WWII-Era Shell Explodes on Sunshine Coast Beach, Waking Residents
A World War II-era shell was detonated on a Sunshine Coast beach in the early hours of the morning, waking residents with a loud explosion. The 25-pound High Explosive projectile was discovered on Wurtulla Beach and safely detonated by the Defence bomb squad.
Residents on Queensland's Sunshine Coast were jolted awake in the early hours of the morning by a loud explosion, as the Defence Force detonated a World War II-era shell discovered on a local beach.
Police were summoned to Wurtulla Beach just before midnight after a group of friends, including Sean Mackney, stumbled upon an object while walking a dog at the base of a sand dune.
“She yelled out to me and she thought that she’d found a bomb and I was like, ‘What?’” Mr Mackney recounted.
Curiosity got the better of him, and he picked up the object, only to quickly realise what it was.
“I’m a bit of an idiot … I was shitting myself,” he said.
“The sheer weight of it was massive.”
“I didn’t really know what to do … we called the police and they were down there pretty quick.”
“I’m surprised nobody else had seen it and [wonder] how long it was exposed.”
Police officers secured the site until Department of Defence personnel arrived to assess the situation.
A Defence spokesman confirmed that the unexploded ordnance was “identified as a 25-pound High Explosive projectile (25 Pounder) from World War II”.
The device, weighing 11 kilograms, was detonated by Defence bomb squad personnel at approximately 4am.
For resident Rhiannon McPherson, the explosion was a rude awakening.
“I was woken by a massive bang,” she said.
“I thought maybe a bad car accident or something … it sounded like something really big had dropped onto cement,”
“I was waiting to hear sirens but didn’t hear anything.”
The Sunshine Coast region was utilised as a live firing site during World War II, and Wurtulla Beach is listed on the Defence website as having a substantial potential for unexploded ordnance.
The 25-pounder artillery shells, used extensively during World War II, were a primary artillery piece of the Commonwealth Forces until the 1960s.
According to the Defence department, these guns were manufactured in Australia from 1942 and utilised by the Australian Army until 1965.
The “high explosive” variant, measuring around 30 centimetres in length, contained a nose fuse and up to 900 grams of amatol — a mixture of TNT and ammonium nitrate.
The ADF’s bomb disposal squad responds to approximately 500 unexploded ordnance incidents across Australia annually.