Carpenter's message in a bottle found in school spire 86 years later

Aug. 23 (UPI) -- Workers restoring a school in Australia discovered a message in a bottle stashed in the school's spire by one of the carpenters who originally constructed the structure in 1935.

Junction Park State School in Annerley, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, said Queensland Heritage Restorations workers found the bottle while working on restoring the spire.

The note, dated Oct. 12, 1935, was authored by then-16-year-old apprentice carpenter Gordon Benson.

Benson wrote he hoped the note would find its way to his children or grandchildren.

The school hosted a ceremony Tuesday where Transport Minister Mark Bailey presented the note to Geoffrey Benson and Marilyn Blundell, two of Benson's five children.

"Once realizing it was written by my father, it wasn't a surprise," Geoffrey Benson told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. "Dad always thought about his family, and his children, and the future of his children.