Shane Ryan
© UnknownUFO researcher Shane Ryan in a scene from Westall '66: A Suburban UFO Mystery.' A special screening of the documentary will be held this afternoon at the White Eagle Club in Turner.
Even though she was just a child, Terry Peck says she will never forget the day in 1966 when a low-flying silver disc landed next to her Melbourne School.

Witnesses described seeing a low-flying, shiny, silver-grey object, which was shaped like a ''cup turned upside down on a saucer'' and accompanied by five light aircraft.

That sighting by dozens of students in the Victorian suburb of Westall has become one of Australia's most controversial UFO reports, and the subject of an internationally acclaimed documentary that will be shown this afternoon in Turner, followed by an open panel discussion with the director and investigators.

The film Westall '66: A Suburban UFO Mystery says that students, staff and local residents watched a strange object hover overhead for several minutes, land briefly, then lift off and vanish at great speed.

''We were out playing sport on the oval. One of the kids yelled out 'look, look up in the sky it's flying saucers!' And I remember we all looked up and it really was a flying saucer,'' Ms Peck said.

People reported seeing a circle of flattened grass on the ground where it had landed and some said they observed men in uniforms cordoning it off and removing soil samples, before torching the area days later.

The documentary says the school headmaster called a special assembly to tell the students they were not to talk about it to anybody.

Australian UFO investigator Bill Chalker said Westall was one of the top 10 major UFO events in Australia. ''I think when people see the documentary they will get a snapshot of the experience. Westall is highly verifiable, there's lots of witnesses, there's physical evidence and military involvement.''

Mr Chalker said another UFO sighting in the top 10 took place over Goulburn in 1954.