On Saturday evening December 30 1995, all phones rang hot at Gosford Police Station as motorists called on their mobile phones to report a large craft hovering above Mooney-Mooney Bridge.
Later, dozens of calls flooded in from distressed locals at home.
Station Sergeant Bob Wenning states, “People were woken by an intense humming noise. They were genuinely frightened when they saw a huge cylindrical object hovering over the water. It had a polished, ball-like bottom, and as it hovered over the lake, its lights shone down into the water, apparently turning it in to steam”. Callers also reported a brilliant light which “turned night into day”, shining through their bedroom windows.
Patrol cars were sent out to investigate, but whenever police officers came to within 50 meters of it, or car headlights got close, the craft would turn off its own lights and shoot up skywards, out of sight. One police officer reported that it flew away “as if you had a torch beam and whipped it around.”
Seasonal parties, previously well behaved, suddenly erupted into antisocial behaviour. Residents reported their animals cowered and hid, and many dogs howled for no apparent reason. Car patrols were dispatched from one spot to another as the object moved back and forth over the area.All callers gave the same account of a saucer-shaped craft, 20 to 30 meters across, surrounded by bright white light, and with intense shafts of light that penetrated the foaming water below, or when away from the water, once the shafts of white light were off, underneath was a red glow or flashing red-orange lights.
The event largely died out around dawn at 5am, after Police units had been dispatched on over 35 calls,one officer relating that the evening reminded him of a night of “Moon Madness”, that phenomenon known to police whereby civil unrest increases during the full moon.
