Show and tell has gone horribly wrong in a tiny outback town after children brought vials of liquid mercury to school, triggering a hazardous materials scare that shut down large parts of Cunnamulla.
Believing they'd found something special at the local tip, the teenagers picked up the small bottles and later took them to class.
"Thinking they'd do show and tell with the mercury, I think," Paroo Shire Council Mayor Suzette Beresford told AAP.
"They were high school kids who probably shouldn't have been at the dump rummaging."
Instead of an impromptu science display, the discovery has led to Cunnamulla State School, a BP service station, the hospital waiting room, seven private homes, a council depot and the town's refuse tip being cordoned off while authorities race to contain any contamination.
