CHRISTIAN Robertson has built a reputation among locals as the great comber of King Island.
More often than not, he is the person who stumbles upon the bottles, wreck souvenirs or ancient bones hidden in the islands forests and beaches.
Although "stumble" is a somewhat misleading way to describe Christian's treasure-hunting methods, which invariably involve hours of research, fact-finding missions and a fair whack of hard physical graft in his quest to unearth the island's historical nuggets.
For Christian, who grew up on the island and is a descendant of Scottish settlers, it was a passion that began early.
"I started researching the island when I was about 15 or 16," he said.
"Then I got into the business of collecting when I was in my early 20s.
"It's really just a result of my curious nature - you research one thing and that makes you interested in something else altogether, and it takes off from there."
Chief among his fascinations is late-19th- and early 20th-century bottles, many of which were used by early settlers of King Island.
He estimates he has collected up to 4000 bottles over the past 25 years.
"The early bottles used for basic items such as oils, food, and medicines were quite lavish and ornate," he said.
"I also enjoy it because it gives me a good insight into what the early pioneers lived on."
In order to find the bottles, Christian first has to estimate where the locals would have placed their rubbish tips.
Then it's simply a case of digging.
"I have been surprised where some of the rubbish tips have been kept. I even found one in the back garden," he said.
"But you can dig for hours and not find anything."
The numerous ships that have come undone by Bass Strait's tricky waters have helped swell the ranks of Christian's collections.
Divers will often bring him memorabilia from 19th-century wrecks, and he has spent hours scouring the beaches for convicts' and immigrants' unclaimed items.
He has recovered a skylight and Dutch East Indies coins from the Rebecca, smokers' pipes from the Blencathra, a woman's brooch from the Brahmin and a chronometer from the Cataraqui wreck.
Christian has found many messages in bottles during his searches, the most intriguing find being a recent missive tossed off a cruise ship near the Falkland Islands.
"Instead of a letter, there was a business card in it. It was a very modern message in a bottle," he said.
"The man - who was from the US - promised me $20 if I wrote to him at the address on the card and gave some information on the place I lived.
"He sent back the $20 bill, with a note saying that he had cast off 1500 messages and had received around 50 replies.
"My bottle had apparently travelled the farthest."
Then there is Christian's collection of skeletons, which includes the jaws of whales and dolphins, and parts from the extinct King Island emu (which died off in the early 1800s), wombats and the King Island quoll, which is also extinct.
To preserve them, Christian treats the skeletons with part acetone and part Tarzan's Grip.
"I think some of my favourite finds have been the skeletons of whales because they are harder to come across, you cannot chance upon them as easily," he said.
While some of his finds have moved on to the local King Island museum, others are stored in various nooks and crannies in Christian's house.
"I started off keeping everything in the shed, but it has now spread to take over parts of the house and the back rooms," he said.
While the enthusiasm for collecting hasn't waned over the years, those eureka moments of finding a rare skeleton or shipwreck trinket are becoming increasingly rare.
"It has always been hard to track down things and now it is getting even harder," he said.
"There are only so many things that can be found."
