UFOs are a hot topic right now.

The Pentagon recently confirming a UFO video from 2019 was filmed aboard a Navy warship and a number of US government agencies set to deliver unclassified reports on UFOs to Congress next month.

But Australia has thousands of its own UFO sighting reports dating back decades, including hovering flying saucers and giant black triangles.

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But there’s one incident from the 1960s that Australian Government officials have tried to cover-up, even going as far as threatening civilian witnesses.

The bombshell revelations are uncovered by investigative reporter Ross Coulthart in the 7NEWS Spotlight special The Phenomenon.

The Westall incident

in 1966, Westall High School was a college of about 600 pupils in Melbourne’s southwest.

On April 6, 200 staff, students and residents witnessed ‘metallic discs’ or ‘flying saucers’ over a local football field.

Andrew Greenwood is one of those witnesses and a former schoolteacher.

For the first time, he’s allowed himself to be identified to tell his story.

Andrew was teaching a year 9 science class when a young girl burst into the classroom saying there was a ‘flying saucer’ outside.

“I can remember running out into the oval, looking into the sky, and seeing these things, and just standing there absolutely transfixed,” Greenwood told 7NEWS Spotlight.

“I haven’t seen anything in my life like it before, haven’t seen anything since.

“It was a grey, almost cylindrical or cigar shaped object which moved with some degree of precision in the sky.”

Sound of silence

Two weeks later, Greenwood was paid a visited by two senior Australian Air Force officers, one in uniform and the other in a civilian suit.

He claims the men threatened his job if he spoke out about what he saw.

“Absolutely, I was threatened. I was told that I should not say anything about it.”

Terry Peck was another witness at Westall.

She was just 11 years old when she saw what she described as “flying saucer craft”.

Terry was so close to the hovering craft, she could feel its heat on her hand.

“I could feel heat and hear this buzzing sound...I could see purple lights all around it,” Peck told 7NEWS Spotlight.

“I was quite stunned to see it because I didn’t know what it was. It was like a classic… what you see in stories about flying saucers.”

Terry said staff and students were told not to talk about the incident at a later school assembly.

“We just got told not to talk about it, that it was rubbish, and we weren’t to talk about it.”

Despite the number of people who saw the ‘flying discs’, no government agency has provided an official explanation for what they witnessed.

Reunited

55 years on, a group of Westall witnesses reunited to tell their story .

“What really strikes me is that 55 years on, these people are very certain about what they saw,” Greenwood said.

“It just beggars belief for me, in Australia we’ve never had an official investigation and, flatly, I think there has been a cover-up.

“I think someone has buried the Department of Supply report which I know exists.”

Mysteries in the west

The remote Western Australia town of Exmouth has served as an outpost of the United States on the edge of the Australian outback.

Established by the American military in the 1960s, the heavily guarded military installation, along with a network of radio towers, was built to communicate nuclear attack orders to US submarines in the event of war.

But it’s not just the military with an interest in this area.

In 1991, a young woman named Annie has travelling with two Australian Federal Police officers when they noticed something strange in the sky.

“I see a diamond-shaped craft, hovering literally straight above the vehicle,” Annie told Ross Coulthart.

“Within seconds, it shoots up, straight up in the sky...faster than anything I’ve ever seen before in my life.”

Days later, two military police requested she accompany them to the base.

Along with the two police officers, Annie was questioned and interrogated by American people at the base.

Annie believes the process was an attempt to intimidate and silence her.

“For sure, I think I was a surprise to them.”

See Ross Coulthart’s full investigation in 7NEWS Spotlight: The UFO Phenomenon, streaming for free on 7plus.

Ross Coulthart’s book In Plain Sight is available to pre-order now.