ASIS and the UFO Question: Australia's Secret Intelligence Link to Flying Saucers

In 1954, Australia’s Foreign Minister Richard Casey was quietly seeking answers about flying saucers through official government channels. Inside National Archives file M1148 — Flying Saucers 1954 to 1955, one line changes the significance of the story: “Dictated over telephone by Mr. Brookes on 23/2/1954.” Alfred Deakin Brookes was then leading the Australian Secret Service, the organisation that would soon become ASIS. In Episode 80 of UFO to UAP Explained, we investigate how Australia’s founding foreign-intelligence chief became involved in passing information between Casey and Britain’s Directorate of Scientific Intelligence—and why that archival connection matters.

The investigation then jumps forward almost seventy years to the modern UAP era, where Australian Defence has confirmed receiving classified analysis from the United States while participating in Five Eyes discussions about unidentified anomalous phenomena. The episode separates what the evidence proves from what remains unknown: there is no public evidence of a dedicated ASIS UFO program, but there is a documented historical intelligence connection and a modern Australian role in allied UAP information sharing. The question is no longer simply whether Australian intelligence ever encountered the UFO issue—it is how much of that intelligence history remains outside the public record.

Episode Timestamps:

(0:00) The 1954 memorandum that changes the story(2:10) Alfred Deakin Brookes revealed as Australia’s secret intelligence chief(4:05) M1148 — Richard Casey’s flying-saucer investigation(6:20) The origins of the Australian Secret Service and ASIS(8:50) Britain’s Directorate of Scientific Intelligence enters the case(11:20) What Casey was actually trying to discover(13:35) Australia’s wider government and scientific UFO inquiry(15:45) ASIS vs ASIO — why the distinction matters(17:30) The archive goes dark: why ASIS records are difficult to trace(19:45) Seventy years later: Australia seeks UAP intelligence from the United States(22:20) Classified U.S. analysis and the Five Eyes UAP connection(24:40) What the evidence proves—and what it does not(26:45) Could ASIS collect foreign UAP intelligence today?(28:20) The one line that survived and the unanswered question

Sources:

National Archives of Australia — History of Australian intelligence and security;

Australian Secret Intelligence Service — Our Story and Who We Are;

National Archives file M1148 — Flying Saucers 1954 to 1955;

Project 1947 — Australian government archival research documenting Richard Casey’s 1954–55 interest in flying saucers and his use of overseas and scientific channels;

Australian Department of Defence — FOI 710/23/24;

U.S. All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office — Five Eyes UAP Caucus Working Group records concerning the May 2023 Five Eyes UAP collaboration framework.

Keywords:

ASIS UFO, ASIS UAP, Australian UFO files, Alfred Deakin Brookes, Richard Casey UFO, Australian Secret Intelligence Service, Australian Secret Service, flying saucers Australia, Australian intelligence UFO, M1148 Flying Saucers, Australian government UFO files, Five Eyes UAP, classified UAP intelligence, Australia UAP, Australian Defence UAP, UFO intelligence, UAP intelligence sharing, British Directorate of Scientific Intelligence, UFO history Australia, UFO to UAP Explained