Australian Navy finds and detonates bomb in Darwin Harbour

An unexploded ordnance found off the coast of Darwin has been detonated and removed. Watch the video of the explosion here.

A bomb found during excavation for a ship lift in East Arm has been detonated and removed.

Navy divers from the Australian Defence Force located the weapon, believed to be a heritage item from WWII, on Monday afternoon.

It is understood the search for the unexploded ordnance was returned to commercial divers on Sunday after five navy divers failed to find it.

ADF divers work on recovering a World War II era bomb from Darwin Harbour at the site of the proposed ship lift. Picture: Glenn Campbell

“The Royal Australian Navy dive team will remain in location for a number of days to provide expertise should the UXO (unexploded ordnance) be found,” a Defence spokesman said on Sunday.

“RAN Clearance Divers are highly trained and well equipped for underwater search and the rendering safe of explosive ordnance.”

Clearance Dive Team One executive officer Lieutenant Matthew Smith said his team was called in from Sydney to detonate the bomb.

“The divers were given a GPS position from the commercial authorities of where the last known position of the UXO was,” Lt Smith said.

“We then used plastic explosives to lay on top of the item and then we do a controlled detonation remotely, what we call a ‘high order’ explosion, which provides us with the confidence that the entire item has been disposed of safely.”

Lt Smith’s team battled against limited visibility of less than half a metre as well as strong currents but he said it was a “great opportunity to apply our skills in a real world scenario”.

“It’s also very satisfying to be able to hand the area back to authorities, and the general public, in a safe manner,” he said.

A 250m exclusion zone was established around the item last week, with boaties risking a fine if they were caught within the vicinity.

It was found off the coast of the East Arm location, about 330m south of the ramp facility.

The navy team moved in on Friday but after two days of searching they returned the search to commercial divers.

“While the location marker left by the commercial divers who found the suspected UXO has been found, the ordnance has not,” the Defence spokesman said last week.

A local historian estimated the UXO was either an allied mortar or a bomb.

“If it’s a bomb, it still could be an allied bomb or it could be a Japanese bomb or if it’s a mortar it’s definitely just allied.

“The Japanese did not use mortars here,” NT Museum and Art Gallery historian Jared Archibald said.