CLONTARF HILL’S friends group believes it may have unearthed a relic which may be linked to a secretive World War II operation, while weeding on Clontarf Hill.

The friends were chopping back weedy trees when they found a rusty car body, which has been tentatively identified as an army Jeep from the 1940s.

• Billie and Jade Chipper investigate Clontarf Hill’s mystery car while mum Kellie Bennett and Friends secretary Jozina de Ruiter look on.

As part of the Fremantle coastal defence during the war, a searchlight was set up on the hill and some slit trenches remain. In 1944 a special operations camp was set up to support Z-Unit which was developing folding submarines to attack enemy ships.

Now they’ve chopped the weeds down, the Friends have to put something back, so they’re holding a big planting day on Sunday July 30 from 9.30am.

They’re hoping to get 800 trees into the ground this year.

There’ll be a barbecue afterwards. Meet on Clontarf Road at the bottom of the hill.

by STEVE GRANT