Warrnambool Mystery Aircraft Investigation
RAAF Squadron Leader George Jones investigated reports of mystery aircraft flying inland from the Victoria coast near Warrnambool, concluding they were not Australian nor any known foreign aircraft.
Background
The Reports
In 1930, residents along the Victoria coast near Warrnambool reported seeing unidentified aircraft flying inland from the sea. The sightings were sufficiently consistent and numerous that the Royal Australian Air Force dispatched Squadron Leader George Jones to investigate.
Jones's Investigation
Jones, who would later rise to Chief of the Air Staff during the Second World War, interviewed witnesses and cross-checked military and civilian flight records. He could find no Australian aircraft matching the descriptions, nor any record of foreign aircraft operating in Australian airspace at that time.
Significance
The Warrnambool case sits in the 'mystery airship' and 'phantom aircraft' tradition that predates the modern UFO era of 1947. Ross Coulthart cites it in In Plain Sight as an early example of an Australian military investigation into unexplained aerial phenomena, showing that the Australian armed forces engaged with the puzzle decades before Project Blue Book.