Beach Patrol's Colleen Hughson said she was cleaning near Terry's Beach on Saturday ahead of the 'Spring Clean Your Patch Event' when she came across an unfamiliar metal object.

"I found this thing yesterday that looked like a cannister and I didn't know what it was," Ms Hughson said.

"We were cleaning up at Terry's Beach last night and I took it home and I put it on Facebook asking if anyone knew what it was.

"This morning, I was doing some searching online and I came across something that looked similar and it said 'if you find this, do not touch it, call the police or the military immediately'.

"It didn't have any writing on it, so I thought I better contact the police about it. I sent them through some photos and then the bomb squad called me.

"They told me to get everyone out of the house and warn the neighbours. They told me to sit tight and they would treat it like a bomb.

"They told me they might have to close down my whole street. I was freaking out.

"They called back and said it wasn't a bomb and I could go home. Turns out it was a submarine flare, and the military had left Melbourne and were coming to pick it up."

The flare was collected by Australian Defence Force's explosives team just after 4pm today.