BL Info 5

Historical Victorian / Australian Ball Lightning accounts.

1810 - 6 January - Sydney Gazette Office

The thunderstorm that set in between four and five yesterday afternoon was accompanied by very vivid lightning, the affects of which were sensibly felt by many, some of whom have had as sensibly to feel their obligation to the divine protection.

The Gazette office was struck in several places at different intervals. Many of the printing materials being formed of iron, the causes of attraction were no doubt the stronger, and the affects were truly awful. In the two lower rooms were eleven persons, six of whom were children, and all were affected in a greater or less degree, but none seriously injured. By the first shock, a young man, an assistant, felt a violent concussion on his head, which bowed him to the ground, but which he at the moment attributed to the fall of some weighty substance overhead.

He immediatly left the place on which he stood, however, and in retreating into the adjoining room was opposed in his passage by a crash occasioned by the bursting in of a backdoor, the whole wood and brickwork connected with which was rent to atoms, some of the shattered materials being driven inwards, and others outwards to the distance of thirty feet from the door.

The publisher, happening at the time to be revising a proof impression of this paper, was thrown backwards with his feet, unconcious to what cause to attribute the disaster so instantaneously impaired was his recollection. On rising, he found himself enveloped in smoke as he then imagined, but more probably in the dust of lime and mortar scattered from the brickwork.

Those who were less affected than himself declare that the electric matter had the appearence of a ball, which rebounded to and fro with a velocity peculiar to itself. On subsequent examination it appears to have entered the house at different parts, the inner brickwork of the chimney being in many places fractured, one of the rafters of the roof and a board in the upper floor splintered, and the brickwork of many parts both within and without the house visibly impaired by the same awful and terrific cause.

From Tim Flannery's book 'Birth of Sydney', p210.

1856 - March - Bendigo, Victoria.

'Little Devil' actress, Lola Montez, coincidently summonds a real Ball Lightning on stage during a performance at Bendigo, Victoria.
The Age (Melbourne) page 3.5

29 March: Letter from Bendigo of 27 March: The weather last night was much milder, in fact quite close, a decided change from the last two or three nights. Lola Montez had a crowded house last night to witness the celebrated Spider Dance, which was rapturously applauded; although many were disappointed from the simple reason they expected too much. On being called before the curtain Lola made a short speech; this appears to be the only attraction about Madame that will crowd the house.
Panton Manuscript, State Library of Victoria MS 7727/652

Page 73 During the visit of this extraordinary creature the Bendigo people witnessed an extraordinary exhibition of her pluck and nerve. On the night in question I was not at the theatre, but was sitting in a verandah with a friend about 9 o'clock pm when we were startled by a loud explosion, accompanied by a flash like lightning. There had been no thunder, and no thunder followed, and I thought some powder store had exploded; but when some of the gentlemen came into camp later on I learned that at the theatre Lola Montez, when appearing on the stage /page 74/ in the character of the little devil, in a play neamed Philip of Spain or some such title, a Mr. Vincent, in the character of Phillip being on the stage with her, she was invoking the aid of Asmodeus whom she called twice, when at the third call what appeared to be an artificial ball of fire shot from the ceiling through the stage close between the two actors and at the same time the whole theatre shook with a terrific explosion, which at first the audience thought to be part of the performance; but when they found fire flames starting from the side slips and some of the stage attendants rushing forward to extinquish the flames, they rose panic stricken and were about to rush to the doors when Lola stood calmly where she was and called loudly to the audience to sit down, "There is no harm done," and the first man that moves she would brand him as the biggest coward in all Bendigo, called upon them to keep their seats and the play would go on. Vincent had received and felt a shock which caused him to leave the stage for a moment; but all had to obey Lola. He returned and the play went on, although at that very moment, on the ground floor below the stage the lightning had ignited some wood shavings that had been carelessly left there by the carpenters. At the conclusion of the play, Lola came forward and informed the audience that she had often played in the character of the little Devil, with stage fireworks but this was the first occasion on which she had been honored by real thunder and lightning and she thanked the audience for their behavior on this auspicious occasion. On the following morning I went down to the theatre and saw what damage had been caused by the lightning. About eight foot square of the iron roof had been wrecked, the gauze on some wire frameworks of clouds, used in the witch scene in Macbeth, had been burned clean off the wire. Two iron rods, which originally had hooks at the end and were used for pulling down any refractory drop scene had been hanging in their usual position on the wall at the side of the proscenium. The hook end had been straightened out to a sharp point on each rod and the ashes from a portion of the shavings showed where the fire had been, right under the stage. It really appeared a marvel that the whole theatre had not been burned down. ........... Lola Montez was at this time a wonderfully lustrous handsome woman and she was even successful in her famous spider dance, which was a sort of special ballet improvement on the Tarantella.
1879 Perth, Western Australia. A "REMARKABLE METEOR"

In 1879, Mr. S. Worsley Clifton, Collector of Customs, at Freemantle, Western Australia, forwarded the following account of a "remarkable meteor" , to R.J. Elleig, of the Melbourne observatory. Elleig in turn passed it onto the science journal "Nature" which published the following account of the February 1st, 1879, apparition:

"A small black cloud on a clear day appeared in the east travelling not very swiftly towards the northwest, which burst into a ball of fire with an apparent disc the size of the full moon, blood-red in colour; It left a train of black or dark-coloured vapour across the heavens which was visible for three-quarters of a hour. No sound was heard, sky perfectly clear, and the thermometer, 100F, in the shade."

1902 Nov.12 - The FIREBALL STORMS of VICTORIA. See BL INFO 6

1902 Nov.13 - Carcoar, N.S.W. 'A fireball fell and exploded terrifically'.

1902 Nov.18 - Murramburrah, N.S.W. 'A large fireball was observed making its way in the air across the town'.

1902 Nov.19 - A seismic related ocean wave, six feet high, crashed upon the coast of South Australia (Syd.M.Herald, Nov.20)

1902 Nov.20 - Adelaide, S.A. 'As reported by Sir Charles Todd, of the Adelaide Observatory, a large fireball was seen, moving so slowly that it was watched for four minutes'. At 9.27 am, November 20th, 1902, "a remarkable phenomenon was witnessed in the heavens by Mr. Griffiths, the assistant astronomer, and others," at the Adelaide Observatory in South Australia.

"Two officers were taking weather observations, when they noticed a brilliant globular light having a planetary disc. It appeared SSE, at an altitude of about 45°. It moved slowly northwards, passing within 15 or 20° of the sun, and was brightly visible till 9.31, 4 minutes in all. Mr. Griffiths, who observed it for a minute, states that it covered about 20° of an arc in that time. The object appeared like Venus does when it is at its greatest brilliancy soon after sun set. Mr. Griffiths lost sight of the meteoric object at an altitude of 45° above the horizon. Other observers say it travelled at least 90°, and was lost sight of, in the great glare of the sky. When it was near to the prime vertical it became elongated and took an elliptical form, the long axis lying south to north".

1902 Nov.21 - Towitta, N.S.W. 'At 11pm a fireball of the apparent size of the sun was seen. An hour later, several towns were illuminated by a great fireball'.

1902 Nov.22 - Nyngan, N.S.W. 'A fireball passed over the town intensely illuminating sky and ground'.

1902 Nov.23 - Ipswich, Qld. 'A fireball exploded'.

1902 Nov ?? - A man in Harris Park in Sydney was knocked unconscious and left partially paralysed when a "fireball" exploded above him.

Some of the above may have been slow moving meteors, also called fireballs. The origin of the matter of Ball Lightning may be extra-terrestrial as well as terrestrial. It is not clearly known as yet. See Andre Ol'khovatovs' web site.

1907 - E.Baird, Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse, Western Australia.

' It became very dark, then a large red ball of fire slowly appeared on the horizon. We watched it as it slowly moved towards us, as the air became very warm...'. From: Lighthouses of Australia - www.lighthouse.net.au
Photographs: Annette Flottwell & (right) Ian Clifford

......The other major event was a fireball that did immense damage to the station. Ethel Baird (Mrs E. Bovel) whose father, Patrick David Baird, who was appointed officer in charge when the lighthouse was built and opened in 1903, describes the experience.


"All this happened a few years ago at Cape Naturaliste lighthouse, which stands high on the hill, the ocean all round, on three sides. The three cottages are at the bottom of the hill below the lighthouse.

It was July 1907 when we experienced the impact of the fire ball. Father was the only one on duty, the time was 9 a.m. one of the Assistant Lightkeepers had gone 25 miles to the small town of Busselton, for supplies and food for the three families. The second Assistant had gone to Yallingup Cave House to collect all the postal mail, papers etc. for the lighthouse which was collected once a week.

It was 8.30 a.m., a storm had been raging for 5 days, then it turned into a severe electric storm with terrible flashes of lightning and thunder which was deafening, then everything went quiet all of a sudden. We were standing looking out of the window facing North East, wondering if we could now go outside. It became very dark, then a large red ball of fire slowly appeared on the horizon. We watched it as it slowly moved towards us, the air became very warm. We were very frightened and then as it came closer, Mother quickly pushed we children under the beds. She got under a heavy dining room table, only just in time an the fire ball struck our house, breaking windows, the telephone rang violently, then it burst from the wall with a loud explosion, the noise was terrible. Mother became worried as Father was on duty up at the lighthouse. She put a coat on and rushed out leaving us screaming under the beds, to see if Father was safe. The pathway was all ripped up, to a depth of approximately 4' along the underground phone line from our house to the lighthouse. The wind was so strong that it almost knocked Mother over.

When she reached the lighthouse and went upstairs, on to the first landing, things were in a mess. Father said later that he put his hand on the phone to put through a weather report, and it blew up and out from the wall, knocking my Father unconscious. A long large cupboard, which was strongly bolted with long bolts to the wall, was blown from the wall. It had a lightning conductor running up the wall behind the cupboard from the ground to the top of the lighthouse dome and outside. This was twisted and torn. Everything was tossed and smashed up, that had been in the, path of the fire ball. It was terrible.

After the fire ball struck, there was loud thunder and lightning, like hell let loose for about an hour. Then the severity of the storm subsided and it became very quiet. Very heavy rain came down and lasted for a few hours, slowly stopping. Then everything cleared, the sun shone through and it looked so peaceful with raindrops glistening on trees and flowers.

The absence of the two keepers placed a heavy burden on Mother. We two children were her only helpers at the time. so she sent us two miles to ask the Farmer, Mr. Curtis, for help. He had to ride horseback twelve miles to Caves House, Yallingup, to the nearest 'phone, for help from Busselton

A doctor had to be brought 25 miles to the lighthouse. We were cut off with no 'phones. Father was ill and had a long cut on his head which had to be sutured up (stitched). Mother was also suffering from shock. Father was ill for eight weeks and off duty.

It's surprising the amount of damage a fire ball causes, when it strikes its terror and I never want to see another one. It left us all in a highly nervous condition for come time and every time there was a bad storm we were all terrified an to what would happen next. In the years to follow, we had many severe storms in the winter, but we never saw another fire ball, which seems to be something that rarely happens.

It takes years to overcome the fear of storms. "

©1997 - 2001 Lighthouse Computer Training & Development, © 2002-03 Lighthouses of Australia

1920 - Parkside, Adelaide, South Australia.

A loud noise was heard several hundred yards away. It wasn't long till we heard a hissing noise and, looking up to the western sky, saw an object about 12 inches in diameter slowly moving in the air down towards us, about 12 feet away. It was travelling eastward and came down over Mrs.Harris's wooden fence landing on the cement porch floor about 3 feet behind us. It gracefully bounced along the cement floor in a straight path covering the 30 foot length of the verandah at a walking pace. It bounced three or four times rising to a height of 18 inches on each occasion. Each time the spherical ball touched the cement it was flattened at the point of contact, and deformed, but it quickly resumed its globular shape when it left the ground.

It was not transparent but, rather, like a ball of smoke with glowing 'comma-shaped' electrical 'worms' wriggling about - sizzling, hissing and flickering. It flattened by one quater into the egg shape on each bounce. On reaching the far western end of the verandah it accelerated rapidly and rose at a steep angle of about 45 degrees clearing the apricot tree, wires and the house next door. At this stage my mother rushed in the back door of the house where we huddled for about 30 seconds before hearing a resounding crash some 250 yards away off to the east. It had hit Greens' house at the far eastern end of Campbell Road. It apparently bounced (about a mile) all the way to the Salvation Army home and demolished a whole house somewhere near Dawson and Florence Streets at Fullarton.

(Illert, Theodore Charles; "The Parkside Lightning Ball", personal comm. from C.Illert. To be published in Speak No Evil: A Case Study of Lives and Times of German Settlers in South Australia, by C.Illert.)

1922 - Bernard O'Reilly. Near Springbrook (and Lamington National Park) Southern Queensland.

Expanded text here.

'....two balls of fire were drifting slowly past the humpy about fifteen feet from the ground; they were about the size and shape of a soccer football and were a deep glowing red like the coals of a burning ironbark log; they drifted idIy this way and that and it was the very uncertainty of their purpose which made them so terrifying. A flash of chain lightning occupies but the merest fraction of a second and if you see it you know that it has missed you, but there is something indescribably horrible about ball lightning; it can hover about you for a minute, drifting lightly as thistledown yet being potent as a ton of dynamite.

This was but the beginning of a bombardment; for nearly an hour incessant waves of red and violet lightning danced through the cracks of the old humpy to the accompaniment of high-pitched, whining crashes which often overlapped each other like machine-gun fire; sometimes my spine would contract and a numbness go through me from induction of some close flash. At times I looked out; the horses were weathering it all right; always there were fireballs drifting; at times they exploded and the red light which flooded the humpy brought with it a wave of heat. Like all good things or bad, the storm passed. Tom had been caught on the high Cainbable ridge; he secured his mare and ran down the eastern side of the spur, where he found dubious shelter under the side of a box log. He received a bad shaking from shock and at times had felt the suffocating heat of bursting fireballs'.

From the book 'Green Mountains' by Bernard O'Reilly, Published 1940.

1951 - A.Hall. Tidal River, Wilsons Promontory National Park, Victoria. (Pers.com.)

Ball of bright white light observed drifting through campground and believed to be Ball Lightning.

1956 - Keith H. Hill. Major BL storm (about 1,000 displays) at sea in the Great Australian Bight.

Extract D.J.Turner, Journal of Meteorology Vol.21, No.214, December 1996.


'....We were between Coffin Bay Peninsula and Flinders Island, travelling N.W. with a hard Northerly of half gale strength coming off the land some 25 miles away, with a rotten steep 4-5 metre wave giving us a belting. The cloud height was seemingly 1000 feet above us, a solid dark grey rippled even mass from horizon to horizon, as the sun was setting.

Right after sunset, the electrical storm began, with large balls of lightning coming from the cloud base, dropping to the sea in 2 to 3 seconds of activity. These rather large balls seemed to be about one metre diameter occurring every 3 to 10 seconds, to within 100 metres (but fortunately not on our vessel!) to some miles away. The display allowed us to dispense with our compass sighting as so many times the sky was alight. We could see even thirty miles ahead to Flinders island and reefs surrounding with ease. The balls of lightning were of a sodium yellow colour internally with a bright active lilac blue surface of electrical energy. .... The display continued for over two hours, so we saw at least 1,000 individual displays. Our eyes were effected to some degree, as the black night that followed seemed the blackest we had known and special care was taken in navigation until dawn arrived, with two on watch.'

1962 - O.C.J.Nicholls. Burwood, Melbourne, Victoria. (Pers.com.)

During a thunderstorm, Mr Nicholls witnessed a white electrified ball the size of 'tennis ball' about 3-4 feet above the floor enter a shop/factory (near the tram terminus, Burwood Hwy). He was standing inside behind the counter. After hovering and darting all about for a while (some seconds) it exploded with a very loud bang.

1970 ca. - Yarralumla, Canberra, ACT.

During a severe thunderstorm several years ago, ball lightning hit my backyard and subsequently my neighbor's. While the only evidence in my yard was the death of a 100ft (30m) tall Gum tree (which died within 48 hours), my neighbor's yard and house were substantially damaged. The ball lightning bounced over my boundary fence and landed on a steel reinforced concrete post and buckling the steel reinforcement. It then jumped onto my neighbor's verandah, where it fused the wrought iron tables and chairs into a molten mass, and entered the house through closed glass doors. The glass did not break, but the wooden door runners split open. The ball then hit the color television, rendering the picture half monochromatic and half color...The ball left through the wall of the house, leaving a one foot diameter hole framed with shredded wallpaper. It then bounced across the road into an adjacent property, where I assume it 'died' as no further damage was reported.

(A. McEwen, pers.com., 1983. From Mark Stenhoffs book 'Ball Lightning....' 1999. P.56)

1971 - Hans & Josephine Hirschfield. Nunnawading, Melbourne, Victoria. (Pers.com.)

In the early seventies we were fortunate enough to observe at very close range a good example of Ball Lightning. We had just gone to bed at midnight, it was raining fairly hard at the time, the month was end of January or early February. We heard a loud swooshing noise which sounded like a V-2 rocket (which we had heard during the 2nd World War in Holland). My wife got up to have a look outside because she thought how strange it was for anyone to start some fireworks, at this late hour during heavy rain.

She saw an Orange glow flickering through a lounge-room window and yelled for me to come quickly, whilst she screamed " the garage is on fire" . I was at the window in a second and yes, I saw what I first thought were rosy or better still, orange flames, flickering behind the carport wall built of cement sheeting. I ran outside and got a better look from the driveway and saw that it was a ball-shaped object, about 2 or 3 feet big ( three times the size of a soccerball), level with the guttering of the carport, on the side of the neighbours.

I stood and watched it for about 20 to 30 seconds, at my estimation. It then suddenly started moving, seeming to tumble on its axis and rose up, not that quick at first but gathering speed as it travelled upwards to a height of about 100 to 150 metres. I would say the same height as fireworks rockets that explode in a myriad of balls.

Our ball of lightning also exploded into many smaller balls of, this time, white light, and I believe I also heard a muffled bang as it exploded, not into as many little fragments as commercial fireworks, but quite many all the same. As it travelled upwards I again heard the loud wooshig V-2 sound.

The next morning I asked a neighbour four houses away if he had heard or seen anything last night and he said yes, " I heard a sound like a V-2 rocket going over".

This was our unforgetable experience with the phenomenon of Ball Lightning.

1971-3 ca. - Brett Holman, Diggers Rest, Melbourne, Victoria. (Pers.com.)

My parents have told me about a sighting they had many years ago when the family was living in Diggers Rest outside of Melbourne (1971-3), Dad was a signalman for the railways and they lived beside the railway tracks. One night they watched a light travelling above the tracks - this was told to me as a "ghost train" story, but I've always suspected it was ball lightning, perhaps following the tracks due to electromagnetic induction (I have a masters degree in physics). I've asked them about it a couple of times and they still believe it happened. Obviously it wasn't a real train or anything, as Dad would have been aware of that as part of his job. I'll try to get more details from them.

1984 - Sandra Finn, Bellingen, N.S.W. (Pers.com.)

In 1984 I was with a friend in a house we rented in Bellingen NSW Australia. We both felt concerned about the loud thunder in the air and no rain. We were inside so we did not see the lightning. My friend went into the bathroom and I had put the kettle on and was standing by the kitchen bar when a big bang blew the pictures off the wall while lightbulbs exploded. I was leaning on the kitchen bar counter with my hand. An exploding ball of light came from the wall telephone and appeared to pass through me or atleast my hand and arm and then on to the floor. I was standing between the point where it appeared and then where it moved to on the floor.

It was three feet wide and the colours of fire with some blue colour in it as well. It was opaque. The noise was like that of a continuous cracking thunder and very loud. My friend came out of the bathroom to see this ball rolling passed her feet, down a six foot hallway and dissipated into the wall. It did not burn anything but I will never forget the noise. I was white as ghost and subdued for three days afterwards.

At the time my friend drove me to a neighbours house who fed me custard and ice-cream. He is now dead but he insisted that sugar would help me. He also said that iron in the surrounding hills and fields attracted lighting in this area. This was confirmed the next day by the Telecom technician who said he had seen many burnt lines and electrical damage in this area especially around the next valley they unofficially call 'Devils Gate'. Ever since I have had very high energy levels. I have never been drunk or taken drugs but I have to take a blood pressure tablet a day to slow me down. I account for my high energy levels through that contact with the electrical charge. I am now 52.

1985 - S.Keily, at Mt.Buffalo National Park, Victoria. (Pers.com.)

Observed a white ball following an overhead powerline up the mountain.

1987 - Brett Porter, Park Ranger, Queensland.

100 metre diameter Ball Lightning photographed and observed for over five minutes by two Park Rangers. Article published in The Royal Society jounal January 2002 by John Abrahamson.

1994 - SILENT FIREBALLS (perhaps ball lightning)

....Another fairly typical (but silent) fireball event occurred in October 1994 at the iron ore mining town of Tom Price in the Pilbara region of W.A.
In mid October 1994 a family were having a patio barbecue at about 8.30pm at night. They saw a very large red-orange coloured ball of fire moving at very low altitude directly towards them at a steady slow light aircraft speed (<100mph ?) and 300 metres altitude. It was bigger than the moon in apparent size.
They rang the local police alerting them to a possible aircraft on fire. The two police raced outside to watch. By now many of the towns folk (population some four thousand) were outside watching the fireball. From front on it appeared to be a fiery orange-yellow-white colour - possibly rectangular or spherical in cross section (depending on observer), from the side it appeared to be a spherical yellow-white light - pulsing up and down in light intensity (as captured on video).
Our original barbecue observers, being some 200 metres directly below it by now, reported that it was an intense spherical ball of orange-red fire with the fire swirling in a spiral pattern and the flames disappearing internally upwards into a central black "hole" or void within the spherical mass of flames.
The fireball had no tail and made no noise at all - there was no ground seismic wave as experienced in many other recent Australian fireball events. It was described as a sort of "implosion ball of flames" with all the fire or flames originating in local space outside the firey sphere-like form, the flames being sucked into the centre where they disappeared - "like a moving plasma ball in a local space-time warp around a central black hole" - "Never ever seen anything like it before - therefore difficult to describe accurately".....

Source and much more see - Bright Skies, Dr Harry Mason.

1997ca. - Meryl & Mary Champion, near Maitland, N.S.W. (Pers.com.)

We were driving through periods of torrential rain on a highway near Maitland. There was lightning around but the electrical activity was ahead of us and until this point had not been anymore than a severe thunderstorm. Suddenly we saw what we thought was a fireball explosion in the air. It caused me to brake as I believed it was closer than it actually was and as we thought two light planes must have collided we were expecting debris to rain down on us. The car ahead also must have had a fright too for he braked the same as I did. We did not relate it to the lightning as it was not something we had ever seen before other than to think that if not a collision , a plane may have been struck by lightning. As there were no such accident reports the next day we decided it must have been some phenomenon to do with the storm. we can only describe it now as being like a red/orange fire such as you would see in a small explosion after which there was a red /orange glow for a short time, seconds only.

1997 - February - Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland.

There were over 50 reports of UFO's in Feb.1997 covering Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland. A high proportion of them described objects that could have been Ball Lightning or something related to it. Common descriptions were of spinning and flashing yellow/orange/red fireballs. Some were blue/white and other color combinations.

See http://www.ufoinfo.com

1998/99 - January - Mark Steele, Wyong, N.S.W.

While working at Wyong Station I and several Cab drivers observed 'Dangling' Orange lights to the west which seemed to bob,bounce,drift, and fade about the general same westerly area. For half an hour or more we observed them. We had time to move about and judge for ourselves that these lights would have been over the Yarramalong area. I even tried to call the local radio station. One cabbie related a story of miniscule 'light' buzzing his side window the night before - I asked 'fireflys'? he shrugged a no-idea. As I was working I moved on with a customer towards Berkely Vale. Several cars ahead were pulled over, I leaned forward asking myself and passenger what was going on here and then 3 Orange Lights in the sky grabbed my attention. I stopped, got out and observed them for a minute with the passenger. A formation of 3 lights moved silently directly above the road at approx 2-600', It was impossible to tell, but they moved uncannily like a delta formation of helicopters! Next, the rear right light left the formation and slowed first, then the others stopped together. The passenger wanted to go home.....I drove on at his request, looking back at the next lights to see only a single orange light. Here my account ends, I have no idea what they were. I can only suggest ball lightning or some sort of plasma energy release. Exact year of sighting I'm not sure of. Sighted 31-12-99 or 98 yes New Years Eve.
© 2002 - 2006 ERN MAINKA