Torpedo washed up on Gold Coast beach
A Gold Coast beach was closed down on Thursday morning after a torpedo was found washed up on the sand shortly after dawn.
A police spokesman said the torpedo was found at the Spit, near Main Beach, about 5.45am.
It prompted an immediate 100-metre exclusion zone around the device, which was later identified to be a non-explosive Australian Defence Force training torpedo.
People were warned to avoid Main Beach after a suspicious device was found.Credit: Surf LIfe Saving Queensland
The discovery came amid heightened security tensions following unrelated Chinese navy live-fire exercises in the Tasman Sea this week.
Shortly before midday, police were able to confirm with the ADF that the device had been used in a recent training exercise off the coast.
Acting Inspector Leon Wort said the ADF boxed up the device and returned it to its depot.
“The ADF will ... work out what went wrong and why they couldn’t recover it,” he said.
It resembled a Mark 54 lightweight torpedo. Comment has been sought from arms manufacturer Raytheon, which produces the Mark 54.
Police at the scene on Thursday morning.Credit: Jason O’Brien/AAP
“Defence can confirm members from Joint Explosive Ordnance Support – South Queensland are assisting Queensland Police Service with the discovery of an Unexploded Ordnance (UXO), an Australian Defence Force training torpedo, at Main Beach,” an ADF spokeswoman said.
“As the source of the UXO items are currently under investigation, it would be inappropriate for Defence to comment further.”
Unsurprisingly, given its 13,352-kilometre coastline, Queensland has had its share of strange items washed upon its shores.
In 2021, 10 one-kilogram packages of cocaine washed up on Hinchinbrook Island in North Queensland.
A large shipping container found its way to a Moreton Island beach in 2018, while canisters containing toxic aluminium phosphide started appearing on beaches in 2012 – and continued to appear for years.
Royal Australian Air Force personnel had to blow up two marine markers that had washed up in the Whitsundays in 2015.
With AAP