Cows, long lost treasures: items washed up on Qld beaches
From the skeletal remains of what looked like a mermaid, to a cow and a wallet lost during a diving incident, see some of the weird and wonderful items that have washed up on Queensland beaches over the past four years.
Sunshine Coast
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From toxic canisters to a massive yellow buoy, a number of weird and wonderful items have washed up on Queensland’s beaches.
Over the past four years, curious beachgoers have stumbled across decaying corpses and more.
In May last year, police issued a warning to beachgoers at Cape Capricorn near Gladstone when an aluminium tin containing a toxic substance washed ashore.
The substance was reported to be harmful when handled.
In February 2023, Moffat Beach man Geoff Feeley found a “mysterious yellow object at Double Island Point”, south of the Leisha track on the Teewah side.
Maritime Safety Queensland later confirmed it was a yellow buoy but could not identify the owner.
Also in February 2023, the Port Douglas community was sent into a frenzy as what appeared to be a bloody severed human finger was found on Four Mile Beach.
Luckily, after the appendage was uploaded to Facebook Marketplace for a tongue in cheek “four digit” price of $1111, it was found to be a fake rubber prop that had been lost at sea.
In August 2023, members of the public were baffled when a comedically bucktoothed fish washed up on Sunrise Beach.
About 40cm long, it was confirmed to be a species of starry puffer fish called Arothron Stellatus by Queensland Museum ichthyologist Jeff Johnson.
In 2023, “grotesque” skeletal remains were found washed up in Keppel Sands in July 2023 that looked to beachgoers like “a mermaid”.
However, James Cook University environmental science emeritus professor Helene Marsh assessed the photos and said it was “definitely a decomposing marine mammal, most likely a seal.”
A $30,000 Rolex was found by pro surfer and environmentalist Matt Cuddihy while snorkelling to pick up rubbish off the coast of Noosa in 2023.
The rare Rolex Submariner watch was lost in 2019 and sat in the bay for four years until being discovered, still partially working, and reunited with its original owner.
The Brisbane floods in March 2022 saw many objects, from suspected adult toys to boats, show up on the coastline.
Beaches were closed on the Sunshine Coast when a large pontoon washed up and scattered plastic debris across Peregian Beach.
It was one of several that had become dislodged from moorings on a flooding Brisbane River and floated out to sea.
A cow was washed down the Tweed River by the March 2022 floods on the Gold Coast and wound up wandering bemused on Duranbah Beach.
It spent the day evading capture until a “moron” took a photo that spooked it and sent it running dangerously through streets where police shot it for safety.
In October 2022, Sunrise Beach resident Rob Watson was taking a lunchtime walk, when he stumbled across a “creature or organic matter” between Sunrise and Sunshine beaches.
Queensland Museum ichthyology biodiversity program collection manager Jeff Johnson said at a guess, and in the absence of a physical examination, its overall appearance seemed most consistent with the internal organs of a vertebrate.
Experts identified an alien-like animal with “hands” that left Maroochydore man Alex Tan baffled when he found it washed up on Cotton Tree Beach in 2022.
University of Queensland Associate Professor Stephen Johnston said the animal was most likely a swollen, waterlogged brushtail possum.
After losing his wallet 30 years beforehand, then councillor and former State Member for Cairns, Rob Pyne was shocked to have it returned to him in 2021.
It disappeared in a diving accident where he suffered a spinal cord injury that made him a quadriplegic in 1991.
A worker by the Yorkeys Knob boat ramp found the wallet, containing Mr Pyne’s old bank cards and his last ever driver’s licence.
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