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Fears are growing for the safety of young drivers in an Australian town as a dangerous urban legend has them trying to hit 111mph on an unlit road to conjure the ghost of a dead motorcyclist – and film it for YouTube.
The trend has become so prevalent that local police have been forced to issue public warnings as residents fear for their safety on the roads at night.
The urban legend tells that newly qualified drivers – known locally as ‘P Plates’ – in Newcastle, New South Wales, who achieving the speed on Lemon Tree Passage can summon the spirit of a 20-year-old motorcyclist who was killed in an accident on the road in 2007.
It is alleged the ‘ghost’ of the dead motorcyclist appears as a bright light chasing after drivers trying to make them slow down.
As fears that teenagers speeding dangerously are distracted while driving by either the ‘ghost’ or the act of filming, police are worried that the dangerous high-speed stunt is also putting other motorists at risk.
A spokesman for Port Stephens said: ‘It is alleged that if you drive at speed in a dangerous manner, a bright white light comes in behind you and that’s what they are calling the Lemon Tree Passage ghost.
‘There have been several phone calls that people are going out there and while attempting to get footage for YouTube these cars are traveling at excessive speed.’
‘We want speeding drivers to know that the only bright light they’ll be seeing in their rear windows will be the red and blue lights of a police car.’
However, it has not prevented a raft of videos being uploaded to YouTube claiming to show the ghostly bright light filmed from the rear window of speeding cars as dozens of youngsters join in the dangerous trend in the area 100 miles north East of Sydney.
Read more: Daily Mail
FORGET UFOs and the Yowie – the biggest Outback mystery is the Territory Tiger.
The grainy still below was taken from footage filmed in the 1990s by Territorian Jan Donovan.
Author Rebecca Lang said the large, sandy cat appeared to be of “considerable size”, and could be the descendant of escaped circus cats.
Ms Lang and co-author Mike Williams have spent the past five years compiling reports of sighting and collecting photos and video of large cats that resemble leopards and pumas for their book Australian Big Cats: An Unnatural History of Panthers.
Courtesy: NT News
The earliest account was from 1883 by SA explorer Charles Winnecke. The journal of his exploration on the WA-NT border says Winnecke came across a “wild cat of an extraordinary size”.
“The brute was nearly as large as a leopard,” he wrote.
Ms Lang said these cats had a lifespan of 20 years – but the sightings have continued for 150 years.
“We know the earliest circus menageries started up around 1850, so it’s conceivable that the odd circus cat could have ended up in the bush,” she said.
“Transport arrangements were notoriously dodgy back then and escapes happened all the time.”
Source: NT News
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THE two latest sightings of a panther-like creature in the Macarthur area have been reported on macarthurchronicle.com.au
Sharon posted she had spotted the animal with her son while driving along Riverside Drive at Airds on Saturday, July 4. “Last night at about about 11pm my son who is learning to drive was driving along Riverside Drive at Airds as part of our driving lesson,” she posted.
“We saw this what appeared to be a black large animal run at lightening speed from one side of road into bushland.
“When I got a better look at it as went to go into the bush it appeared to be like panther.
“It wasn’t a dog as it was quite high in height. My son thought it was a greyhound at first. It was faster than I have ever seen a dog run and seemed to leap and bound as it ran. It freaked us both out and I was relieved my son did not hit it.”
Read the article and see the photo here: Macarthur Chronicle
THE Gold Coast has reported the second highest number of UFO sightings in Queensland in a year.
According to UFO Research Queensland, an organisation established in 1956 which records and researches UFO sightings, the Gold Coast ranked second to Brisbane in the number of unexplained sightings between October 2008 and September 2009, with 25 reports out of a total 123 coming from the Coast.
Brisbane had 28, while Caboolture, Cairns and Logan were next on the list, all with five reports recorded.
For many years, the Australian Air Force was responsible for handling Unusual Aerial Sightings at the official level but in the 1990s, the department stopped archiving reports.
Nowadays sightings are reported to local police authorities or civilian UFO research groups in the State, if at all.
UFO Research Queensland president Sheryl Gottschall said sightings ranged from strange lights in the sky to detailed descriptions of craft.
Read more:
UFO Chronicles: Australia: Coast UFO Sightings Rocketing
