Question  Ordnance Identification Assistance

"I am seeking advice about the appropriate response to an unidentified object that has the potential to be UXO. Having now carried out some research, I suspect it is some form of very old artillery shell (75 mm?)".

"I have attached digital photos showing a plan view and along section view of a metallic (heavily corroded, but there is evidence of a brass or bronze casing beneath the corrosion layer) object which I found eroding out of a soil profile in Busselton, Western Australia when I was doing some work there a few weeks ago. The site is a public park next to the Vasse River on the edge of the main business precinct in Busselton. The object was underneath a very old Peppermint tree, and I estimate that it must have been in the ground for at least 50 - 80 years. My tentative dating of bottles in soil at the same location (presumably the park is an old landfill) is that they are pre world war 2 and possibly from the 1900s. The riverbanks are very unstable at this location (which is why I was investigating the area), and a large amount of debris is falling into the river."

"As the object was about to fall into the Vasse River and I thought it was of historical significance, I brought it back to Perth. Having done some research while on leave the last couple of weeks, this is looking like it was an act of monumental stupidity. The object is now in my front garden and the families have been warned to stay clear of it."

"Apart from the immediate issue of assessing and managing the risk of the object in my garden, there is potentially a larger problem of very old UXOs in a very public park."

Prior to uploading this question to the UXO-Blog, UXOInfo.com responded to the initial email request instructing the researcher to call the proper local authorities to respond. If you have any thoughts on what the item may be, please post them as comments to this article, thank you.