The only mercury that usually rises in Cunnamulla is in the summer heat, until teenagers took vials of the dangerous liquid metal to school and shut down large parts of the outback town.
Believing they had found something special at the local tip, the teenagers picked up the small bottles and later took the toxic find to class for show-and-tell.
"Normally, the mercury only rises here in summertime," Cunnamulla Hotel publican Doug Faircloth told AAP.
