Overview
- The Brown family found a Schweppes bottle during an Oct. 9 cleanup at Wharton Beach near Esperance, likely freed from dunes by recent erosion, with two legible letters inside.
- The messages, dated Aug. 15, 1916, were written aboard the troopship HMAT A70 Ballarat by 48th Australian Infantry Battalion soldiers Malcolm Neville, 27, and William Harley, 37.
- Neville described good spirits and mostly decent food on the rolling voyage, while Harley wished the eventual finder well and allowed the note to be kept.
- Using names and an address in Wilkawatt, finder Deb Brown located relatives, who described the discovery as a miracle and shared family memories.
- Family accounts and records indicate Neville was killed about a year later in France, and Harley survived wounds and died in 1934, reportedly from gas exposure.