Frederick William Birmingham

Frederick’s father was a civil engineer named William Samuel Birmingham (1791-1848) who probably helped him get his first job, aged 17, assisting with a major project to survey the West of Ireland. He then spent the next eight years surveying Ireland and England before moving to New York.

 

In 1852 he arrived in Australia. After an extended stay in Victoria, he settled down in Parramatta, New South Wales where he rented an office in Fennel Street. On April 20, 1855, he took up a draftsman’s position in the Surveyor General’s Department. As a man of integrity and ability, he was elected as an alderman in 1865 and then again in 1867. 

 

In July 1868, Birmingham had his first encounter with a "UFO vision" - a "machine to go through the air" - a flying "ark" in Parramatta Park which he later wrote in his Memorandum Book of Fred Wm. Birmingham, the Engineer to the Council of Parramatta. A machine to go through the air. A.D. 1873.

 

For more information, please click link to Birmingham’s Ark: An airship from the spirit world Part 1 and Part 2 By Chris Aubeck

or read Bill Chalker's post on Frederick William Birmingham on his blog The OZ Files 

 

Neera Sahni, Research Services Leader, 2014