When Brendan Haddon first saw the glass bottle flicker on a Bass Strait island beach, he initially didn't think much of it.
"It's not super uncommon to see a bottle on the beach," he said.
"But when I got closer and saw it had a note inside, I was pretty excited to see what it said.
"It's really interesting!"
The King Island local was out riding his motorbike on the beach with a friend on Friday when the pair made the discovery at Blow Hole beach, near Naracoopa, on the island's east coast.
"I've been going to this beach since I was a child, but never have I seen anything like this before," he said.
"There are a few English words in it and a few numbers, but most are French.
"One of my friends teaches French at school, so I'm going to drop it off at her place and she can try and translate it."
Brendan has since posted photos of the notes on social media, with one friend commenting that it could be a French love letter.
"It could be a love letter, but it also looks like it could also be an essay or a story or something," he said.
"It does have a date on it at the top which says Wednesday 8 July so it could only be a few days old."
King Island's Mayor Julie Arnold said it would be beautiful if it was a love letter.
"I'm really excited to see what it says, we could all use some happy news," she said.
"We do currently have a number of French backpackers working on the island so it could have been written by one of them.
"I hope it is older than just a few days though, that would be really special."
The pages are all double sided, and are drying out in Brendan's shed.
"They were really wet when we found it, it did have a lid on it but the water got through," Brendan said.
"I had to smash the bottle to get the note out."
Brendan suspects the bottle could have been dropped by a local, or a passing cruise ship.
"It could have been anyone really, a local may have dropped it, or it could have floated up on the beach," he said.
"Bit of a mystery!"
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