THE CASE OF THE MISSING WATER
The sounds of frightened cattle woke a rancher from a sound sleep in the early morning of September 30, 1980, near Rosedale, Victoria, Australia. When he went outside, he was astonished to see a domed disc with orange and blue lights gliding about ten feet above the ground. It rose slightly in the air, hovered briefly above an open 10,000-gallon water tank, and then landed 50 feet away. The rancher jumped on a motorbike and sped toward the object, which was making a “whistling” sound.
Suddenly, an “awful scream” sounded as a black tube extended from the UFO’s base. With an ear-splitting bang the strange craft rose into the air. A blast of hot air almost knocked the witness down. The sounds ceased as the object slowly moved to a position about 30 feet away and eight feet above the ground. Hovering briefly, it dropped debris—stones, weeds, cow dung—from underneath it, then flew away, disappearing in the east.
Where the disc had landed could be found a ring of black, flattened grass 30 feet in diameter. When he examined it in the daylight, the witness discovered that all the yellow flowers within the circle had been removed. Only green grass remained. But even more bizarre, the water tank was empty, with no evidence of spillage. Only the muddy residue at the bottom of the tank was left, and there was something peculiar about even this: It had been pulled into a two-foot-high cone shape. The wit¬ ness was sick with headaches and nausea for more than a week afterward.
A similar ring was found the following December at Bundalaguah, not far from Rosedale. The water in a nearby reservoir was also mysteriously missing.