Kangaroo Island UFO Sightings: 1964 & 1998

Kangaroo Island UFO Sightings: 1964 & 1998

In August 1969, apprentice radio technician Alan Potter was working at the Adelaide Airport, servicing a radar unit. He tracked a Fokker Friendship aeroplane flying from Adelaide to Kingscote, Kangaroo Island, when suddenly, another object appeared on the radar, coming from the direction of Port Lincoln.

 From the second object, a smaller object appeared to leave and fly towards the Fokker Friendship aeroplane in a straight line.[1]

 The two signals met abruptly over Rapid Bay before the smaller one returned to the larger one. Was it a UFO? Mr Potter believed it could have been.[2]

Potter worked in the Department of Civil Aviation for 25 years and was quoted on ABC Radio as saying of the incident: "I still don't think I believe in UFO’s but I can't explain this."[3]

Mr Potter stated further, "As the Fokker tracked towards Kangaroo Island, a smaller echo, much smaller than the Fokker, appeared to leave the large echo and fly in a line directly towards the [plane]."

"With one rotation of the radar antennae, that large echo had moved 70 nautical miles to the north-east, in the next pass it had disappeared off the screen completely."

More recently, in 1998, two people witnessed a UFO at Snelling Beach, Kangaroo Island.[4]

 According to the AUFORN website, on March 28^th, 1998, at around 10pm, two people witnessed a yellowish white light on the hillside. The witness described the night as being cloudy with stars and the moon not visible. The light moved slowly south along the valley just above the tree line, moving with “smooth fluid acceleration”.

 The witness watched the light move through the valley. As he watched, the light changed direction and came towards him. The colour then changed from yellow to intense white as it changed from a tennis ball size to a dinner plate size. It then changed direction once again, moving away from the witness, dropping its light intensity and size back to the tennis ball equivalent. 

 A little later, the witness watched the light, and another light which came from the south, sit near each other for a small amount of time, before both went over the hillside and out of sight.
The object was reportedly silent the entire time it was viewed.

Have you seen a UFO – let us know over on our Facebook page at:  https://www.facebook.com/TheHauntsOfAdelaide/

Researched and written by Allen Tiller ©2018

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[1] National Geographic, (2018), The UFO Sighting on Kangaroo Island: Was Australia visited by aliens in the 1960s?, National Geographic, retrieved from; https://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/australia/the-ufo-sighting-on-kangaroo-island.aspx

[2] Gorton, Stan, (2018), A UFO sighting near Kangaroo Island: National Geographic, The Islander, retrieved from; https://www.theislanderonline.com.au/story/5304616/a-ufo-sighting-near-kangaroo-island-national-geographic/

[3] Williamson, B., (2017), Untold Stories: The day I saw an unidentified flying object, ABC Radio Adelaide, retrieved from; http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-09/the-day-i-saw-an-unidentified-flying-object/8600366

[4] UFOInfo, (2018), Snelling Beach, Kangaroo Island, South Australia, March 28th, 1998, UFO Sighting Report – Australia, AUFORN, retrieved from; http://www.ufoinfo.com/sightings/australia/980328.shtml

Kate Cocks: Pt V(b): The Stolen Generation

Kate Cocks: Pt V(b): The Stolen Generation

 “It was proposed that a small cottage home be established for young women whose moral weaknesses have led them into difficulties from which they are unable to extricate themselves without some competent spiritual and material assistance, and which may necessitate their remaining hidden from the public for a time, or a severance from undesirable environment and influences”.

(Kate Cocks quoted in Mission Story, Ivor Bailey May 1987 p.50.)

  Goings on at The Kate Cocks Memorial Home for Babies were shrouded in secrecy, out of sight, out of mind. The reasons were two-fold in the eyes of the board. Firstly they considered an unwed mother a shameful act, secondly, keeping an air of secrecy about what the service does, would hopefully prevent children adopted out, coming back to the home later in life, asking questions about their mothers.
The pregnant mothers themselves were forced to earn their keep scrubbing floors, and doing dishes and other chores around the complex until their babies were born.

 The outrage that followed the scandal of the Stolen Generation, The Forgotten Children and the Forced Adoption scandal was palpable, and repercussions from it, are still being felt today.
  Victims often felt coerced, and it was common practice to ignore the three-week adopting out policy, and get the paperwork signed before the young mother could change her mind.

The Uniting Church issued the following apology in 2011 for the part they played in the scandal after being exposed to a Government inquiry

Apology

 If mothers involved in the Kate Cocks Memorial Babies Home were coerced or forced to give their children up for adoption we unreservedly apologise to those affected. If children involved in the Kate Cocks Memorial Babies Home were forcibly removed from their parents, we unreservedly apologise to those affected.

Kate Cocks is much revered in some circles as South Australia’s first policewoman, as a social reformer, and as a strong and influential woman who changed lives. In other circles, she is seen as a single-minded, brash opportunist who at every turn tried to force her religious views on society, to some she is baby stealer and a wrecker of family stability.

 Whether you are for, against, or sit on the fence with your opinion of Kate Cocks and the life she led, one must remember that in the times that she lived, she forged ahead with what she believed and left her mark on the world, a single woman in a man’s world.

 Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2018

Bibliography

1917 '"AUBERT" OF SYDNEY', Daily Herald (Adelaide, SA: 1910 - 1924), 17 August, p. 3. , viewed 15 Aug 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article124862828

1917 'FORTUNE TELLERS', Daily Herald (Adelaide, SA: 1910 - 1924), 25 June, p. 3. , viewed 15 Aug 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article105413206

1929 'FORTUNE TELLING AT THE SHOW', Chronicle (Adelaide, SA: 1895 - 1954), 26 September, p. 51. , viewed 15 Aug 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article90054332

1936 'Life Story Of Miss Kate Cocks', The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA: 1931 - 1954), 6 October, p. 8. , viewed 07 Aug 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47749666

1936 'MINLATON', The Pioneer (Yorketown, SA: 1898 - 1954), 10 July, p. 1. , viewed 15 Aug 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article199187964

1936 'The Record of a Pioneer Woman', The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA: 1931 - 1954), 13 October, p. 10. , viewed 07 Aug 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74327050

Bailey, Ivor (1987). Mission story: the story of the Adelaide Central Mission. The Mission, [Adelaide}

Cole, Christine A & Kashin, Janice & New South Wales. Department of Community Services (2008). Releasing the past: mothers' stories of their stolen babies. Sasko Veljanov, Yagoona, N.S.W

Find & Connect, 2018, Methodist Home for Babies and Unmarried Mothers (1937 - 1954), Commonwealth of Australia, viewed 6 August 2018, https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/sa/SE01222

https://eagoodlife.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/bits-and-bobs/

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/what-was-life-like-for-sas-first-female-cops/news-story/b1e6f00debd310fa8f9561ae0c17f871

Kelton, S., (2015, April 27). What was life like for SA’s first female cops?, The Advertiser, retrieved from https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/what-was-life-like-for-sas-first-female-cops/news-story/b1e6f00debd310fa8f9561ae0c17f871

Kemp, M, (2011). Uniting Church admits to forced adoption, The Advertiser. Retrieved from https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/uniting-church-admits-to-forced-adoption/news-story/365457a0b160eed0e4d0a5d43186f6df

Marie Mune, 'Cocks, Fanny Kate (1875–1954)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cocks-fanny-kate-5705/text9645, published first in hardcopy 1981, accessed online 15 August 2018.

S.A.’s Greats: The men and women of the North Terrace plaques, edited by John Healey (Adelaide: Historical Society of South Australia Inc., 2001

Uniting Church of South Australia & UnitingCare Wesley Adelaide Inc (2011), Joint Submission to the Commonwealth Contribution to Former Forced Adoption Policies and Practices 2011 Inquiry - Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs. Retrieved from https://www.unitingcommunities.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Joint-Submission-to-the-Senate-Inquiry-on-Former-Forced-Adoption-Policies.pdf

Williamson, B., (2015, Dec 3), A controversial start: Celebrating 100 years of women in South Australian Police force, ABC Radio

 Adelaide. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-01/celebrating-100-years-of-women-in-the-south-australian-police/6989272:

Kate Cocks: Pt V(a): The Stolen Generation

Kate Cocks: Pt V(a): The Stolen Generation

 (As this is a long and contentious issue, this post will be spread out over a couple of weeks.)

In 1935, after serving 20 years in the South Australian Police Force, Kate Cocks retired from her position. Her main reason for leaving the police force was to care for her elderly dying mother.
 Cocks, during her career in the police force, had often given so much of herself helping others, that she became known as “the friend of the down and outs”.
 Often, she had allowed homeless girls to stay at her house at Parkside and later suggested the Methodist Women’s Association open a home for women and children to find shelter. That home was eventually opened, located at 46 Wattle Avenue, Brighton in Old Oxford House, a former training college for young Methodist men, then a nursing home for a short time.

The Methodist Women’s Home Mission Association invited Cocks to become a voluntary superintendent of the home. Cocks, even in retirement, worked tirelessly in the home, taking in unmarried girls and their newly born babies. Cocks relied on her strong religious faith, with her welfare efforts an extension of her unwavering religious zeal and enforcing her own personal motto; “prevention is better than reformation”.
 For Cocks, taking children away from a situation that could cause them harm, whether it be an abusive father, a poor family, or a mentally unstable parent, was better for a child in the long term over reformation.

  Additions to The Methodist Home for Babies and Unmarried Mothers included the Wyld Maternity Home, an enclosed playground, and an extension of the wards and rooms. Later, in 1967, The Kate Cocks Memorial Adoption Agency was added to the complex.
 After her death in 1954, the complex was renamed in Cocks honour as The Kate Cocks Memorial Babies Home until 1976 when the institution was closed. 

 The organisation continued as a daycare facility as part of the Central Methodists Mission, with the Adoption section of the organisation closing in 1978.

 The Kate Cocks Memorial Babies Home and many other church organisations have been accused of taking part in forced adoptions and being directly involved with the Aboriginal stolen generation.

 The following Women’s Welfare Department Annual Report from 1954 emphasis’s the organisation's view of unwed mothers, adopting out of their children, and the shame it brought to the mother and her family.
 According to the organisation;

 ‘Of the sins in this world a babe out of wedlock is not the worst, but the young mother carries the whole burden, often in the face of resentful intolerance. It is to help her through the difficult time and to make it possible for a new start and a second chance that the Methodist Home for Girls exists. Worked in conjunction with the Babies’ Home and with the facilities of the Wyld Maternity Home, the girls live normal lives under careful supervision; and the babes make their appearance with the help of qualified staff and doctors. It is not for these tiny people to bear the burden of their parents’ wrong-doing and whether they go home with the mother, stay on in the Babies’ Home, or are adopted into new families, their first few weeks are spend under their mothers’ care, and Matron’s supervision. Fifty girls have passed through the Home during the year.’

 Women’s Welfare Department Annual Report – Methodist Conference – 1954 PR 9/38

 According to an Advertiser article published in 2011, The Uniting Church of South Australia had previously denied the practise of forced adoptions but now accepted that it was “highly likely” (as quoted by Uniting Care Wesley chief executive, Simon Schrapel, 2011).

Schrapel was also stated in the article; “He said the decision to accept responsibility came after church leaders had read moving accounts to a current Senate inquiry into forced adoptions, which many victims said occurred at the Kate Cocks Memorial Babies Home at Brighton.”

 Next Week: Kate Cocks: Pt V(b): The Stolen Generation

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2018

Bibliography on final post.

Kate Cocks: Pt IV: The Crusade Against Psychic Exploitation.

Kate Cocks: Pt IV: The Crusade Against Psychic Exploitation.

 1917, the Great War was devouring people and resources. South Australian women were scared for their sons, brothers and husbands fighting for the war effort. Women were doing anything they could to try and find out how their loved ones were doing on the war front, and whether they were alive, wounded, or dead.

Women were turning to psychics in droves in the hope of divining some knowledge about their loved ones, and unfortunately a lot of “rogue” psychics began to spring up around the State, ready to look deep into their crystal balls, and part distraught women from their money, with fanciful tales divined for dollars.

 So bad was the trend, that one fortune-teller told an anxious mother, worried about her son, that he would be hung if she, the fortune-teller, did not intervene. To stop it happening, the mother would have to pay money to the psychic to prevent the tragedy!

Disgusted by this turn of events, Kate Cocks and her Women’s Police Department went on a crusade to stop the onslaught of “Occult Houses” that had started opening around Adelaide. Cocks had the law behind her, as The Police Act of 1916, Section 67, clearly laid out the law against Fortune Tellers (you can learn more about the laws at a previous post here: http://hauntedadelaide.blogspot.com/2017/10/trading-in-sorrow-criminal-clairvoyants.html )

Cocks said of the trend:
“Current events largely determine the exploitation of simple-hearted people by callous adventurers.' observed Miss Cocks. 'As an example, I quote the flood of fortune-telling that swept over the country in wartime. 'It was a cruel thing, apart from its ridiculous aspect. Women opened 'occult' apartments. and undertook to read the future for varying amounts of payment, according to the financial position of their clients. These were mostly women of the nervy type who were living at high pressure on account of having loved ones at the war. 'It was a frightful thing to exploit such anxiety, and we did not pause in our ruthless cleaning of those crystal-gazers until they were no more.” (The Advertiser, October 1936)

 Cocks crusade against psychics really took off in 1917, when she was involved in a number of stings bringing down fake psychics around Adelaide. The 25^th case in the succession of cases against fraudulent psychics was a young Adelaide man who had put an advertisement in the local newspapers, asking for anyone wanting fortunes told, to send him penny stamps through the mail to a Sydney address.
 The scammer had set up his rouse at the Adelaide Post Office so that any mail addressed to “Hubert, Box 440” in Sydney, leaving from Adelaide, be held for a few days so he could pick it up.
 On receiving a letter, he replied asking for money for more psychic insights.  What he wasn’t counting on was the ingenuity of Cocks, who caught the rogue psychic out. He ended up with 3 months gaol, and 25 pound fine for his efforts and was recorded as a “rogue or vagabond” in his court records.

A little over a decade later, in 1929, Cocks was still pursuing psychics under Section 67. At the Royal Adelaide Show, she had set up a sting and had her fortune read by a number of palm readers, and crystal ball psychics.
5 psychics were arrested and charged under Section 67, being; Frances Alexander, George Mereno, Mary Stanley, Julia Stanley and Alick Alexander. All pleaded guilty but in ignorance of the law. Each psychic was fined 10 Shillings for their crime and 10 shillings court costs. ($77 AUD total costs each in today’s money).

Today the Police Act 1916, Section 67 is no longer used, instead, we have a newer law meant to stop fake psychics. The law is now known as The South Australian Police Act, Section 40 Part 8, and is enforceable (even though I am not aware of anyone who has been arrested under the act, even though I am aware of several fraudulent psychics!)

Section 40 Part 8 of the South Australian Police Act (https://www.legislation.sa.gov.au/LZ/C/A/SUMMARY%20OFFENCES%20ACT%201953/CURRENT/1953.55.UN.PDF)

40—Acting as a spiritualist, medium etc with intent to defraud A person who, with intent to defraud, purports to act as a spiritualist or medium, or to exercise powers of telepathy or clairvoyance or other similar powers is guilty of an offence.

Maximum penalty: $10 000 or imprisonment for 2 years.

You can also report fake psychics to scam watch!
https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/types-of-scams/buying-or-selling/psychic-clairvoyant

NEXT WEEK: Kate Cocks: Pt V(a): The Stolen Generation

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2018

Bibliography on the final post

Kate Cocks: Pt. 3: From Probation to Police.

Kate Cocks: Pt. 3: From Probation to Police.

 The impact of South Australia’s male population serving in World War One overseas saw a large proportion of the States females suffering, not only the worry of their male relatives and friends being away overseas, and the very real possibility of being killed in action, but also the responsibility of being able to feed their families. With the main wage earner away, women had to find work, some managed to find jobs supporting the war effort, but there weren’t enough jobs for every one, consequently, many young women turned to prostitution to support themselves and their families.

 Church and community groups became concerned about the welfare of women in the state, and began to push the State Government toward employing female police officers to help alleviate the social problems they were witnessing.

 The Police commissioner, William Raymond, did not like the concept at all, and out-rightly dismissed the idea. A.W. Styles, the Chief Secretary, pushed harder, and turned to Crown Solicitor, Charles Dashwood, who advised there were no legal barriers to employing women as police officers.

 On September 27, 1915 an expression of interest, advertising for female police officers in South Australia, appeared in The Advertiser Newspaper.

 More than 200 women applied for the initial positions within the first week!

 Despite the maximum age for women to join the South Australian Police Force at the time being 29 years old, 40 year old Kate Cocks, was given the position of Principal Police Matron and offered six assistants. She declined the six assistants, and instead asked for just one, Annie Ross. (both women were over 29 years old, but the rule was waived for them to join.)

On the first of December 1915, South Australia had its first two females police officers, both serving at the same pay rate as men, a first for the British Empire.

 The women served from their own department, based at Victoria Square, known as “The Women Police Office”. The women mainly worked in a social welfare capacity, often they walked the areas known mainly for prostitution: Rosina Street, Light Square, and especially around Port Adelaide’s wharf's and railway station. Their first official job was to watch over women who were seen coming and going from soldier camps around the city.
Cocks said in a newspaper article many years later, about patrolling the wartime camps;

“Many of the girls we had to protect were by no means vicious but were caught up in a wave of emotionalism through a certain glamor that surrounded heroes in khaki. All along the river we patrolled and in the vicinity of the Cheer-up Hut, too.”
''Many girls were semi-hysterical over their friends going away, perhaps to be killed. People who judged them harshly did not dig down deeply enough into the cause of their unbalanced state of mind”.

Until the mid-1920’s, when Ms. Cocks applied to carry a small firearm, the women police force were armed only with a baton, police whistles, badge and ID card, and wore their own clothing. Cocks was proficient in Ju-jitsu and had taught one young lady who had suffered from an abusive husband, how to defend herself from him.

 Cocks went on to serve for twenty years in the South Australian Police Force, only retiring in 1935 to look after her dying mother.

Next Week: Kate Cocks: Pt IV: The Crusade Against Psychic Exploitation.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2018

Bibliography on final post

Kate Cocks: Pt.2: Juvenile Court Probation Officer.

Kate Cocks: Pt.2: Juvenile Court Probation Officer.

Last week on The Haunts of Adelaide, I briefly covered the early years of the life of Kate Cocks, a South Australian identity known for being appointed the first Police Woman in the state. This week, I look at how she became a Juvenile Court Probation Officer.

  Overlooked by her boss at the State Children's Department, Miss Spence, for the position of inspector, Ms Cocks set about her job to the best of her abilities, biding her time until she could apply again.
Noticing that Cocks was still eager for more responsibility, Spence put her to work researching the goings on in dance halls around the State.

At the time, Dance Halls were seen as gateways to the corruption of youth. In that era, it was believed that, where teens gathered, sex, smoking, drinking and violence followed.
A local (female) Salvation Army Officer, Captain Phillips, thought it ill advised for Miss Cocks to travel to the dance halls alone, (and possibly get corrupted herself) so accompanied her to each and every dance hall.

 Cocks, raised a strict Methodist, had never ventured into a dance hall, watched the teens dancing together with great interest. Although she could see some benefits to young couples being together in a hall with others, as opposed to being unchaperoned and left to their own devices, she did not like the late hours the youth kept and thought there should be some kind of curfew enacted.

 Cocks put together a very large, comprehensive report of her nightly dance hall visits. The effort she put into the report secured her a position in the Children’s Courts. She set about attending every court hearing she could, to find out about the inner processes of the department.
Cocks soon concluded that no two cases could be treated the same, as children fell into criminal situations for entirely different reasons than adults.
With this in mind, she took on the case of a young Adelaide choir boy, who on a lark, made off with someone’s bicycle, and rode around the city. He was duly reported by a do-gooder and found himself in front of the magistrate. The boy was found guilty upon his first offence and faced being put into a reformatory until he was 18. Cocks intervened, and took the boy in herself, and teaching him right from wrong. This incident became a test case for the whole children’s court probation system.

From this time on, Cocks began to preach the gospel of “prevention is better than reformation”, in other words, taking the children out of the situation will change their lives, rather than putting them in a reformatory to change their lives. (Note: This little passage will become very important in a future blog about Ms Cocks).

Cocks went on to work as a Juvenile Court Probation Officer for nine years.


NEXT WEEK: Kate Cocks: Pt.3: From Probation to Police

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2018
Bibliography on final post

Kate Cocks: Pt.1: The Early Years

Kate Cocks: Pt.1: The Early Years

Ms Fanny Kate Boadicea Cocks (M.B.E.) was born in Moonta, South Australia on the 5^th of May 1875 to parents Anthony Cocks, a miner and Elizabeth (nee George) a school teacher (Kate also had two brothers). 

 Mr Cocks sunk his money into a farming property near Quorn, but hard times fell upon the family and he was forced to go back to mining to pay off his debts.

 It was at this time, while the mid-north was in drought, that Kate learned valuable lessons about poverty that would remain with her into her adult life. It was also during this time that Kate prayed to God for rain, as the farm and its animals were suffering. That Friday rain came; this event cemented her strong Methodist beliefs that stayed with her for life.

 In her teens, Kate’s father went to New South Wales to work as a miner. The rest of the family moved to Riverton, where Elizabeth worked as a school teacher.
 Eventually Anthony returned home, and it was decided they would move the family to Parkside. Anthony opened a store and bakery to supplement their income.

 Kate, now an adult began to look to the future, and chose her career. She decided to follow in her mothers’ footsteps and become a school teacher. She ended up getting the second job she applied for, at Edwardstown and became the School Teacher and Sub-Matron of the Receiving Home for State Children. 

 Kate spent the next three years working with the under-privileged. She said of her experiences there;

“Sheltered in a good home I had not known anything of vice or cruelty and I never bathed a neglected baby, or tended a sad-faced dirty child, without realising that I had been led by Providence to have my vision adjusted to see life in reality and try to alter some of its in justices. How responsive to my love all those tiny ones were, and. often. I would creep away and shut myself in my wardrobe and cry a little. The wardrobe was the only private spot I could find. I am not prone to tears ordinarily, but I defy any woman, worthy of the name, to go through those three years without occasionally seeking the relief of tears.  
 The 'foster-mother system. I could see, needed more oversight, and my great ambition centred upon becoming an inspector. Our ordinary duties were concerned with children, from infants to girls of 21, and boys up to 18 years. But, once again, my plans were thwarted, and looking back, I see it was all part of my discipline.”

 Her position at the Receiving Home, and being overlooked for another position, led to Cocks becoming interested in the state probation system for juvenile delinquents’. She studied the system and found it inadequate for the offender’s rehabilitation. Cocks soon became a Juvenile Court Probation Officer.

Next Week: Kate Cocks: Pt.2: Juvenile Court Probation Officer.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2018

Bibliography on final post.