As X-Files fans await the finale of the hit show's new series, a century-old UFO sighting in Melbourne has come to light.

The historical sighting even has parallels with a more recent UFO "encounter" referenced by the science-fiction series.

The first episode of this year's revival of The X-Files mentioned the real-life case of Victorian woman Kelly Cahill.

In the episode, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) asks internet newscaster Tad O'Malley (Joel McHale) to prove his UFO credentials by citing details of Ms Cahill's story.

Ms Cahill claimed she had a close encounter with a UFO while driving at night with her husband on Belgrave-Hallam Road in the foothills of Melbourne's Dandenong Ranges in August 1993.

She has said she saw a row of bright, round orange lights, out of which descended "tall dark beings" who sent waves of "energy" through her body.

Now, staff at State Library Victoria have uncovered newspaper reports in 1909 of a nearby sighting involving "beautiful revolving lights" high above the Dandenong Ranges.

Lights 'whirled like the propellers of ships'

The August 9, 1909 edition of the Argus newspaper reported that the Reverend B Cozens came to the paper's offices to report seeing multicoloured lights in the sky.

Cozens said he saw the lights while staying at a farm in Kangaroo Ground, which he said "commands a splendid view" of the ranges.

A 1909 report in the Argus newspaper tells of 'revolving lights' in the night sky. ( Trove )

"At 10 o'clock on Saturday night my wife and I saw two beautiful revolving lights high up in the air above the Dandenong Range," Cozens told the Argus.

"These lights whirled like the propellers of ships, slowed down, dipped, and rose again, as if they were beating up in a zig-zag course against the wind."

He said the lights were six miles (9.7 kilometres) apart and were flying half a mile (800 metres) above the range.

"They changed from white to red and then to blue, as if they were revolving beacons with three-coloured slides," he said.

Cozens said he called out to a neighbour who came with his two sons and watched the lights with Cozens and his wife until midnight.

After retiring briefly, Cozens said he rose again at 2:00am to see five more lights, moving dimly in the distance.

"The whole impression of their movements was that of machinery," he said.

Aurora australis possible explanation

An aurora australis as seen from Mount Baw Baw in Victoria on October 7, 2015. ( Facebook: Russell Paliew )

State Library Victoria librarian Greg Gerrand said the Argus article was one of a number of early newspaper reports from around Australia of what would now be called UFOs.

While the article offers no explanation of the strange lights, Mr Gerrand said other reports were keen to provide a scientific rationalisation.

"A lot of the articles that we've looked at, they're very quick to say it's a comet," he said.

While the lights Cozens saw do not sound like comets, there may be another astronomical explanation.

A poem called Aurora Australis by HS Kilpatrick published in WA's Southern Times newspaper in October 1909 suggests the southern lights were particularly active that year.

"Nineteen nought nine shall forever for us hold, remembrance of thy rich phenomenon," the poem reads.

UFO articles among many in treasured Trove

Both the Argus article and the Southern Times poem were found using Trove, a National Library of Australia (NLA) website that provides scanned images of hundreds of out-of-copyright titles, including newspapers and journals.

Last Friday, Trove added its 20 millionth newspaper page into the system: the August 31, 1928 front page of Innisfail, Queensland sports newspaper The Northern Sportsman.

A 1928 front page of Innisfail paper The Northern Sportsman is the 20 millionth newspaper page added to Trove. ( Trove )

Trove manager Sarah Schindeler said the text of all articles was searchable, which made finding historical newspaper articles much easier than it once was.

"The problem is that that's done through computer-generated text, which is not always great," she said.

Volunteers around Australia spend time reading the original articles, correcting the scanned text and adding metadata.

"We have people who are so dedicated to that, we have some who spend 40 hours a week," said Ms Schindeler, adding there had been nearly 500 years of volunteer hours put into the website since it began in 2008.

This week the website will go offline for a few days while it is upgraded to a new version, Trove 7, which includes many improvements suggested by users.

"We're very excited about this one, it's been a long time in the making," Ms Schindeler said.

Trove 7 will have a simpler user interface, be easier to use on a mobile device, and will have a new section dedicated to historical NSW Government Gazettes dating back to 1832.

Ms Schindeler said she hoped the website's devoted users would be patient while the upgrade work was done.

"We get around 60,000 visits every single day," she said.

774 ABC Melbourne will broadcast Radio-in-Residence at State Library Victoria from February 26 to 29.