A postcard sent from the battlefields of World War I has turned up in a busy Townsville shopping centre and will be delivered to the family of its intended recipient — 106 years late.
The postcard was addressed to New Zealander Roy Coombridge, from his brother-in-law Bert Cooke, but when cleaner Stephanie Schultz stumbled upon it last week, she originally mistook it for a discarded shopping list.
Upon closer inspection, she discovered it was an important piece of wartime history.
"I thought it was just another receipt and was ready to chuck it in the bin," Ms Schultz said.
"Then I noticed there was writing and I thought it [was] probably just someone's grocery list and I saw it was a card.
"I started reading it and I was just like, 'Why is he talking about the Turks?' and I was like, 'Oh my God!'."
A colleague of Ms Schultz pointed out the date stamp, which read 1915.
"We were shocked that a card that old was still floating around."
A heartfelt message
Bert Cooke was in his early 20s and serving with the Anzacs in Turkey when he wrote to his younger brother-in-law in Taranaki, New Zealand.
He said he was "going back to have another go at the Turks in a few days".
"It might be a long time before I can write again," Bert explained.
After reading the heartfelt letter, Ms Schultz took to social media without hesitation to try to track down the family.
"I just thought someone might say, 'Oh that's mine', but two lovely people have gone on the internet and researched the names and they found the son.
"Within 24 hours we knew [who] it belonged to."
Out of the blue
Roy Coombridge's son, Kevin, was shocked to receive a phone call this week telling him the century-old postcard had been found almost 3,500 kilometres from its intended destination.
But the mystery did not end there.
Mr Coombridge said he was baffled because the New Zealand-based family had no ties to Townsville, North Queensland.
"It just came out of the blue," he said.
"My only guess was the postmark says something about an army base, so I assume that must have been up in Queensland."
Family connection
Mr Coombridge said his father was much younger than Bert Cooke, and was just 14 when the war broke out.
"Bert married Dad's sister. He was quite a bit older than Dad, but took Dad under his wing," he said.
Their close relationship continued after Bert Cooke returned home from the war.
"Dad and Bert actually farmed together at one stage on the family farm in Taranaki," Mr Coombridge said.
Roy Coombridge never served in the war, but dedicated his life to service as a Methodist pastor, and father of five.
He died in 1985 at the age of 85.
The family is now working with Bert Cooke's surviving relatives to try to piece together more details about the veteran, who also lived to an old age.
Mr Coombridge said it meant so much to the family to be reunited with the card, which provided an emotional glimpse of the past.
"I didn't know Uncle Bert, hardly at all," he said.
"I remember he was a very quiet man. He had suffered quite a bit during the war, he had suffered from a mustard gas attack, I know that, so he was quite an unwell man.
Ms Schulz said she was excited the postcard was finally making the journey home.
"I'm going to send it registered mail so it can get to the son, so they can treasure it forever," she said.
