The Tully Saucer Nest — Australia's First Modern Crop Circle (1966)

On January 19, 1966, banana farmer George Pedley was driving his tractor near Horseshoe Lagoon outside Tully, Queensland, Australia when he heard a loud hissing sound and witnessed what he described as a large, saucer-shaped craft rising from a nearby swamp. The object, which Pedley estimated at roughly 25 feet across and 9 feet high, ascended rapidly and disappeared. When he investigated the launch site, he found a circular area approximately 30 feet in diameter where the reeds had been flattened in a clockwise spiral pattern, with the reeds pulled from their roots and floating on the water's surface. The formation became known as the 'Tully Saucer Nest' and drew investigators from across Australia. Over the following weeks, additional circular formations were discovered in nearby lagoons. The Royal Australian Air Force investigated but could not determine a cause. Scientists suggested whirlwinds or waterspouts, but Pedley and local witnesses rejected this explanation. The Tully case is now considered one of the earliest well-documented modern crop circle reports, predating the famous English formations by two decades and establishing the template for circular ground traces associated with anomalous phenomena.