Hunt is on for hidden Coolangatta time capsule

What should have been a good way of looking back on the past has become a frustrating search for a Gold Coast school as they try to hunt down a decades-old time capsule.

A TIME capsule can be a wonderful way of looking back over the past but in the case of the Coolangatta State School, time can also be extremely frustrating.

As the school prepares for its centenary celebrations in February next year, it is hoping to open a time capsule which was buried on the school ground in Kirra 25 years ago.

The only problem is that no one seems to know exactly where the time capsule is buried.

School principal Sharyn Mahony said in the excitement of burying the capsule on the school’s 75th anniversary, no one thought to writer down the exact location of where it was put.

“It would be wonderful to have it opened on February 9, 2019 to see the photos and memorabilia from back then - all we have to do is find it,” Ms Mahony said.

To assist in the search, Coolangatta resident and ‘school mum’ Karen Preston and her daughter and student at Coolangatta Sienna, have been diligently and methodically working their way around the school grounds with metal detectors, covering in areas where they think most likely to be possible.

\Coolangatta resident Karen Preston, her daughter and school student Sienna and school principal Sharyn Mahony have all been working hard to track down the time capsule. Photo: Supplied

“Much of the ground is built on rock because this all use to be very swampy so we know it would have been too hard to bury a capsule in that part of the school,” Ms Preston said.

“I have been at it for a couple of months now, working on a grid system and while I have detected things, it hasn’t been what we are after.

“My detector can go down about 90 to 100cm and some of the gardens beds have been built up so it really could be anywhere.”

Ms Mahony said the school had put up requests on its Facebook page about the capsule’s location and while they have had plenty of suggestions, people really “have no idea”.

Not deterred, the search for the capsule will continue and both Karen and Sienna Sienna Preston, Ms Mahony and the school community hope that find the capsule is really only a matter of time.