The Australian Flying Saucer Club Part 2

The Australian Flying Saucer Club part 2

“The Australian Flying Saucer Research Society”

Last week we looked briefly into South Australia's first UFO related investigation and information club founded by Mr Frederick Stone, This week we are going to have a brief look at the longest running club of it's type in South Australia, the “Australian Flying Saucer Research Club”, which was also founded by Frederick Stone.

 Founded circa 1955, the AFSRC was founded by Frederick Stone, who was also the clubs first president. Frederick had formerly been a part of both “The Australian Flying Saucer Club” and the “Australian Flying Saucer Bureau”

 The group, although only small at the time, expanded its wings across the country, and in 1956 had an office in NSW (which would later remove itself from the club and become known as the UFO Investigation Centre).

 In 1957, Mr Stone formed a group ion Victoria which would work alongside the South Australian based group under the leadership of Peter Norris, this branch of the group was titled the “Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society”.

In 1959, Mr Stone also founded another branch of the group in the Northern Territory, with the presiding President being one Duke Alley

 There is also evidence of the club having an office in Queensland and Western Australia, truly becoming a nationwide entity.

 The group, although small, was set up well with a treasurer, secretary, President and membership, and also, for some time, printed its own magazine called “Australian Saucer Record” which ran for 9 Volumes from 1955 until 1963

 In 1959 the now growing group, held the very first UFO conference in South Australia, which was attended by 200 people, with guest speaker the Rev. W.B. Gill as guest speaker, recounting some of his extraordinary tales of sightings and UFO experiences.

In 1962 the AFSRS had its first major reshuffle of members, with a rift forming between founder Fred Stone and member Colin Norris. Fred left his own group and formed yet another group with the acronym UFOPIA, this left Colin Norris “Mr UFO” as the President of the Australian Flying Saucer Research Society, and a new era of UFO research in South Australia.

 In 1967, another rift formed within the ranks of the club and a “no confidence” vote against club president Colin Norris was put forward, but lost. This led to numerous members splitting from the club to form a new group called UPIA
  The club was still going strong in the early years of the “2000's” but since the death of Colin Norris and other group members, it has lost its momentum and its presence has fallen away substantially in the local UFO investigation scene