The miracle in a bottle! Letters from 1916 found

MESSAGES in a bottle written by two Australian First World War soldiers in 1916 have been found more than a century later on their homeland’s coastline.

- By Rod McGuirk

Note...one of the letters and, left, the old bottle discovered

Inside the glass were cheerful letters written in pencil by Privates Malcolm Neville, 27, and William Harley, 37, dated August 15, 1916. Their troop ship HMAT A70 Ballarat had left Adelaide on August 12 for the long journey to reinforce the 48th Australian Infantry Battalion on the battlefields of France.