I recall there were sightings of unidentified objects in the sky at the time of Fred's disappearance from people viewing the sunset in the Frankston-Rosebud area. Later that year in December, there were also reports of lights in the sky in New Zealand which was captured on film by an Australian journalist. MOre info about that here.
The New Zealand UFO / Airplane Encounter of December, 1978-UFO Casebook Files