Court to decide who should be legal owner of historical coins found on Toowoomba Bypass site
A dispute over who is the rightful owner of a cache of 5600 coins buried on the site of the Toowoomba Bypass has entered the courts, as the treasure remains in government storage.
Toowoomba
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THIS three-part series from The Chronicle tells the story of how a cache of historical coins were buried on a Toowoomba family orchard, and how this treasure was miraculously unearthed on the site of the Toowoomba Bypass decades later.
After news broke of how treasure had been found on the site of the Toowoomba Bypass construction, almost everyone had an opinion on who buried the coins and what to do with them.
Toowoomba North MP Trevor Watts, Mayor Paul Antonio, and then Groom MP Dr John McVeigh all called for the collection to remain in the city.
In 2018, the coins were being kept in a secure location agreed between the Department of Transport and Main Roads and Nexus as the two parties and Queensland Museum discussed their future.
More than two years later, they’re still in storage.
The Chronicle can now reveal there is a dispute over the coins’ ownership, which began in April 2019, and has spilt over into legal proceedings.
Syd Volker, a farmer and descendant of the Müller family, and Toowoomba real estate agent and property developer Leon Carlile have both laid claim to the coins.
Mr Carlile, through his company Qld Hot Property Sales Pty Ltd, signed a contract for the purchase of the Müller properties from Mr Volker and his late brother Mark in 2014 for $2 million.
In January 2015, Mr Carlile lodged a development application over the site for the establishment of a 143 lot housing estate, to be known as the Kynoch Hills Estate.
At the time, designs for the Toowoomba Bypass included a twin-tunnel through the range at Mt Kynoch, with the entry planned to the west of the proposed estate.
But a late design change meant the bypass was to be constructed via a 30m cutting through the range, impacting the site of the proposed estate.
The State Government eventually resumed the land from Mr Carlile in late 2015 and signed a compensation agreement with him in March 2017.
After negotiations failed to secure an agreement between the two men, Mr Volker last week applied to the Toowoomba District Court to have the Department of Transport and Main Roads declare him the owner of the coins.
The dispute is detailed in a bundle of court documents obtained by The Chronicle.
Mr Volker is also seeking orders that TMR hand over the coins, or in the alternative, TMR pay him damages in an amount equal to the value of the coins.
The estimated street value of the coins, according to archaeologists, was between $23,000 and $30,000.
In documents filed with the court, Mr Volker’s solicitors detailed how his grandparents purchased and established a large, highly productive citrus orchard on the property where the coins were located, and how they would sell the harvest fruit from their home.
“Grandma Müller, as she was known to our client, ran the sale of the fruit and was known to collect all the coins in her large apron,” a submission to TMR dated November 1, 2018, reads.
“Once the coins were collected, Grandma Müller would store the coins in the family home. My client’s mother would often speak about the coins Grandma Müller stored throughout the house.
“At the time, a bag of oranges sold for ‘two bob’ which resulted in a florin being the most commonly collected denomination of coin.”
The submission stated that Adolph Müller would work the orchard with his younger son Charles – Mr Volker’s uncle.
“Charles knew about the location of the coins and the operation of the sale of fruit … After the death of my client’s grandparents, Charles would have stopped storing and saving the coins as he was known to spend the money generated from the orchard on his everyday expenses,” the submission said.
“It is believed that the coins were buried at this point in time by Charles Müller for safe keeping.
“The most recent coin in the collection is 1940, this coincides with the death of Grandma Müller.”
Charles Volker, a bachelor all his life who lived as a hermit until he was placed into care, died in 1992, leaving no living child or spouse.
Mr Volker’s solicitors said during the administration of Charles’ estate, several investigations were made by both the family and the solicitor acting for the estate into the whereabouts of the coins collected by Grandma Müller, and multiple financial institutions were contacted and the house and land were searched.
“The property where the coins were located had been in our client’s family from 1892 to 2014. Our client originally had no intention of transferring the land, however, was pressured to do so through the resumption of land in the local area,” the submission said.
Court documents show a second submission was made to TMR, following the receipt of an archaeological report on the coin hoard’s discovery, citing “great concerns” regarding the report’s factual accuracy and findings.
“The report has made several assumptions and has failed to support its conclusions with evidence,” the submission said.
“For example, the report assumes that Adolph Müller handled the coins and was the person responsible for burying them,” the submission said.
“This is plainly incorrect as advised in our previous submissions.
“It’s disappointing that the author of the report did not seek to investigate the matter further and corroborate evidence. This could have been achieved by simply interviewing the surviving members of the family.”
The report notes it was TMR’s decision not to involve descendants of Adolph Müller until the completion of the report “because of legal ramifications”.
Mr Volker’s solicitors also took aim at the report for devaluing the role Grandma Müller had in the operation of the farm.
“The report claims that the buried coins were not known to the family and further assumes that none of the children or family searched for the coins. This is again, completely incorrect and false,” the submission said.
“The report acknowledges that the coins belonged to our client’s family but gives no consideration to the value these coins have to our client and his family.
“The family searched for the coins for years. They tell the story of how the family operated, its past and founding in Australia.
“They tell the story of the family orchard, our client’s grandparents and the relationship between his mother, aunty and uncle.
“They are not just coins to our client, they are a part of him and his family’s history.
“They hold memories of past family members and carry great emotional significance to him.”
A separate affidavit from Toowoomba resident John Campbell was lodged in support of Mr Volker’s application.
In it, Mr Campbell described delivering newspapers to a Mr Müller who used to live on an orchard on the western side of the New England Hwy, and who started paying him in pre-decimal currency, many years after decimal currency started.
As Mr Campbell’s mother was a keen pre-decimal coin collector, he explained to Mr Müller that it was okay to pay with florins and shillings, he stated.
According to Mr Campbell’s affidavit, Mr Müller continued to pay in pre-decimal currency until he “ran out”.
“Mr Müller suggest to me that his brother had some more coins ‘put aside’ but did not have access to them,” Mr Campbell stated.
“The term ‘put aside’ made me think the coins were in a biscuit tin buried somewhere near the house on the orchard. I thought this because it was common practice for people of the older generation to store coins in biscuit tins and to bury them.”
In April 2019, TMR wrote to Mr Carlile inviting him to make submissions as to why Qld Hot Property, at law, had a superior right to possession of the coins over that of the State and Mr Volker.
Four days later, Mr Carlile’s solicitors replied asserting the “historical coins are the property of our client”.
“Pursuant to contact of sale dated 27 October 2014 our client purchased not only the land but also the property that comprised the land and also all of the other rights with respect to the land including but not limited to any chattels,” the solicitors said.
“All rights throughout the historical ownership of the land then passed to our client.
“Our client did not sell the subject land nor any of the other rights to the State of Queensland as the land was compulsorily resumed.
“Our client entered into a compensation agreement with the State of Queensland dated March 2017 that solely compensated our client for the value of the land and did not compensate our client for any of the other rights that our client had, including but not limited to the chattels.”
On May 21, Mr Volker’s solicitors issued a letter to TMR demanding they hand over the coins.
In the letter of demand, they claim Mr Volker remains “the true owner of the coins as he did not relinquish or abandon his ownership of the coins when he sold the properties to QHPS in 2014/15 either under the terms of the contract/s or at common law”.
The solicitors state that at common law, “abandonment” of property required very clear evidence of an intention to abandon.
“To the contrary, our client demonstrates an intention to maintain ownership of the coins because he was aware the coins existed and after 1992, when our client and his brother became the owners of (the land), our client demonstrated an intention to maintain ownership of the coins by undertaking efforts to search for the coins,” they said.
“For the reasons outlined above, our client has a superior right to possession of the coins over TMR and QHPS.”
The application is yet to be set down for hearing.
Mr Carlile and Mr Volker did not wish to comment as the matter was before the court.