Australian ufology refers to a historical series of Australian events and or activities pertaining to government departments, civilian groups or individual Australians, which centre on or around the study of Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) reports, sightings, encounters and other related phenomena, known as ufology within the Australian context before 1984. History Early reports about UFOs in and around Australia date back prior to 1947. However, the Kenneth Arnold case (June 1947) and the Roswell UFO incident (July 1947) became international press items and appeared in Australian newspapers. 1940s The first gathering of UFO enthusiasts occurred in Melbourne in March 1949 at the Federal Government's newly established Aeronautical Research Laboratory (ARL). The minutes of the non-government meeting show an attendance of 23 enthusiasts from various state and local groups such as the British Interplanetary Society, Royal Aeronautical Society (RAS), Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC), Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and the Army Research Establishment. By May 1949, this gathering of enthusiasts became known as Aeronautical & Meteorological Phenomena Research (AMPR) led by Brian Boyle and Jack Seers. AMPR started to list and research UFO stories and produced a small quarterly publication called Interplanetary Saucer. 1950s AMPR's workload increased as the world ran into its next major sightings flap. In 1951 AMPR became Aeronautics & Phenomena Research Victoria (APRV). In May 1952, R. M. Seymour, Superintendent of the Federal Civil Aviation Department, Air Traffic Control Branch Melbourne, reported that Australian Intelligence officers had refused his Department permission to investigate flying saucer reports on the grounds that UFOs were "security matters". In July 1952, Edgar Jarrold founded the Australian Flying Saucer Bureau (AFSB) in Sydney. Its headquarters were in Fairfield. AFSB began publishing the Australian Flying Saucer Magazine in May 1953. At some point, the APRV made contact with Jarrold and agreed that the AFSB and APRV would assist each other when possible. The APRV nominated John. M. Anderson as their AFSB liaison on the condition that his appointment was seen only as being neutral, and there would be no branch affiliation with AFSB. Apparently Jarrold was seen by APRV as a secretive "loose gun" but both groups maintained an average working relationship. AMPR decided on 6 February 1953 to form an auxiliary group called the Australian Flying Saucer Investigating Committee (AFSIC) in partnership with the Astronomical Society of Victoria (ASV). Such was the interest in UFOs during the period that on 20 November