Unexploded WWI bomb found in Aussie museum

An unexploded World War I bomb has been  found in a Victorian museum.

More than 100 people have been evacuated from the Ballarat museum after staff discovered the bomb on Thursday afternoon.

The German weapon was found by a volunteer who was repacking  Sovereign Hill Gold Museum's collection, director Tim Sullivan said.

''We didn't have enough information to tell us whether it was  inactive so we've taken it (the evacuation) as a safe course,'' Mr  Sullivan told AAP.

The bomb was part of a collection of eight that came to the  Victorian museum in the early 1980s.

Police confiscated seven of the bombs, but the remaining weapon  was used as a display item.

Police have closed the museum and isolated the bomb with the  bomb squad en route to investigate.