Circles on the field and other formations. Australia

This event consists of a single circle in Pullabooka, a very small town in the country, a little over 200 miles due west of Sydney. To its north is another small town, Wirrinya, which is sometimes given as the location. (Hence, we can assume that the circle was located between these two towns.) Further north is the larger town of Forbes.

This circle was discovered in December 1974, by farmer Viv Huckel (pictured above). Mr Huckel reported the circle to the local media, with ABC (the Australian Broadcasting Commission) paying a visit to the farm. In order to access the circle, ABC had Mr Huckel mow a pathway to the circle's edge, since the formation was inside a field of saffron thistles. These plants are tough and extremely prickly (a close-up of a saffron thistle is shown right), which is a powerful argument against the circle having been hoaxed.

The day after ABC were there, Australian film maker Diana Kearns headed to the site to carry out her own investigation. It is largely thanks to her (especially her account in The Cerealogist no. 4) that we have details of the circle.

The circle itself was centred on a bare patch in the field. According to Mr Huckel, the plants around the bare centre were "shredded" with more plants "broken up" towards the perimeter. At the edge of the circle, "the last couple of feet" of the circle floor, the thistles "were completely knocked down in an anti-clockwise direction, twisted up, and some had been torn out by the roots". In a separate note of the case by Keith Basterfield, the circle's dimension is given as 5.8 metres diameter. 

As Diana Kearns noted, the effort involved in uprooting these tough plants would seem to be prohibitive to would-be hoaxers - not to mention unnecessary, were a prank being conducted. Moreover, a thistle field would be extremely unreceptive to intruders.

Second event at Forbes

We know from various databases (for example, that of the Dutch research group, NOBOVO) that there was another event nearby, which was found on December 15. 

The location of this second circle is given as Forbes, which is a little way from Pullabooka, and the circle was slightly smaller than the one above. 

Independenty, we have some images from the Autralian press (below) - although it is not clear which of the two formations is pictured. In the photos below, we can see a sharp circle edge, and (not entirely clear) evidence of swirling on the ground.