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Costume dramas aplenty Elliott, Eire and Lisa were among a calvalcade of cosplayers that swarmed central Dandenong on Saturday 11 April. There was no shortage of frolic at the annual DandyCon pop-culture event, with a gaming truck,
Dungeons and Dragons, merch and workshops across three venues. More pictures, turn to page 10 (Gary Sissons: 543323)
Plea for answers The truth is out there, but patience is wearing thin. Sixty years on from the famous Westall 1966 UFO incident, eyewitnesses are urgently calling for the Federal Government to release official files to shine light on the mystery. Joy Clarke, who was among more than 300 eyewitnesses on the fateful day of 6 April 1966. She says she was awestruck by three metallic discs flying at speed as mass hysteria took over the Westall High schoolground.
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“We just want some verification that something unusual happened on that day.” Shane Ryan, an academic who’s interviewed more than 330 witnesses of the UFO and grass circle since 2005, says there’s a growing desperation for answers. “Everyone is getting on – including me. There’s that sense of urgency because lots of people have passed away.” Recently, “the door has been opened” as US
departments have been directed to release files on alien and extraterrestrial life, Ryan said. “There’s been a shift in society that people are more open to talking about things,” Ryan says. “Not necessarily coming to definite conclusions, but that something did happen and there was a sense of a covering-up of it. “Someone in the government may have known more than what the witnesses knew.” A petition was tabled at Federal Parliament
last year, calling for an independent inquiry into the event. Defence Minister Richard Marles has yet to respond with the 90-day deadline, and his office didn’t answer an inquiry from Star News last week. “It’s a slap in the face to the witnesses who have lived with this for 60 years,” the lead petitioner Grant Lavac says. For more on the story, turn to page 2