NSW floods crisis: Ammunition washes up in rain bomb

One Camden family got a bit more than it bargained for when the floods deposited a mysterious box in its garden.

Bullet belts in a chest left by the Nepean flood. Picture: Jane Dempster

One Camden family got a bit more than it bargained for when the floods deposited a mysterious box in its garden.

Scott Boland, his wife Melanie and their five children watched the Nepean River engulf their home’s backyard, reaching higher than it had ever done, by 2pm on Sunday – to the top of the steps leading up from the backyard instead of merely the second or third step in previous floods, Mr Boland said.

The Nepean River dumped an array of debris in the yard – parts of someone’s fence, a football, a window and a sturdy chest.

When the children opened the chest, they found in it two bullet belts, replete with ammunition, and a firearm-cleaning kit, suspended above a pile of cases and boxes in a pool of rusty, orange water.

“That was just in the water with all the other stuff,” Mrs Boland said, as the children peered excitedly inside.

By Monday afternoon, the water had receded and was lapping at the back fence.

Growing up in Camden, Mr ­Boland said, he had seen occasional flooding but never this often. “Never like this,” he said. “Not three major floods in six, seven months. I’ve never heard the word ‘rain bomb’ so much in my life.”

The youngest child, Rocky, 10, was eyeing up the munitions chest, “Can we keep it?”

“Absolutely not,” was the firm response.