‘Oh my god, is it really that?’ Four-year-old’s amazing discovery on WA beach

The 4yo was walking down the beach with his mum hunting for buried treasure - they discovered something even better. 

A four-year-old who was looking for “treasure” on a beach in Western Australia accidentally discovered a letter in a bottle sent more than 40 years ago. 

Walking down the beach in Lancelin, two hours north of Perth, with his mum Meg, the boy was on the hunt for buried treasure when he stumbled upon a glass bottle with something inside. 

It was a moment straight out of a film, as the mother and son discovered a piece of paper rolled up inside - a secret message in a bottle. 

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Meg and her 4yo discovered the message in a bottle, which was sent nearly 40 years earlier. Picture: 7News

“I haven’t thought about that in forever”

“We brought it home, and we waited for my daughter and my husband to come home, but we couldn't get it open,” mum Meg told 7News. 

She knew the bottle “had been there for a while” as it wasn’t in the best shape; the wax seal was corroding and covered in “barnacles”.

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When Meg’s husband came home, he managed to open the bottle with a little help of a knife and carefully pulled the letter out. 

They unrolled the paper, which was slightly soggy from the sea, but the date was clearly eligible: 1985. 

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That’s right, the little 4yo had discovered a letter that was nearly 40 years old. 

Strict instructions were written on the piece of paper: if discovered, please return it to the two teenagers who wrote it. It was written by Joanne and Louise, who were on holiday at the same beach when they were only 15 years old. 

The girls had hoped their letter would travel thousands of kilometres away to a faraway land. Instead, it washed up in almost the same exact spot it was cast out. 

Amazingly, the Perth family was able to hunt down one of the women who wrote the letter all those years ago; 54-year-old Joanne couldn’t believe the news. 

“Oh my god. Is that really that?” Joanne, the original writer of the letter, said. “I haven’t thought about that in forever.” 

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Joanne wrote the letter with her friend Louise in 1985, when they were both 15 years old. Picture: 7News

At the time of writing the letter, Joanne was spending time at her family’s beach house, inviting Louise and her family for the school holidays. It was there that then-15yo Louise came up with the idea of throwing a message in a bottle out to sea.

“We wrote it at night and sealed it with wax, and then we actually swam it out into the water because, at first, we threw it from the beach, and it kept washing back in, so we swam out the next morning,” Joanne recalled.  

Sadly, Louise, who wrote the letter, passed away six years ago after battling leukemia. 

Speaking to 7News, her sister Sarah recalled Louise’s fun and bubbly personality and love for all things “artistic and creative”.

According to Sarah, her sister would have got “such a kick” from learning that her letter had washed up on the shore all those years later. 

“Oh, she'd be so happy, she really would,” Sarah said. “Especially that a little boy found it as well after 39 years just sitting in the sand.

“As time goes on, you feel like they’re slipping further away from you, and then this message is such a wonderful thing that just came out of the blue.”

Originally published as ‘Oh my god, is it really that?’ Four-year-old’s amazing discovery on WA beach