Teen fisherman finds fairytale in bottle on central Queensland beach

Updated

A central Queensland teenager has made a once in a lifetime discovery on a school holiday fishing trip with his dad.

Bailey Baker, age 14, was catching whiting at Long Beach, near Keppel Sands, when he came across a bottle with a message in it washed up on the sand among a pile of driftwood.

"I was walking along the beach with the dog and there was a bottle sitting on the top of the beach with a note in it," he said.

"I was hoping there was a roll of hundred dollar notes in it."

Bailey, a regular beachcomber, said he didn't open the bottle immediately because he wanted to take it home and share the excitement with his mum, Fiona Knox.

"Mum's been looking for one for years," he said.

Whiting, lures and fairytales in bottles

Upon arriving home, Bailey showed his mum the bottle, along with the rest of the day's haul: 28 whiting and a mackerel lure.

"Bailey came in and showed me the lure first and he had the bottle in his other hand; I didn't even see the lure, all I could see was the bottle," Ms Knox said.

"It was really exciting because we had looked for one for years with the kids when they were little.

"I didn't expect to ever find one actually."

Once upon a time, there was a handsome prince named Raymundo. Raymundo was not searching for love. His heart had been broken by the evil witch Gertrude and he vowed never to love again. Instead, Prince Raymundo spent his time fishing and hunting.

After a bit of effort to get the bottle top off Bailey and his mum were surprised to find the note was actually a handwritten fairytale.

The two-page story centres around a handsome prince named Raymundo and his quest to win the love of an already-betrothed Samantha.

"I don't know what I was expecting, but I wasn't expecting a fairytale," Bailey said.

Who wrote it?

The hunt is now on to find the author of the story and trace the bottle's journey.

"I was surprised that it was a fairytale; I thought maybe someone would write where they were from and how far it had been," Ms Knox said.

The pair has little to go on, with the only clue being the date the story was written, in 2013, scribed in the top right corner.

"They had very neat handwriting [and] I think that it was written by a girl," Ms Knox said.

"Four years in the water is a long time with a lot of currents and floods. I thought maybe someone let it go off a cruise boat."

Nevertheless, Bailey and his mum are optimistic of a happy ending.

"I think with social media these days, we've got a good chance, so fingers crossed," Ms Knox said.

It is not the first time the family has found treasures washed up on Long Beach.

Bailey's father Lloyd has a bottle in his cabinet at home that he found in the same spot and says it is estimated to be about 170 years old.

"Old bottles, bits of boat … we found a car on the beach one day that was bogged and someone had just walked away and left it," Bailey said.

Her name was Samantha. They talked and danced for hours together. Samantha was immediately won over by Prince Raymundo's handsome looks and sweet charm. She also admired his noble steed.

While the search for the fairytale author continues, Mx Knox's plan is to eventually pass the story and the bottle on.

"We think with this one, we might continue the story and write the next chapter and send it on, so someone else can find it," Ms Knox said.

Topics: offbeat, lifestyle-and-leisure, adventure, community-and-society, children, family-and-children, keppel-sands-4702

First posted