orange lights sky bundaberg
© Alannah HeiningerPhoto of the lights in the night sky.
UPDATE: A man has contacted the NewsMail with a possible solution to what was in the sky on Friday night.

"We were at Woodgate beach on Friday night when Chinese lights were launched from the beach heading in a south easterly direction," he said.

EARLIER: They weren't birds and they weren't planes... so what were the strange objects in our skies on Friday night?

People across Bundaberg spotted the shiny orange objects in the night sky and took to social media with some suggesting they were Chinese lanterns and others thinking there was a more otherworldly explanation.

Reports of UFOs (keeping in mind a UFO is simply something in the sky we can't explain) seem to be nothing new in the region - and I should know because I have reported on a lot of them.

But on Friday night I became the subject when I spotted two of these lights moving over the sky as I was getting into my car.

To me, they were not planes. Planes don't closely follow each other, they make a different kind of light and have a sound.

They were not comets or meteors because they moved too slowly and for a fairly long period of time.


According to Agnes Water UFO researcher Mary Rodwell, the orange lights do not fit the profile of satellites, either.

"The orange lights are very common," she said.

"It's really good to be as objective as you can but it doesn't fit with conventional explanation."

Ms Rodwell said the region was a hot spot for UFOs.

"It certainly seems to be a very interesting area, so it never surprises me," she said.

She said although reputable people including lawyers and psychologists had sightings, people were sometimes reluctant to come forward for fear of ridicule.

"Lots of those within the farming community have had things go on," Ms Rodwell said.

"Lots of farmers and their families have seen stuff."

Some residents also took to social media on Friday night to talk about window-rattling "explosion" sounds heard during the evening, which Ms Rodwell said could be attributed to UFOs, which she said travelled at high speeds.

"They come in so quickly that it creates this sonic boom," she said.

"It just depends where they are from and what they are doing."

Bundaberg Police said they were not aware of any fireworks happening in the region that night, and no reports of anything unusual were made.

According to various websites, sightings of unexplained orange balls are on the rise across the globe, with some people saying Chinese lanterns are indeed to blame.

However, some UFO enthusiasts argue while Chinese lanterns are responsible for some sightings, they are not responsible for them all.

What do you think? Were the objects something from another world, or simply lanterns going on a ride across the horizon?