Situated 25 kilometres north of Elliott, the community’s families spent hours in fear as what appeared to be three unidentified objects hovering in the distance with another just metres above their homes.

Resident Janie Dixon said the terrifying ordeal began about 8pm on what seemed like just an ordinary night.

The kids were on the basketball courts shooting a few hoops and she was in her home talking to her two nieces when they heard a strange, loud noise.

“We ran outside but at first we couldn’t see anything, it was just really dark and we could hear the sound of it,” said Ms Dixon.

“The sound was really horrible but it sounded like it was going past; we thought it was a jet.

“My nieces and I ran outside and I saw what I thought at first was the evening star, the first star you usually see at night.

“But then we saw three red lights in the distance, and the sound kept getting louder, the ground felt like it was shaking, so we ran inside and shut the doors.

“My nephew and niece were looking out through curtains. It came closer, circled around the basketball courts and then came so close above our house.

“The kids at the basketball courts ran - two girls stood there looking towards the sky. They tried to see what it was but all they could see was this bright red light in the pitch black.”

Ms Dixon said the UFO hovered above the homes for what seemed like a couple of hours.

She said at one stage the phone started ringing, but went dead when she tried to answer it.

“Then the light in the house became so bright, it was like we were sitting in a football stadium,” Ms Dixon said.

“After a while, after they all disappeared, I think it was about 11pm, we went outside and were just sitting around drinking tea and talking about it all. The kids were put to bed.

“We heard the noise again and it came back, but disappeared again moments later.

“We were all really frightened, from the five year old to the adults. For me personally, it was a big shock and I couldn’t sleep.

“In my mind I was thinking: ‘What is this thing, what did they want?’”

“We never get things like this hear, we have only heard of UFOs in the movies.

“We didn’t expect it to just come like that, that was the frightening thing.”