by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

In the January 12, 1982, New South Wales, Australia Pix-People, there is an article (page 11 of the pdf) by “Australia’s leading authority on UFOs and psychic phenomena,” John Pinkney, headlined “UFO terror grips a NSW township.” Pinkney’s weekly column for the publication is “The Pinkney Report–Investigating the Incredible.” It seems there was a flap in the town of Nowra, and one case in particular is reported to have been investigated by the Scientific Bureau of Investigation. SBI had its own publication at the time, and a report on the case was published in the Vol. 3, No. 6 SBI Report. SBI was based in Staten Island, NY, and one member readers might recognize was Peter Robbins, who is listed as art director for the magazine.

According to Pinkney, “dozens of people” were “caught up in bizarre events” in Nowra, which is 150 km south of Sydney: railway men reported they saw lights hovering over abandoned mineshafts; a foal was found with its leg cut off “neatly from its shoulder; a “huge, brightly lit object” paced a bus with 40 passengers “for seven minutes, before vanishing up a shaft of light in the clouds;” a newspaper man saw a mass of what looked like meteorites fly up from the ground into the air in 1978; a 12-meter-diameter ring was found burned into a field after a farmer told police that “a weird thing had crashed on his property, starting a bushfire;” and two hunters shot at a two-meter-tall, human-like entity that vanished and left an overpowering odor that made one of the hunters sick for several hours.  Pinkney’s main focus, however, is on a case involving not only some unusual trace evidence, but physical effects on the witness as well.

Burke said, “Frankly, I was terrified… mainly because a dead silence settled over everything.” Even though the car was still moving, he couldn’t hear the engine. He then he saw flames around the wheels but “wasn’t game to get out.” According to him, the light followed him up a mountain and then disappeared when another car came into view.

According to Pinkney, Burke got up early the next day so he could report the incident to the police. As he took a shower, he noticed his leg was sore and then saw it was blistered. He had double vision and his fingernails were flaking and falling off. He told Pinkney, “But the biggest shock came when I got into the car. My recorder’s cassette carriage had been melted and buckled.” He gave the machine to Thomas van Andel of SBI, and that’s when they got involved.

Van Andel’s report is on page 36 of the magazine. He describes Burke as 51, married, and known as a “reliable guy” by the local police. Unlike Pinkney, van Andel provides the date of the incident; April 17, 1981.

There are more details in this account along with some discrepancies. According to van Andel, Burke was driving a Morris 1100 through the “Mystery Mountain” area when he saw what he thought were very bright headlights or high beams being reflected in his rear-view mirror. As he came to a curve in the road just before it started to ascend, the lights quickly came closer. They then rose above the car and stayed over him for the next two miles as the road became steep and winding and surrounded by trees and vegetation on both sides.

The same light coming down and surrounding him is described, but in this account, Burke is said to have felt as if he was “floating in or on the light.” He went over the mountain, and as he was close to the bottom, he saw an oncoming car approaching from the south, and the light (and presumably the object producing it) disappeared.

Burke had realized that the music had stopped playing during the encounter but didn’t pay it any mind until afterwards. It is here that this account differs from Pinkney’s. According to van Andel, Burke looked down and noticed that the tape recorder was melted. He felt “an intense heat” and had a ringing in his ears during the encounter, and after pulling over and stopping, he saw that his left leg was burned near the calf. He called the police and they came to the scene and “they attest to the fact that he was not intoxicated” but was “agitated and nervous.” This report is said to have been corroborated by Nowra Police Sgt. Wally Crock.

Burke is described as a veteran of the Korean war having served on the HMS Sydney, not given to “exaggerations or complaining,” and in good shape. After the encounter, he reportedly suffered a long list of symptoms: constant ringing in his ears; an inner ear problem; a rash on his left leg; sensitivity to light and occasional double vision; frequent nose bleeds; sinus irritation; chills and flushes, respiratory problems, high blood pressure; discolored fingernails, some of which would fall off; flaking skin; and nervousness. His urine changed color, and he lost 14 pounds in 12 weeks. A report by “three independent medical physicians” is promised once it has been received.

According to van Andel, Burke was “not a reader of UFO literature,” didn’t belong to any UFO group, and had never seen a UFO before this. He says they “can deduce a UFO encounter transpired” as: Burke reported no noise from the object and a sensation of floating (“typical of many UFO encounters”); the object was able to ascend, hover, pace the car, and then disappear; electromagnetic effects stopped the tape recorder (not the melting?); intense heat was felt; and Burke suffered physiological effects.

Van Andel reports that Burke’s statements were subjected to “Voice Stress Analyzation” and that SBI believed he was telling the truth as he knew it. He says that the tape machine was still being analyzed but thus far, SBI had been unable to duplicate conditions where only the top part would be melted. Unfortunately, a search through subsequent issues of SBI Report yielded no follow-up.