Over the past 15 years, an Australian treasure hunter has made an impressive haul while diving around the world. The loot includes 50 safes, pistols, ammunition, a BMW motorcycle, thousands of bicycles, jewelry, and even some rare gold coins.
Leigh Webber found her love for treasure hunting while swimming at Bondi Beach where she stumbled upon a pile of coins on the seabed. Leigh, age 40 and from Sydney, is known as the Bondi Treasure Hunter. She specializes in underwater treasure hunting, from magnet fishing in Amsterdam to underwater metal detection in Ibiza and Thailand.
Her interest in treasure hunting started one summer day at Bondi Beach in her hometown of Sydney, Australia. “I am a surfer. I grew up surfing and even on calm days I like to be in the water,” she told MailOnline Travel. “One day there were no waves, so I went scuba diving and noticed there were coins on the bottom of the sea. I brushed the sand away and found even more coins. I came up with the idea that I would use an underwater metal detector to find more items. I started to fall in love with it because it was so much fun,” Leigh said.
Since then, Leigh has been fascinated with treasure hunting, but she has not been able to meet other treasure hunters and learn their trade secrets. “I want to meet other treasure hunters,” Leigh said. “Usually, I’ll send them a text or an email, and they don’t really care much about meeting someone they don’t know. They didn’t want to share their tricks, so I thought I’d shoot some videos and put them on YouTube. Then people can see me, and hopefully, I can meet some other colleagues and go on a treasure hunt together,” Leigh said.
As Leigh has dived and scoured the beaches of Australia, she has taken her hobby to the next level overseas. “I have traveled through Spain, France, Australia, and New Zealand,” says Leigh. “There is also the Netherlands, Ibiza, and Thailand. I’m currently making a camper van, and my plan is to spend the summer traveling around Europe looking for treasure.”
Leigh spent time in London wading in the mud on the Thames in search of treasure in the intertidal flats. Most recently, Leigh was in Amsterdam using her magnet fishing rod in the old canals of the Dutch city. She used magnets found in old speakers and tied them to a long wire. She has “fished” a lot of treasures, including pistols and bullets that she handed over to the police, thousands of bicycles, and even a BMW motorcycle.
Leigh kept some of the treasures she found, gave away some, and sold a lot of the other items she found. Some of her favorite finds include the Rose Noble gold coin from the 1600s and the luxury gold ring from the 17th century.
For Leigh, there’s no feeling quite like snooping around and finding hidden loot.
