Pink night-sky glow lights up Australian city of Mildura

The pink glow lit up the skies above the regional Victorian city of Mildura. Photo / Twitter

Residents of the Aussie city of Mildura took to Twitter this week to work out why an eerie pink glow was lighting up their skies.

Local Tim Green shared photos of the strange sight, asking others if there were "any reports of this scary but brilliant sky over Mildura tonight??".

The photos, taken of the skies over the regional Victorian city, near the border with New South Wales, look like something out the Stranger Things finale, so locals could hardly be blamed for feeling uneasy.

"I saw it too Tim," another resident replied. "You have a better view though. Great photos. Looks like Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

Hey @JaneBunn any reports of this scary but brilliant sky over Mildura tonight ?? pic.twitter.com/3WZ7FZj1zp

— Tim Green (@Tim_Green78) July 19, 2022

While many were jokingly questioning whether it was aliens or the Upside Down, ABC reporter Sarah Tomlinson also shared a photo of the lights on Twitter, revealing the real reason for the phenomena.

"Mildura and surrounds were treated to a spectacular sight tonight when a red light appeared in the sky," she wrote. "Was it aliens? An aurora?

"No, it appears to have been the hydroponic lights from a medicinal cannabis farm reflecting off cloud which is somehow the most Mildura answer ever."

Yes, fortunately (but also boringly) the answer was shared with ABC Mildura-Swan Hill by the company that owns the farm.

"As you might know, cannabis grows on an extended day length. The flowering zone is 12 hours light and 12 hours dark, which is normally 7am to 7pm," Cann Group chief executive Peter Crock said.

"With the new zone coming into use in the next day or two, we have had the lights on. Normally, the blackout blinds close at the same time as the sun sets, but last night we had the lights on and the blinds hadn't yet closed, so there was a period where it created a glow.

"At 7pm when we put the plants to sleep the lights went off."

One commenter on Twitter summed the whole thing up very nicely when they said: "Another great tourist attraction for Mildura. Come and see the lights from the dope farm."