Oops - one woman's treasure becomes her husband's trash

'Geoffrey' stashed the collection of bangles, bracelets and gold bars in plastic rubbish bags to fool potential burglars. Photo / Thinkstock

Two decades ago a Sunshine Coast couple amassed a small fortune in gold jewellery while working in Britain.

Over time, the investment's value increased to about A$50,000 ($59,660).

On the eve of the couple's 23rd anniversary last week the husband, identified only as "Geoffrey", threw it out with the rubbish.

Now he wants to scour the coast's garbage dumps to find it.

His chances of success, according to the local council, are zero.

It is most likely to be buried forever in a landfill that compacts 1400 tonnes of rubbish a week.

Geoffrey had decided to stash the collection of bangles, bracelets and gold bars - and other family heirlooms - in plastic rubbish bags to fool potential burglars.

A GPS system identifying his home address had been stolen with his keys some time earlier, and he was afraid the gold could be stolen if his house was burgled.

"I had this great idea to split the gold into three rubbish bags, so if the thieves did come, they're not going to find it," Geoffrey told Brisbane's Courier Mail.

"We're moving house, and I told the kids to give me any garbage lying around for me to throw out."

They did, and on Wednesday last week out went the gold to the wheelie bin.

Geoffrey did not realise his mistake until a call from his wife triggered a panicked memory.

"My wife rang me up to ask me where I'd put the rubbish and then [the] realisation I'd thrown it out - sick feeling and everything," he said.

"I rang the council up, lovely, young, very sympathetic, [and they] said, 'I'm sorry - there's just nothing we can do. It has been taken to Nambour."'

Geoffrey said he would be happy to head for the local tips with a metal detector.

The Sunshine Coast Regional Council said that if it had been alerted on the day the gold was trashed, there might have been some hope.

A wedding dress had once been recovered after a similar mistake, although no longer in any condition for the ceremony.

"The biggest difficulty we have is that we're not sure which tip it's gone to," council spokesman Gary Reeve told the Courier Mail.

"If it goes to the Caloundra tip, that receives 1400 tonnes of waste a week [and] that's compacted by a 52-tonne machine.

"It could be anywhere in that tip.

"While my heart goes out to Geoff, it's worse than a needle-in-a-haystack situation."

Geoffrey told the Courier Mail his marriage remained intact.

"We've never had a fight in the whole time we've been married and didn't have one now," he said.

But his mates give him a hard time.

"They keep ringing me up and saying, 'Hey mate, the price of gold has just gone up.'

"I'm like 'shut up will ya'."