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Cannonball found on Mornington beach by pair fossicking with metal detectors
Emma-Jayne Schenk, Maroondah Leader
September 23, 2016 2:42pm
UPDATE: A MYSTERIOUS object unearthed at a Mornington beach first believed to be a dangerous 120-year-old cannonball has been found to be non explosive.
Croydon Police Station was evacuated on Wednesday when a couple handed in a potentially live cannonball found at Shire Hall Beach.
The Explosive Ordnance Disposal team were called in and identified the item as a potential cannonball.
But further technical investigation has since revealed it to be of more modern construction with no explosive components, a Defence spokesman said.
Croydons Fairlie and Peter Pirouc stumbled across the 3kg missile on Tuesday using a $75 metal detector and joked theyd found a bomb.
Little did they know how perilous it could have been.
It was a few inches under the sand so we dug it out, popped it into our bag and went back to the car to have a nice lunch, Ms Pirouc said.
When we came home that night my brother-in-law said it looked like a cannonball ... but we were just mucking around.
It wasnt until the next day the couple decided to take the relic to the Croydon Police Station for further examination.
Within minutes, the station was evacuated and police officers were sent to a temporary site for two hours while Australian Army officers from the Victoria Barracks detonated it.
Croydon Sergeant Michelle Driscoll said the volatile situation was taken very seriously.
We didnt know if it would explode but it looked suspicious, Sgt Driscoll said.
It had a little hole drilled into it that was still plugged up so we didnt know if it had black powder in it or not.
Lilydale war historian Anthony McAleer said the cannonball would have been shot from an early 19th-century colonial Navy ship, when officers were carrying out practice shots from the sea.
A lot of those ships had guns that would fire something like that and it could have been sitting there the entire time, Mr McAleer said.
There would likely be more similar cannonballs in the area too.
Ms Pirouc said it had been an unbelievable and hilarious first encounter with her metal detector and believed the recent dredging at the beach had caused the item to resurface.
Sgt Driscoll urged anyone who found a suspicious item to ring 000 immediately.
It could have come from anywhere and if you are moving it in a bumpy car, that movement would be what would cause it to explode, Sgt Driscoll said.
