by PAUL TULLY
Warning to parents, bush walkers and children.
A live WWII 81mm mortar (pictured) has been discovered near the headwaters of Six Mile Creek between Spring Mountain and Ripley in the City of Ipswich.
It was about 500m from the White Rock car park.
Police called in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) who removed and detonated the live and potentially dangerous mortar.
The mortar was found by Matthew Draper of Camira who alerted local police who then alerted the ADF.
The images show what the mortar looked like before it was retrieved and detonated by the ADF.
Dozens of live mortar have been discovered in the past 75 years in the Goodna, Redbank and Redbank Plains areas.
Redbank was a major Australian and American training camp during World War II.
Military manoeuvres were undertaken in nearby bushland which is now surrounded by modern Ipswich suburbs.
Parents are reminded to warn their children of the danger and bush walkers, mountain bikers and horse riders should be on alert.
In 1943, a 12-year-old schoolboy John Watson died after a US explosive shell exploded at St Patrick’s School at Goodna (now St Francis Xavier School).
He had found it in bushland between Goodna and Redbank.
A report from The Courier-Mail of 24 February 1943 recounts the horror.
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