Martin weibergs missing treasure

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Yes this is a great story , I did read a different version some years ago linked to a book Lady of the Swamp. Apparently his small boat did overturn in the bad weather but according to the story he had hidden the loot in a nearby cave, he was eventually caught by 2 police officers as he was spotted swimming back to shore in the moonlight, he was arrested with gold coins in his pockets.
 
I recall a geology excursion to Waratah bay in the 1960s, when we saw a number of shallow shafts along a stream's bank. The lecturer said that they were supposedly sunk in search of a treasure in gold coins (and we took the story with a grain of salt). It seems that it may have some substance....

But filling chests with sawdust to cover up removal of gold coins? Given the density of gold versus sawdust, it sounds an unlikely embellishment of the story...
 
Funny this pops up now. I discovered this story about 6 months ago and found it very intriguing. There is also rumoured to be a hidden treasure of Chinese gold and jewels hidden around inverloch. Awesome thought as i live about 45 mins from there. Wish i had a good metal detector. :lol:
 
I would think 5000 gold sovereigns would be to heavy for one man to carry.
Not to mention trying to swim with them when his boat overrurned :lol:
Plus replacing them with sawdust...Really :(
Sounds very odd.. :lol: lol: :Y:
 
Full sovereigns would weigh 155 Kilo's.
Half sovereigns half that.

I read about that a while ago.
Very interesting story from the old days.
 
bumdags said:
From what ive read there was a crew involved in the heist not just a solo effort. And that a farmer found some gold sovereigns in a dead tree he was cutting up for firewood decades later.
Man the picks and shovels lads :gemstone: :goldnugget: :lol:
Click to expand...
Ok cheers ,
I only read the story above. :) :Y:
 
Gravity said:
This one's got me going again haha , A must read about Lady of the Swamp her Father from rags to riches in the gold fields, some think the treasure is believed to be buried around or not far from the house.

http://www.oddhistory.com.au/gippsland/buried-treasures/
Click to expand...
"It was obvious that he must have had an accomplice as it would have been very difficult to transport 5000 coins with a combined weight of 1500 kilograms without anyone noticing". That would be 10 oz per coin! In fact, British gold sovereigns had a mass of only 8 grams, or 0.24 troy ounces, so 5000 coins would have a mass of 1200 oz or 37 kg, which many of us could tote in a backpack. Their value was one pound, so 5,000 sovereigns would be worth 5000 pounds at the time of the theft. The gold price only increased about four-fold up to about 1971 (although the coins would have been worth more as collectors items).

" No more of the gold was found until 1904 when a farmer near Inverloch found a stash of 75 gold sovereigns while chopping an old tree for firewood". Since this was only 75 pounds worth (about 18 ounces of gold) and sovereigns were currency, it probably doesn't mean there was a connection (I have heard many such legends, eg a farmer near Orbost who buried some in a tree when he went off to WW1 - but who was killed overseas).

Why spoil a good story though? A pity that such tales cannot be at least factually feasible (I don't think that there is too much doubt about this third story though, just the details).
 
I've always been interested in this story as my old man was involved in the search for the "Lady of the Swamp". The authorities called on all the local farmers who could ride/had horses to help with the search.

On a separate but similar note I was told by a very wealthy old man on his death bed how he had made his fortune. His story was from the early 1900s when he was still a young man & this is as I remember it :-
"I was dead broke & looking for work. It was the middle of summer & very hot & I was walking along a road/track in out back Victoria. The track was taking me to the next little town which was still a fair way off. This was back before motor cars were common. Thirst was getting to me & I could see a stand of gum trees a couple of miles off the track. I decided to make for them as I thought they would be on a water course & I knew I wasn't going to last much longer without a drink.
I was on my last legs when I got there to find a muddy hole with enough water to keep me going. After a drink I lay down to rest for a while when I noticed the skeleton of a horse under a tree just down from where I lay. I made my way over to the bones & found the skeleton of the rider as well.
I wasn't sure what to do.
Should I bury the bones or just report it when I got to a town. While wondering I noticed the remains of the animals saddle & a pair of saddle bags. I tried to pick the saddle bags up but the stitching was rotted & the bags fell apart spilling the contents. GOLD."
He proceeded to bury the gold & went on to report the death BUT not the gold at the next police station. He then worked as a farm hand in the local district for nearly twelve months before buying a horse & going back to collect his hidden fortune. He then used the gold (which he claimed to have mined if anyone asked) to set himself up with properties in quite a few country Victorian towns. I rented one of the properties when first married & he died while we were still living there. This is when he told me his story.
His opinion was that the deceased rider had passed that way one or two summers before him & he was also short of water & made for the water course as he had done but when he got there the course was dry & rider & horse died together at the spot. He had no idea where the original owner had found the gold ....whether it was mined or stolen.
I don't know how accurate it was but I could see no reason he would lie as he knew he was dying.
Rob.
 
If you consider that the sawdust could have been wet then is there a chance that the sawdust theory is viable and given that Martin was a carpenter he would have used what was on hand just a theory
Pagan P
 
pagan prospector said:
If you consider that the sawdust could have been wet then is there a chance that the sawdust theory is viable and given that Martin was a carpenter he would have used what was on hand just a theory
Pagan P
Click to expand...
Density of sawdust is 0.2, density of gold 19.3

So you would need to fit about 100 times the volume of sawdust into the chest that originally fitted the gold. The gold would have not filled a 2 litre milk bottle and the sawdust would have required nearly 200 such bottles to weigh the same as the gold.
 
Hotrob said:
I've always been interested in this story as my old man was involved in the search for the "Lady of the Swamp". The authorities called on all the local farmers who could ride/had horses to help with the search.

On a separate but similar note I was told by a very wealthy old man on his death bed how he had made his fortune. His story was from the early 1900s when he was still a young man & this is as I remember it :-
"I was dead broke & looking for work. It was the middle of summer & very hot & I was walking along a road/track in out back Victoria. The track was taking me to the next little town which was still a fair way off. This was back before motor cars were common. Thirst was getting to me & I could see a stand of gum trees a couple of miles off the track. I decided to make for them as I thought they would be on a water course & I knew I wasn't going to last much longer without a drink.
I was on my last legs when I got there to find a muddy hole with enough water to keep me going. After a drink I lay down to rest for a while when I noticed the skeleton of a horse under a tree just down from where I lay. I made my way over to the bones & found the skeleton of the rider as well.
I wasn't sure what to do.
Should I bury the bones or just report it when I got to a town. While wondering I noticed the remains of the animals saddle & a pair of saddle bags. I tried to pick the saddle bags up but the stitching was rotted & the bags fell apart spilling the contents. GOLD."
He proceeded to bury the gold & went on to report the death BUT not the gold at the next police station. He then worked as a farm hand in the local district for nearly twelve months before buying a horse & going back to collect his hidden fortune. He then used the gold (which he claimed to have mined if anyone asked) to set himself up with properties in quite a few country Victorian towns. I rented one of the properties when first married & he died while we were still living there. This is when he told me his story.
His opinion was that the deceased rider had passed that way one or two summers before him & he was also short of water & made for the water course as he had done but when he got there the course was dry & rider & horse died together at the spot. He had no idea where the original owner had found the gold ....whether it was mined or stolen.
I don't know how accurate it was but I could see no reason he would lie as he knew he was dying.
Rob.
Click to expand...
Rob, Talking about the old lady in the swamp, i was talking to an old bloke, and he said he was a mate of the bloke that was digging drainage for the lady in the swamp, and he told him where the swamp lady is buried before he went to qld to live, this bloke i was talking to would be dead now, but he said the old girl is buried on her property, The Bazza
 
Smoky bandit said:
I would think 5000 gold sovereigns would be to heavy for one man to carry.
Not to mention trying to swim with them when his boat overrurned :lol:
Plus replacing them with sawdust...Really :(
Sounds very odd.. :lol: lol: :Y:
Click to expand...
The weight would be an issue - but sawdust!!!
5000 sovereigns weigh 40,000 g (or 40 kg)
 

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