back to article eBay shopping lands wild colonial in lock-up

A 35-year-old man from the country town of Castlemaine in Victoria has been remanded in custody to face court after spending $AU17,000 on eBay buying bomb-making equipment. Phillip Marsh has told the Bendigo Magistrates Court his intention was to “make fireworks”, after amassing a collection that included potassium nitrate, …

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  1. frank ly

    Ahhh, memories

    I remember making 'fireworks', using potassium nitrate, charcoal and sulphur, back in the '70s. Those were the days, when you could make small and simple explosive devices and nobody minded provided you didn't cause damage or inconvenience. Those were also the days when pure and unadulterated sodium chlorate could be bought by the pound at a garden supplies shop.

    I don't remember being able to buy detonator cord or anti-personnel mines though. Maybe I wasn't old enough.

    1. /dev/rant
      Coat

      unadulterated sodium chlorate

      "Those were also the days when pure and unadulterated sodium chlorate could be bought by the pound at a garden supplies shop."

      I can get you all the NaCl (aka. salt) you want. Where do you want it delivered?

      1. frank ly

        I'll take that with a pich of salt

        A little Wikipedia would take you a long way.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sulphur, Potassium Nitrate, Charcoal

    Is he the reincarnation of Guy Fawkes?

  3. Phil 54
    Flame

    Not just the 70s

    We used to nick everything we needed to make black powder from school, although I seen to remember buying the ingredients from the pharmacy as well. My favorite was sugar and potassium nitrate mixed up and rolled in newspaper, made a wicked smoke bomb. Powdered magnesium and homemade thermite were fun too. That was in the 80s and early 90s, when it was considered more nerdy than terroristy. Oh look, a new word!

  4. Frostbite
    Joke

    XXXX

    He wouldn't give a "Castlemaine XXXX" for any other auction web site.

  5. Dr Patrick J R Harkin

    "activated within 15 minutes"

    That's quite a loooong fuse....

  6. Androgynous & Awkward
    WTF?

    @/dev/rant

    The 'salt' bomber?

    Stick to computers.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    good to know

    That eBay are monitoring us. I wonder if their pre-crime division also report you for buying the wrong sort of political books or any other of the remnants of free thought.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    “activated within 15 minutes”

    Sounds very familiar....Iraq...WMD...45 minutes. Someone remind me how that went.

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