{"id":25517,"date":"2026-06-05T13:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/25517\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T13:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:04:08","slug":"wa-hobbyist-treasure-hunter-strikes-gold-at-madora-bay-beach-after-stormy-wa-long-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/25517\/","title":{"rendered":"WA hobbyist treasure hunter strikes gold at Madora Bay Beach after stormy WA long weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">An amateur treasure hunter has struck gold at a WA beach, collecting a bagful of historic coins along the shore after last weekend\u2019s powerful WA Day long weekend storm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">Local metal-detecting hobbyist Bill Allerton thought he\u2019d try his luck at Madora Bay Beach, beside where the stairs were dramatically ripped away from the access point just days earlier.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">But it wasn\u2019t just a couple of dollars he walked away with, as the local bagged a haul of coins that have been out of circulation in Australia since the decimal currency was introduced in 1966.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">Along with $1 and $2 gold coins, Mr Allerton told <a class=\"css-445i33-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.6pr.com.au\/wa-storm-unearths-hidden-treasure-rare-coins-found-on-mandurah-beach\/\">6PR<\/a> his bounty included threepences, sixpences, an old penny from 1915, a root penny from 1954, and even a floren.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">\u201cWhen I first started, it was all goldies at the beginning, and the cut of the sand is probably like looking at the roof of your house, it\u2019s massive. And as I walked down, the cut got deeper, and I think, \u2018Oh, all these 5c pieces\u2019 \u2014 well I thought they were 5c,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">After a closer inspection, the amateur collector realised just how old some of his coins were.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/9a992a5923058743dda96569cd0e5dd1719b2f8f.jpg\" alt=\"Drone footage taken from above Madora Bay beach shows the damage left by a storm surge overnight.\" class=\"css-16r7l45-StyledImage en5ut4d0\"\/>Camera IconDrone footage taken from above Madora Bay beach shows the damage left by a storm surge overnight. Credit: Andy Carolan Photography<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">\u201cI said to the wife, \u2018Well, I\u2019ve got to go back and have another crack at this\u2019, so I went back the next day again, just coin after coin after coin, and then I went back again in the afternoon, and did again, and I haven\u2019t been back since,\u201d Mr Allerton said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">\u201cI\u2019ve probably done 80 meters of what, probably a kilometre beach that\u2019s cut out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">He said many of the coins were sitting on the surface of the sand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">However, Mr Allerton suggested it was due to the steep cliff the storm had created.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">The amateur collector admitted it was his luckiest haul at the location.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">\u201cIt\u2019d be probably 20 foot of sand, because from the top of the stairs down has completely gone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">\u201cI don\u2019t normally do very well on the beach, that\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve got like coins like that on the beach.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An amateur treasure hunter has struck gold at a WA beach, collecting a bagful of historic coins along&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3880,152,2004,335,464],"class_list":["post-25517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-perth","tag-mandurah","tag-news","tag-offbeat","tag-perth","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}