

“Certainly there are a great many reports of flying triangular objects seen around the world.”

He said in other cases, the large size of triangular UFOs was often mentioned.

“If the object was sighted with the naked eye, then it cannot be a photographic anomaly,” he said.

“The three points of light suggest a structured triangular object or craft.

“As to what it is, we just cannot say.

“It sounds too large for a drone and the zigzag movements are not characteristic of planes – civilian or military.”