Horsham Times (Vic. : 1882 - 1954), Tuesday 30 December 1919, page 5


From Another World An interesting phenomenon, which up to the present has not been explained scientifically, was visible in the south-ern sky after 11 o'clock on Christmas morning. It first manifested itself in the form of a falling ball of fire, which, owing to the bright sunshine, was not very brilliant. Some of those who saw it likened it to the descent of a kero-sene tin at close quarters. Immedi-ately a straight column of fleecy smoke was seen against the blue sky, stretch-ing from the horizon to the dome of the heavens. About twelve minutes later there was a loud rumbling noise, which suggested that the foreign body made contact with the sea several hun-dreds of miles distant. At Hamilton and several other parts of the State a tremor of the earth was experienced. The long column of smoke afterwards spread itself into irregularly shaped clouds, which appeared and re-appear-ed before being finally dissipated. To many old residents the spectacle re-called the descent of a meteor near Green Lakes between 30 and 40 years ago. On that occasion the fall oc-curred about midnight to the great alarm of people in the neighborhood, and shortly afterwards the foreign matter was removed to the Melbourne Museum.