WHEN Warren Rowlands walked in to the NewsMail office yesterday claiming to have a cannonball dating back to before Captain Cook; I was a little bit sceptical.

The fact Warren claimed he found it at Riverview on the Elliot River made it even more difficult to believe.

But after talking to Warren, smelling the "cannonball" and ringing the Childers museum I became a believer. That was until we rang the Brisbane Museum. At first they laughed it off as a joke, saying it was just a rock and I put the story on the back burner. I'm not sure what happened at the museum but at 5pm they called journalist Ashley Clark to say they were mistaken.

A geologist said it wasn't a rock and another expert now thinks it may be an Indonesian cannonball or an early grenade.

Whatever it is it's a pretty astonishing find for Bundy and I can't wait to get to the bottom of the story.