Auctioneer, antiques expert and television personality Tim Wonnacott was on a visit to film in Australia's capital, and stopped in at the National Museum to visit one of his more unusual finds.

After getting his start in television on Antiques Roadshow, Wonnacott now hosts the popular Bargain Hunt game show, in which contestants aim to buy antiques and sell them for a profit at auction.

Filming the program at an antiques fair in Leicestershire, Wonnacott came across an envelope containing four tiny pieces of gold, with a brief note on the outside addressed to a Mrs Thornycroft, with a reference to Emu Creek in Australia.

''I thought it was so unlikely for this thing to be discovered in a wet tent in England that it had to be not a fake or a fabrication - no one would fabricate a location in Australia and call it Emu Creek without there really being an Emu Creek,'' he said.

It is thought the nuggets were sent during the early gold rush at Grenfell in NSW, which was called Emu Creek for a short time, and the National Museum of Australia has since bought them for its collection.