Rodney Stevens, Clarence Valley Independent

A band of adventurous brothers have unearthed what they believe could be remnants of a shipwreck on Yamba’s Main Beach.

Simon Vertullo said his family, who regularly holiday at Yamba, were at Main Beach on Thursday, June 7, when the inquisitive trio of George 9, Ted 6 and Joseph 2, decided to go exploring.

“We love coming to Yamba for holidays, we’re regulars down there,” Mr Vertullo said.

“We come down two or three times a year and we absolutely love the area.”

The boys became inspired, Mr Vertullo said, to search for relics when they initially found a large round piece of metal just north of the surf club.

“We took a photo of that and sent it to the boy’s grandfather, retired merchant seaman Captain Sean O’Mahony, who said it was part of the shaft of a large anchor,” he said.

After further foraging, budding archaeologist George spotted a small piece of metal sticking above the sand, Mr Vertullo said, and the trio began digging.

Armed with plastic beach shovels and water, Mr Vertullo said the boys spent more than an hour excavating around the object.

“The grew more and more excited as their shovelling exposed a key shaped piece of iron which was around one metre in length,” he said.

Located at the northern end of the beach beyond the surf club, the latest discovery was just metres from the original discovery of a large piece of iron in 2012.

“I think it had become exposed from some of the recent storms,” he said.

“After lots of hard work, and a bit of help from dad, they eventually exposed that second big piece.”

When they finally uncovered the piece of metal, Mr Vertullo said ‘the boys were pumped’. 

“It looked to have been there for some time based on the amount of rust and other damage from exposure to the elements,” he said.

“I thought it was part of something in the boiler room like part of a piston or something,” George said.

“Ted said he thought it might have been another part of the anchor,” Mr Vertullo said.

Captain O’Mahony is researching the boy’s find, to try to determine its origin.

Mr Vertullo said the boys would be interested to learn more about their discovery from any local historians who could shed more light on these rusty relics.

The boys said they will be back holidaying at Yamba in September on the hunt for more ‘treasures’.

This article appeared in the Clarence Valley Independent, 20 July 2022.