Hero dad’s prized ring returned

Shock find comes 25 years after beach rescue

A GOLD ring lost when a father rushed into dangerous surf to save his daughter from drowning has been found on the same stretch of Tasmanian beach — 25 years after the rescue.

A metal detector enthusiast found the ring this week at Weymouth, in northern Tasmania, buried under 30cm of sand.

It was reunited with its owner after Tamar Valley man Wayne Nunn posted a photo of the unearthed ring on Instagram.

“I never expected to see that ring again,” said the ring owner, Weymouth father Ralph Berry.

The Instagram photo of the ring was spotted by his daughter Lauren McLean, who still remembered her Dad’s lost signet ring with the initial “M”.

“Mum gave Dad that ring and he always used to o wear it,” said Mrs McLean, who now lives in Hobart.

“As soon as I saw the photo I knew it was his ring straight away,” she said.

She also vividly re- called the day in April ril 1993 when her sister ster Georgia, then aged 12,2, almost drowned at the fam-family’s usual surf spotot at Weymouth Beach.

“She got caught in a rip and she couldn’t get back to the shore,” said Mrs McLean, who was 16 at the time.

“In the end there was a rescue mission and my Dad went out to help her and took off his ring and put it in his shoe.

“Later, when all the fuss was over, someone grabbed his shoes and the ring wasn’t there – it must have fallen out”.

When Georgia was released from hospital the next day, after recovering from hypothermia, Mr Berry went back to look for the ring.

“I remember having a bit of a look around … but finding things on a beach is a hopeless task,” he said.

Mr Berry, who received a national bravery award in 1995 for the rescue, said the ring was a present from his wife Maureen in 1967, a couple of years before they mar- ried.ri “I was disappointed to lose it – but I just thought it was one of those things in life you accept and move on.” “The best prize wwas getting my dadaughter back,” he saidsaid. MaureenMa Berry said it was incrincredible the ring was still thethere after so many years and so much fierce weather. She was shocked when her daughter Lauren showed her the photo of the distinctive ring on Instagram on Tuesday. “I was absolutely gobsmacked,,” Mrs Berry said. Mr Nunn found the ring on Sunday, and delivered it to the couple yesterday after being contacted by Mrs McLean. “I have turned up a few rings in the past and man- aged to track down some owners … I’ve also been approached on beaches to help find things for people,” he said.

Mr Nunn, from George Town, said a recent king tide had washed away a large volume of sand from the beach at Weymouth, which probably brought the buried ring closer to the surface.

“I was lucky to find it,” he said.

Mrs McLean said it was an amazing coincidence that she even followed the @tamardetectorist Instagram site of Mr Nunn.

“I think he liked something I posted on Instagram a while ago, so I went to look at his page and saw he posts interesting things that he finds with his metal detector ... so I started to follow him,” she said.

“But it’s all an amazing coincidence.”