Source: SYDNEY (Reuters, 09 Dec '99)


MYSTERIOUS OBJECT LANDS I A DAM

Is it a UFO, space junk, a meteorite or simply frozen sewage? Whatever it turns out to be a mysterious flying object has landed in an Australian country dam, leaving a large crater, and sunk beneath the mud. Air tests around the dam found no radioactivity, but water supplies from the dam to the nearby town of Guyra have been cut.

Police have also erected a one-mile no go zone around the dam, as curious locals and scores of media descend on the sleepy town of Guyra, 250 miles north of Sydney. 

At this stage we don't really know what the object is,'' said a police spokesman at Guyra.  "It has made a significant depression in the floor of the dam.'' The mysterious object, which landed sometime between Monday and Wednesday, has left a 50-foot-long and 20-foot wide crater. The object appears to have hit the dam at about 45 degrees and skidded before sinking.

Theories of what the object is ranged from a meteorite to frozen sewage jettisoned from an aircraft. But most ruled out a UFO or space junk.