.UPDATED:

At approximately 4am Thursday morning 26 December, 2024, a local Coober Pedy resident saw a bright light in the sky in the Flat Hill Road area. On closer inspection, the object, approximately the size of a car, but shaped like a large drone (UAV) was noted to be hovering above the Recycling Depot (Flat Hill Road) before it traveled up and along Post Office Hill Road and then hovered over the Coober Pedy Area School.

The drone (UAV) movement, although erratic, was estimated to be hovering at a height of between 300 – 400 feet over several buildings inside the town area. There was no sound and no visible blades. After hovering over the school, the silent object went directly to the vicinity of the Coober Pedy Drive-In, hovering above it for a moment, before moving up towards the Hospital and disappearing from visibility.

The mobile phone footage does not give the clarity that was visible to the naked eye although it has captured the erratic movement accurately.

Coober Pedy is an opal mining town that exists at the northern perimeter of the Woomera Prohibited Area. Locals living at this location can be excused for connecting the many UFO, UAV, drones, and related activities to Woomera or any of the nearby military bases.

The questions still arise; what was an unmanned drone doing at Coober Pedy at 4am hovering above two government buildings viz Hospital and School, plus a private business and a council-managed building? What else had they been looking at before they were seen by local residents?

Since publishing the article other residents have come forward, admitting that they saw the UAV moving around Coober Pedy consistent with the reported sighting, and also mentioning that the object had a green appearance. One of the residents reported, “A friend and I were sitting out the front and watched it go up and around the whole area next to Catacomb Rd for a good 5 minutes, around 5am or just after. It was lit up bright green. Then it disappeared.”

A local Opal Miner reported seeing something similar in June/July working out at Veno Opal Field at night “Only we saw x 4 simultaneously”, he said.

Another family visiting loved ones at Coober Pedy reported, “My family saw one similar about ten years ago following the highway south of Coober Pedy. It took off northward incredibly fast. It was daylight and a bright green capsule.

People continue to come forward. A local woman said that her sister saw a pretty big drone-like object near the clouds above the Big Winch at Coober Pedy and said, the clouds are not usually very high up. “Then there were sightings all over the world around the same time and since. Weird,” she added,

It is clear that there is some disbelief as in isolated or remote areas, not everyone is up to speed with what type of industries would have a sophisticated drone with stealth capabilities and indulge in casing out buildings in remote mining towns in the wee hours of the morning. Who knows what America, Russia or even the local Military is working on at the present time? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt-3oJ9Jryc

An interesting and important point in all of this is, that the Township of Coober Pedy is in a NO DRONE ZONE, due to its proximity to the local Airport.

If local residents see similar activity in the future, the responsible authority is CASA. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) is a government body that ensures the safety of aviation in Australia. https://www.casa.gov.au/about-us/contact-us/drone-complaints