Century-Old Soldiers' Messages Discovered During Beach Cleanup
In an extraordinary historical discovery that bridges generations, a family cleaning a remote Australian beach has uncovered a 109-year-old message in a bottle containing letters from two World War I soldiers. The remarkable find occurred on October 9, 2025, when Debra Brown and her family were conducting their regular beach cleanup at Wharton Beach near Esperance in Western Australia.
'We miss no trash, so the bottle was just waiting there for us to find it,' Brown told Associated Press. The discovery has since captivated historians and families alike, providing a poignant connection to soldiers who served over a century ago.
The Soldiers' Stories
The glass Schweppes-brand bottle contained two handwritten messages dated August 15, 1916, from Privates Malcolm Neville, aged 27, and William Harley, aged 37. Both soldiers were aboard the troop ship HMAT A70 Ballarat, which had departed Adelaide three days earlier on August 12, 1916, bound for the Western Front in Europe.
Neville wrote to his mother Robertina Neville: 'We are having a real good time, the food is good. Except for one meal, we threw that in the sea.' His cheerful tone belied the dangerous journey ahead - the ship was reportedly 'heaving and rolling' through the Great Australian Bight.
Harley's message carried a more philosophical tone: 'May the finder feel as good as we do.' Both soldiers wrote their messages in pencil, a detail that would prove crucial to their preservation.
Preservation Against All Odds
What makes this discovery particularly remarkable is the condition of the paper after more than a century. Although the paper was wet when found, the pencil writing remained perfectly legible. Brown explained the likely preservation scenario: 'If it had stayed at sea or been exposed to the sun for long, the paper would have disintegrated.'
Experts believe the bottle likely washed ashore within weeks of being thrown overboard but became buried in sand dunes, where it remained protected from the elements for generations. Recent erosion from high waves likely dislodged the bottle, bringing it to the surface just in time for the Brown family's cleanup mission.
Tragic Fates and Family Connections
The discovery takes on added emotional weight when considering the soldiers' subsequent fates. Private Malcolm Neville was killed in action in France just months after writing his message, dying at age 28. Private William Harley survived the war but suffered two injuries during his service. He returned to Adelaide, where he died in 1934 from cancer that his family believes was caused by exposure to German poison gas in the trenches.
Brown successfully tracked down descendants of both soldiers, creating an emotional reunion across generations. Ann Turner, Harley's granddaughter, expressed the family's astonishment: 'We can't believe it. It really feels like a miracle and as if our grandfather has reached out to us from the grave,' she told ABC Australia.
Historical Significance
This discovery represents one of the most significant message in a bottle finds in modern history. Unlike many bottled messages that travel great distances across oceans, this one appears to have remained relatively local, preserved by the very sand that concealed it.
Historical records show that messages in bottles have been used for centuries, dating back to ancient Greek philosopher Theophrastus around 310 BC. During World War I, soldiers often used such methods to send messages home when conventional mail was unreliable or when they wanted to leave something behind should they not return.
The HMAT A70 Ballarat was part of Australia's significant contribution to World War I, where over 416,000 Australians enlisted, and approximately 62,000 were killed. Discoveries like this provide personal connections to these historical events, reminding us of the individual stories behind the statistics.
Continuing Legacy
The letters will be returned to the soldiers' families, providing them with a tangible connection to ancestors they never knew. For historians, the discovery offers valuable insights into the mindset of soldiers heading to war - their optimism, their concerns about food, and their desire to connect with loved ones.
As Brown reflected on her unexpected role in this historical moment: 'We were just cleaning the beach, and we ended up connecting families with their history. It shows you never know what you might find.' The discovery serves as a powerful reminder that history isn't just in textbooks - it's waiting to be uncovered, sometimes in the most unexpected places.