Cardwell is on full UFO alert following sightings of strange lights in the night sky above the sleepy seaside village.
Local businessman Greg Smith said he and his son watched the lights for 15 minutes and are convinced that what they saw was some sort of UFO.
''This was a couple of months ago. I used to be the world's biggest sceptic about this stuff, but I'll tell you what, this really rattled me and my son,'' he said.
Mr Smith said they watched the lights from the front of the Lyndoch Motel on the highway towards the northern end of the town.
''There were two large orange lights. There was no beam and no noise. It was absolutely silent and they were moving slowly across the sky towards the north-west. We couldn't tell if the lights were from one or two machines. At first we thought they were over buildings between the highway and the beach, but other people said they were just out over the water,'' he said.
Mr Smith said he thought it must have been one or two helicopters, but discounted the possibility due to the fact there was no noise.
''And the lights were orange and there was no beam. Navigation lights on aircraft are green and red and they flash on and off . These were orange and they didn't flash,'' he said.
Cardwell resident Phil Mulley and his wife Helen saw the lights on two consecutive nights.
''The first night there was just one light and it was very bright. It was about 7.30pm. We thought it was a chopper coming up the channel. It was travelling at about 45 degrees to the horizon. We watched it for a few minutes and then it disappeared in cloud. The next night my sister rang me and said to look outside. I went and looked and there were two lights. We watched them for a while until they disappeared in cloud,'' he said.
Mr Mulley said he knew of at least six or seven people who saw the lights.
''The lights were bright orange and there was no sound whatsoever,'' he said.
President of UFO Research Queensland Sheryl Gottschall said she could not say what the lights were, but added she had no qualms in saying there were extraterrestrials which visited earth from time to time.
''I've been with this organisation for 25 years and in that time I've spoken to 3000 people who have seen strange lights and objects and to another 600 to 700 who have had close encounters,'' she said.
She said two brothers fishing in the Hinchinbrook Channel in 1995 contacted her to report a sighting of six UFOs in the Fishers Creek area south of Cardwell.
Hinchinbrook region UFO sightingsThe recent sightings have not been the first glimpses of UFO activity near Cardwell reported to the President of UFO Research Queensland Sheryl Gottschall.
In 1995 two brothers contacted her to report a sighting of six UFOs in the Fishers Creek area south of Cardwell.
This is an edited version of the report sent to her from the brothers:
"On May 13 1995 my brother 'D' and I were fishing between Hinchinbrook and Haycock Island. We had a flat battery and had to paddle our 4.2 metre boat back to Fishers Creek, arriving at 3am.
"We could not reach the boat ramp due to tidal rips. 'D' saw six UFOs about 30 feet in diameter disappear behind the hill at the mouth of Deluge Creek.
"Due to the angle of the boat I couldn't see them, however later I saw lights over the mangroves through a fog."
The writer then described in detail about how a rectangular fog 5m wide by 2.5m high came towards them from Deluge Creek 1.5km away.
He said the fog was white with a black strip running horizontally along the top. He described how another rectangular 'fog' came at them from Sandstone Creek, 3km away.
The fogs were of different colours, but were uniform in shape. At one stage he said he saw what appeared to be a black fish in the fog "then a black lizard like animal with no feet and then a second and third lizard".
"During the whole ordeal we couldn't move and we were at their mercy. It was with great relief that we had survived. I tried to connect mentally with whatever the force might have been but did not receive any signals," the writer told Ms Gottschall.
Most slow moving orange orbs are candle powered sky lanterns. After advertising for people who had seen unusual meteors - I gave no description - I received a dozen replies. Eleven were the orange orb type - sky lanterns usually described as travelling at "helicopter speeds" and in groups - usually line astern accounted for by the fact they come in packs of three and are released one after the other. Only one confirmed my sighting of the large asteroid "Itys" seen by two other people at 3:00 am in 2003 passing through the Earth's atmosphere on its second known appearance. Itys is very large asteroid between about 2 and 8 miles in diameter orbiting between Earth and the L1 point (where it spends most of its time) but with each successive pass it loses energy and its orbit is decaying towards the two body type. When Itys finally decides to stay it will be very bad news indeed.