Inside abandoned ‘UFO capital of Australia’ with crumbling ‘galaxy theatre’ and decapitated alien statues
ON a remote desert highway in Australia, visitors have reported years of bizarre sightings and experiences.
The Wycliffe Well Roadhouse sits between Alice Springs and Tennant Creek – and it is here where drivers claim to have been chased off the road by an unknown force.
The roadhouse on the Stuart Highway was built in 1872 and has been plagued by unusual goings-on for decades – with visitors reporting bizarre sightings since World War Two.
Now, it is said to be the fifth best place in the world to see UFOs.
Even the Royal Australian Air Force has launched investigations into incidents reported there.
Wycliffe’ Well’s brochure tells visitors: “UFO sightings are so common, that if you stayed up all night looking, you would be considered unlucky not to see anything, rather than lucky to see something.”
In 2021, one witness recalled her experience within hours of arriving at the roadhouse’s caravan park.
Tamzen Hayes and her friend Lucy were busy playing cards when they “saw something unexplainable.”
Writing for travel site Escape she said: “That’s when we saw it. A strange oval-shaped ship gliding away into the sunset like the cowboy at the end of a western.
“We could only stare, frozen and slack-jawed as it disappeared.
“I swear we saw something unexplainable in the sky that night.”
In 1985 the rest stop was transformed by Australian sailor and UFO fanatic Lew Farkas who wanted to do more with the area’s alien history.
Farkas, who owned Wycliffe for 25 years before retiring spoke to Vice about his out-of-this-world creation, where he explained that he arrived at the site in 1985 to conduct a “five-year experiment.”
The entrepreneur hoped to make Wycliffe a true tourist destination and a mecca for UFO lovers.
In the 1860s, Wycliffe Well was a popular rest stop for the Overland Telegraph Line and later provided soldiers in the Second World War a place to rest and refuel.
During this time, people reported seeing a lot of unusual activity in the sky, with soldiers making note of almost constant UFO sightings.
When the war was over, people continued to visit the area and report unusual activity which eventually saw Farkas invest over AUS 4 million (£1.9 million) into the site before he retired in 2010.
It started with a mural based on a UFO sighting in the area that saw tourists come to take pictures as a “memento” of the spot, he told Vice.
“We started converting everything—every wall, every bit of space in the area—to do with space, to do with aliens, to do with UFOs. It got famous very quickly and it put Wycliffe Well on the world map.”
Farkas installed a gas station, a bar, lodging, a store, a camping ground and even a fishing lake to get alien hunters and others visiting the site.
He constructed a Galaxy Auditorium which was a 300-seat restaurant with a stage for shows, got a tourist train that went around a Barramundi-filled lake, and conducted at-night alien and UFO tours.
For those desperate to catch a glimpse of the extraterrestrial, he installed a viewing platform called Mount Wycliffe where people could stand to get a better view of UFOs.
“Every aspect of Wycliffe Well had to become alien-orientated or space-orientated,” he told ABC.
UNEXPLAINABLE
From the minute he arrived at the site, Farkas knew there was something special about it.
Talking to Vice he recalled that “there were lights flashing around the sky doing crazy manoeuvres that you just couldn’t explain.”
Farkas said that during his ownership of the site, there were hundreds of reported sightings which had varying impacts on customers.
“On a lot of occasions people were getting chased down the highway by lights,” he explained.
“They would pull up and be panicking so much that they would say, ‘Quick give us a room, we can’t stay out there.’
“So that was good for business… It chased people away at times, but it brought customers in too.”
Some of the tales were so terrifying that guests at Wycliffe would want to “release their burdens” which saw Farkas install diaries at the counter to let visitors recount their alien experiences.
Farkas recalled that some guests claimed they saw aliens in the desert.
Anthony Vanderzalm who took over the site from Farkas in 2010 has said that groups of visitors have claimed to have been lured outside to witness odd activity which left him stunned.
He told Journal News: “I don’t know what I was thinking when I arrived. My mind was boggling.
“There’s been four of five occasions when all the people out of the restaurant have gone out and observed something very unusual.
“It’s never the same twice. All types of different lights, changing direction, and colourful.”
If you drive to Wycliffe Well today, you will be met with a sign reading “Caution proceed with care UFO landing site ahead.”
But, it is then abundantly clear that the rest stop has been abandoned though perhaps not by all forms of life.
Now, it has decapitated alien statues, an abandoned train, and a crumbling galaxy theatre.
Vanderszalm ended up selling the business to a petrol company which has seen the site fall to the hands of vandals.
Now, the abandoned site looks like a bizarre, derelict theme park with faded murals, broken flying saucers and masses of forgotten alien memorabilia.
Devastating flooding in 2022 forced the business to move out and no one has been back since other than those who wish to destroy what is left.