ARE UFOS LIGHTING UP THE SKIES OVER AUSTRALIA'S OUTBACK?
By Larry Greenemeier
Scientific American
August 29, 2008

Original Link
 
Move over Roswell. New Mexico's UFO Museum and Research Center may attract more than 150,000 visitors annually who are curious about the alleged 1947 alien crash landing there, but some residents of Australia's outback claim their skies are alive with unidentified flying object activity now.

In June, reports Northern Territory News, the town of Marlinja (population 112) was reportedly visited by three spaceships that hovered just a few meters over several homes. Residents were tipped off to their presence by a "strange, loud noise," the News reported. After running outside, several say they saw three red lights in the distance as the sound grew louder, causing the ground to shake. The encounter lasted "for what seemed like a couple of hours," residents reported, with the UFOs casting enough light to make them feel as though they were "sitting in a football stadium." The lights left as suddenly as they arrived, only to return briefly later that night as residents gathered to sip tea and discuss what they had just seen.

No abductions were reported, so it's safe to say that agents Mulder and Scully were not called in to investigate.

This alleged sighting, combined with a number of suspected UFO's in pictures snapped throughout Australia's Northern Territory, have outback  denizens bracing for a possible influx of tourists: The area's unofficial UFO capital, Wycliffe Well, attracts "hundreds of visitors" each year hoping to catch a glimpse of a UFO zipping across the sky, according to a story today on the Northern Territory News Web site.

Other sightings (and photographs) in the Wycliffe Well area reveal a saucer-shaped object that appears in the background of a snapshot taken of an eagle in flight and an unidentified object that appears in the sky just over the shoulder of a man being photographed by his wife. The History Channel plans to send its team of experts to the area to shoot an episode of the cable television series UFO Hunters.

Of course, appearances by little green men aren't limited to Roswell and the Australian outback. The Sun of London reported today that U.K. UFO experts have been unable to identify the white and green lights photographed recently above a 24-hour convenience store in South London. Apparently, even aliens need milk and eggs in the middle of the night.

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TOURISM SEES THE LIGHT ON UFOS
By Matt Cunningham
Northern Territory News
August 29, 2008

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Forget barramundi fishing and crocodiles, the Territory's latest tourist attraction could be from another world.

Tourism industry representatives believe UFOs could be the next phenomenon to boost tourist numbers in the NT.

A recent spate of sightings in Territory skies has attracted global attention and is expected to attract UFO spotters from around the world. Tourism Top End president Sylvia Wolf said tour operators could soon be cashing in on the UFO hysteria.

"I'm going to turn it into a tourist attraction," she said. She said overseas and interstate visitors were attracted by the "idiosyncrasies" of the Northern Territory.

"We are supposed to be a little bit different and if we see things in the sky at night, that adds to it," she said.

The Territory's unofficial UFO capital, Wycliffe Well, 1100km south of Darwin, already attracts hundreds of visitors each year hoping to catch a glimpse of a UFO flying across the outback sky.

Wycliffe Well Holiday Park owner Lew Farkas said he went the to Territory Tourism Commission almost 20 years ago and pitched the idea of promoting the NT as UFO territory.

"I get a lot of people from overseas coming here just for that purpose," he said.

"The first thing people ask about when they walk in the door is UFOs."

Each year more than 200,000 tourists travel to Roswell in the United States to visit the International Museum and Research Centre.

Mr Farkas said there was nothing in Roswell except a site where a UFO was once believed to have crashed, while the Territory had the real things still buzzing around overhead.

"The last three months have been pretty full-on with sightings," he said.

"When I say solid sightings, it means you actually see the shapes of the things, not just lights in the sky."

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