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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Joe Hinchliffe

Dingo traps, saddles and a 1934 silver birthday cake for Melbourne: the long-lost treasure found in a Queensland shed

Melbourne Centenary Birthday Silver Cake Clock. Discovered after having been missing for decades found in a garden shed in Cawarral, central Queensland, Australia.  The clock made by James Steeth and Son, notable Melbourne silversmiths and makers of the Melbourne Cup, in 1934 to commemorate the centenary of the treaty between John Batman and the Wurundjeri which led to the settlement of Melbourne.
After being found in Queensland, 2,000km from its home city, the Centenary of Melbourne Birthday Clock Cake will go under the hammer on Sunday. Photograph: Gibson's Auctions

When the Harths bought their four-hectare block in Cawarral in central Queensland last year, it came with the contents of two garden sheds and a yard full of ornaments and oddities.

Cathy and Phillip Harth were not to know then, nor for some time yet, that among the dingo traps and copper pots, old-fashioned clothes irons and metal shoe stretchers, at the back of a shed full of horse blankets and saddles – gathering dust in a milk crate – were the pieces of something special.

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