What followed was therefore totally unexpected and came as a stunning surprise. "As I crossed the grounds of Earle Page College, my residence on campus, at about 5.50 pm, my attention was drawn to two students, not known to me, who were intent on something in the sky. As I drew closer to them their conversation could be heard. "Do you see that?" "Yes", said the other, "But I don't want to." Curious I turned in the direction of their gazes and saw what appeared to be a metallic egg-shaped object traversing the twilight sky, north to south.

It was moving in a horizontal trajectory, at a speed roughly equatable to that of a low flying light plane. "The object was in my view for about 15 seconds, until it was obscured by college buildings. I rushed through the college buildings, and out to the other side, which afforded a clear panoramic view for some considerable distance. To my surprise, the aerial object was not in sight. "It had an apparent angular size at arms length of about one inch, and gave me the subjective impression of a sizeable object flying at several hundred feet.

Obviously there was no way of being certain of that impression. The object appeared to be completely silent, in contrast to the noisy aircraft that frequently pass over the university. To my eye, its shape was very well defined, with no surface protrusions noticeable. "What was it? I was never able to identify the object, despite attempts to reconcile it with aircraft, balloons and similar prosaic explanations. Any of these possibilities should have been still observable as I came through the college buildings.

"I was puzzled. "UFOs" had been in the news that week, but much of the coverage was of a dubious nature. The focus of the media attention was on "a bright silvery light", observed on several consecutive mornings at Taree, on the mid north coast of New South Wales. The afternoon papers in Sydney, particularly the "Daily Mirror", were having a field day, complete with front page photos and huge headlines about the aerial "mystery". The details available made me wonder if news was a little slow down in "the big smoke".

I was able to quickly confirm my own hypothesis, that the early morning apparition was "the queen of UFO misidentifications", namely Venus. Predictably when this became clear to the tabloid press, the prominence given to the answer was a lot less than the original coverage. There was intriguing activity happening elsewhere in Australia at that time, but it did not get the attention it deserved."