Bill Chalker has been intrigued by UFO reports since about 1966, when his home town of Grafton, in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, became the focus of UFO activity that attracted national headlines. He began undertaking deeper research and investigations from 1969, when his home region of northern NSW again became the focus of UFO reports. The 1969 publication of the notorious Condon Report, which concluded that there was nothing of scientific value in studying UFOs, had a different effect on Chalker. He realized there was a massive disconnect between its conclusions and the actual case studies. More than a third of their cases were unexplained.
He joined the American-based Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO), which confirmed his growing awareness of the global dimensions of the UFO mystery. He eventually became its Australian representative. He also joined the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) and served as its NSW representative for a number of years.
Between 1971 and 1974 while studying chemistry and mathematics at the University of New England (Australia), Chalker investigated UFO sightings in such areas as Kempsey, Tyringham on the Dorrigo plateau, Mount Butler near Armidale, and the northern rivers area of NSW. He became a coordinator of the Sydney-based UFO Investigation Centre (UFOIC) soon after moving there in 1975. He continues coordinating UFOIC activity, compiling the group’s history, and consolidating case data and material gathered over more than six decades.
Chalker has decades of experience in chemistry, laboratory management, and quality assurance. His UFO research interests include physical evidence, pre-1947 UFO events, and government investigations. His research has been published in Flying Saucer Review in the UK, the MUFON UFO Journal, the APRO Bulletin, CUFOS’s International UFO Reporter (IUR), UFO Research Australia Newsletter, Australasian Ufologist, Fate, Rolling Stone, Australian Penthouse, Fortean Times, and New Dawn. He was a contributing editor to IUR.
Chalker also has an interest in alien abduction research and collaborated with psychologists in the 1980s by documenting many such cases. Since 1999 he has focused on the biochemical DNA dimensions of this controversial area, particularly with his breakthrough research on the controversial “alien hair” from Peter Khoury’s abduction experiences in Sydney, Australia.
He has also looked into the fascinating UFO scene in China, effectively validating the global reality of the UFO experience. Chalker has been to China three times since 2002, forging excellent research ties with Chinese UFO researchers and lecturing there at the Dalian UFO conference in 2005 and at universities in Kunming and Beijing in 2006. During 2006 he was able to research UFO and mystery light phenomena in Thailand, particularly focusing on the fascinating Naga light festival near Nong Khai where strange lights come out of the Mekong River. During October 2006 he was able to capture the phenomenon on video.
Chalker has had two commercial books published: The OZ Files: The Australian UFO Story (Duffy & Snellgrove, 1996) and Hair of the Alien: DNA and Other Forensic Evidence of Alien Abduction (Paraview Pocket Books, 2005).
Since 2005 he has maintained a blog, The OZ Files, covering research, investigation, and commentary on the UFO/UAP subject. It includes links to his other blogs addressing historical UFO reports in Australia, science and the UFO controversy, the alien DNA paradigm, and his other interests.