During a routine beach clean-up at Wharton Beach, near Esperance in Western Australia, the Brown family discovered a glass bottle containing two handwritten letters dated 15th August 1916. Each letter was penned by an Australian soldier aboard the troop ship HMAT A70 Ballarat en route to the Western Front.

The first letter, written by Private Malcolm Alexander Neville to his mother, describes life at sea: “food is really good so far … we are as happy as Larry.” Records show Neville died in France in April 1917 at the age of 28.

The second, by Private William Kirk Harley, is addressed to the bottle-finder and notes the men were “somewhere in the Bight.” Harley survived the war and later died from complications his family say were caused by being gassed.

Ocean-science experts suggest the bottle may have settled in sand dunes for decades before recent erosion exposed it, making the find as much about coastal conditions as about history. Since the discovery of the letters, the Brown family has successfully located Neville’s great-nephew and Harley’s granddaughters; the letters will be returned to the families, while the bottle itself will stay with the finders.