Wycliffe Well - The self proclaimed UFO capitol of Australia
Around 380kms north of Alice Springs in Australia's Northern Territory sits a tiny settlement in the Barkly region. With few permanent residents, it is a stop over point between Tennant Creek and Alice Springs. It is likely, however, to be one of the most memorable stops of your journey if you happen to pass through these parts. You see Wycliffe Well as it is called, also happens to be the UFO capital of Australia! Well, that is the title they have given themselves anyway!
Image provided by Tony Bowden Flickr - Creative Commons
Wycliffe Well is roadhouse where people stop off for petrol, food and accommodation, usually while headed to or from Alice Springs. It is essentially a small stop in the middle of nowhere in the Australian outback. The area was already known as a place where people would travel hoping to spot a UFO as the stories dated back to World War 2. In 1985, Lew Farkas saw an opportunity as travellers wanted to take home with them mementoes of their journey so he painted a mural and made souvenirs. From there he spent 25 years and around 4 million dollars converting the roadhouse into a very niche mini theme park for travellers and UFO enthusiasts to enjoy. People travelled from all over the World to visit this hotspot.
One scientist came from England. He turned up with just a briefcase. He told us when he arrived that he was coming to investigate the sightings and that he could tell if there was anything in the atmosphere without even looking. When he opened up his briefcase, it was just like an old school lab. All these things would just fold out: little things zipping around, glass tubes, electronics. I don't know how it worked, but he left happy.
Image provided by Tony Bowden Flickr - Creative Commons
Sometimes the UFO thing was good for business and sometimes it was bad. On a lot of occasions people were getting chased down the highway by lights. They would pull up and be panicking so much that they would say, "Quick give us a room, we can't stay out there." So that was good for business… It chased people away at times, but it brought customers in too.
We used to get a lot of people who'd had personal UFO experiences that they had never told to anybody. When they came in, they had this urge to release their burdens. I had so many stories that I started these diaries. They were on the counter and people would just write their experiences in there. There were hundreds and hundreds of stories.
In 2009, Farkas wanted to spend more time with family and left everything behind with the new owners Nikhilesh Jalla, Surya Mandarapu and Vamsi Koneru who took over in 2009.
Image provided by Tony Bowden Flickr - Creative Commons
The restaurant and shop inside is full of merchandise and paraphernalia giving Aussie road trippers their very own 'Alien Highway' experience.
Image source: trip advisor
Their brochure states:
"UFO sightings are so common, that if you stayed up all night looking, you would be considered unlucky not to see anything, rather than lucky to see something"
The Sun Herald newspaper once ranked Wycliffe Well as the top fifth location in the entire World to see witness a UFO sighting. Rest assured, it is not just a level tourism gimmick. Back in World War 2, servicemen who stayed at Wycliffe Well kept nightly records of all the strange things they witnessed in the sky. The Royal Australian Air Force conducted its own investigation to the large range of sightings recorded. It was all collated in an old bound book which up until the 1990s, was available for people to read at the Wycliffe Well restaurant. Unfortunately, this book was stolen, so a new book was started which includes sightings from travellers who have added their own experiences into this new book up until this very day.
Entires include:
light in the sky going at a steady pace, which kept going until we couldn’t see it. A truck driver behind me saw it as well, It was a UFO, not a falling star or a comet.
Lisa from Cairns 2003
saw a silver cigar shaped object moving across the sky in a very erratic motion, then it disappeared. Both me and my mom saw it.
Brad from Western Australia 2004
Image source: trip advisor
The Northern Terrority and outback itself is often thought to be a magnet for UFO activity. With clear skies and no pollution from nearby structures, you have a clear glimpse of the galaxy above. The previous owner Farkas claimed that UFOs were attracted to the area specifically because ley lines cross where the town is located.
There could of course be another explanation. The strange lights in the sky could also maybe be attributed to Woomera Prohibited Area, located further away in the neighbouring state of South Australia but on the same highway. It is dubbed by some as Australia's Area 51.
The Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA) in South Australia, about 450 kilometres north-north
west of Adelaide, provides the Department of Defencewith a unique capability for the testing
and evaluation of war materiel because of its size, remoteness, low population density and
quiet electromagnetic environment. Defence is the primary user of the WPA.
At over 122,000 square kilometres the WPA is about the size of England and is the largest
land-based test range in the Western world. It is the only instrumented range capable of
testing ‘next-generation’ weapons systems to the full extent within it land borders. These
various factors, combined with other operational security measures allow Defence to conduct
sensitive weapons and other advanced military technology testing.
Are the strange lights in the sky part of a testing exercise?
Image source: trip advisor
While it is not known just what attracts our friends from outer space for a visit, Farkas the previous owner claims that the largest range of 300 beers on tap in the Northern Territory could make it worth the visit!
Have you been here or had a sighting in the Australian Outback? Tell me about it in the comments below!
Maybe you would like to submit your story to my new UFO Encounters blog series, it is anonymous! Submit here
References
https://wikitravel.org/en/Wycliffe_Well
https://lostinaustralia.org/wycliffe-well
https://www.australianexplorer.com/wycliffe_well.htm
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/wycliffe-well
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Wycliffe_Well
https://www.vice.com/en/article/pakawn/the-strange-story-of-australias-outback-ufo-capital
https://lostinaustralia.org/wycliffe-well
https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/audio/the-indian-friends-running-an-outback-landmark-in-australia-s-ufo-capital
https://www1.defence.gov.au/bases-locations/sa/woomera
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