In his 1991 book, Alien Liaison, Timothy Good related the fascinating account of a man who, from 1956 to 1960, was employed as a radio technician at the Weapons Research Establishment, Salisbury, South Australia. As the man recalled, in either 1958 or 1959, a strange, spherical object was recovered at the RAAF Woomera Range Complex. “It was a sphere about 2 feet 9 inches in diameter. Its color was a mid-grey metallic, somewhat darkened by extreme heat…We tried to cut it, and could not even mark it with hand tools – saws, drills, hammers, chisels – nothing.”

Shortly afterwards, Good was informed, U.S. authorities claimed the material was American space debris, whereupon it was transferred to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio – which for many years was the rumored resting place for a host of crashed UFOs, extraterrestrial debris, and dead aliens. “Perhaps this is foolish, “Good’s source told him, “but for many years now I have believed that what we held in those several days was not merely space debris, was perhaps not even some material left by a UFO, but that it was perhaps some form of UFO itself.”

At the time, I was intrigued by this story and dug into it quite deeply. At the time, I was in my mid-twenties and still championing the idea that the UFO phenomenon was extraterrestrial. Certainly, though, by the time thirty loomed, I can say for sure I was far more an adherent of John Keel’s theories and ideas – which took matters far away from all-things extraterrestrial. I should stress that I don’t totally dismiss the ET theory for the UFO phenomenon, but I think it’s the least likely of all the scenarios that have been put forward. But, I digress. Back to the story of the sphere.

As well as contacting Australian authorities, I also spoke with New Zealand’s military authorities. I was pleasantly surprised when those same authorities sent me a package of material on a number of what I call “sphere incidents,” in both New Zealand and Australia, and dating from the 1960s and the 1970s, specifically from 1963 to 1972. All of the spheres, the files revealed, had been claimed by U.S. authorities. All were around two-feet in diameter. The retrieval locations included New South Wales, Western Australia, and Queensland. Whether or not Australian authorities were satisfied with the explanations put forth by the Americans as they sought to explain the discovery of the spheres, was not made clear from a reading of the papers. It was evident, however, that the governments of New Zealand and Australia were involved in the recovery of twelve such spheres in less than ten years.

By far the most interesting piece of evidence made available to me was a 1972 newspaper clipping that referenced an incident on Australian territory in 1963. According to the report, two spheres had been recovered approximately one hundred and fifty miles north of Broken Hill, and the Broken Hill police had arranged to have the objects flown to the National Weapons Research Establishment (NWRE) at Adelaide for examination. Unfortunately for the police, the pilot of the aircraft refused to allow the mystery spheres on board, lest they might explode! Ultimately, the police took the spheres by road. A study of the remains suggested the spheres were neither American nor Russian in origin, but definitely man-made.

This is all very intriguing. I have to say, though, that I think we really need to focus on terrestrial technology, rather than extraterrestrial science. Here’s why: over the years and decades, numerous such spheres from the skies have been found – and all across the planet. They have proved to be wholly terrestrial. And, I don’t see why the near-identical spheres found in New Zealand and Australia should be any different. For example, there is this story from 2012, of just such a sphere that came down in Brazil. It’s clear it was one of ours and not “theirs.” And, another sphere was found in Vietnam in 2016. There is also this story from earlier this year. An online search on “spheres, space debris” will reveal more than a few such cases. All of them have the mark of being the work of us. But not of “them.”

And, you can find more about the New Zealand spheres at this link.