(CBS, KYMA/KECY) - A painter discovered a 122-year-old message in a bottle after it was hidden in a wall cavity at one of Australia's oldest lighthouses in Tasmania.

The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) told Storyful the specialist painter who made the discovery was treating a section of the Cape Bruny Lighthouse when he stumbled upon the bottle in early April.

"While chipping away at the rust, he noticed something unusual lodged in the wall. Upon closer inspection, he uncovered a sealed glass bottle containing a message," TMAG said.

Footage shared with Storyful by the museum shows conservators working to carefully extract the letter on July 14.

Inside the bottle was an envelope containing a letter dated January 29, 1903.

The author, J.R. Meech, Inspector of Lighthouses for the

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