Around July 6, 2026, Wayne Johnston, mayor of Meander Valley in northern Tasmania, got a message from a neighbor about strange lights over Mother Cummings Peak, a 1,255-meter summit on the Great Western Tiers escarpment. He went out to look. They were back the next night, and on most clear evenings after that.

By August, Johnston told the local news site Pulse Tasmania that up to six lights could be seen at once. Each stayed up for about 45 minutes and moved at sharp angles. People first thought they were rising over Western Creek, a settlement below the peak, but residents there said they were higher up the mountain. Johnston said they could be seen from 20 to 30 kilometers away. One local watched through binoculars and took photos, and several people across northern Tasmania have shot video.

His first thought was drones. But commercial drone pilots told him a drone battery wouldn’t last long enough for the flights people were describing. Johnston said he hoped for a logical explanation rather than jumping to aliens. “We just can’t explain what they are,” he said. He suggested someone with a high-resolution camera could get better footage.

No official investigation has been announced. Nightly lights over the same remote ridge for weeks could point to something regular, like a planet or star setting, aircraft on a route, or people working on the mountain. None has been ruled out publicly.