The bones of an Indigenous teenage man found by workers excavating at a property on the New South Wales mid-north coast have been returned to their final resting place nearly two years since they were discovered.

Key points: The Gumbaynggirr people have laid to rest the 750-year-old bones of a teenage Indigenous man that were uncovered at a Nambucca Heads property

The Gumbaynggirr people have laid to rest the 750-year-old bones of a teenage Indigenous man that were uncovered at a Nambucca Heads property The bones were uncovered two years ago by a couple who were building on the riverside property

The bones were uncovered two years ago by a couple who were building on the riverside property The land has since been purchased by the NSW Government with a memorial built on the site

The bones, which were confirmed by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) to be 750 years old, were discovered in October 2017 at a Nambucca Heads property purchased by Joanna and Terry Walker to spend their retirement years in.

The reinterment of the bones at a special ceremony was a long time coming for the local Gumbaynggirr people.

"It's a victory — probably one of the best victories we've had for a long time," Aboriginal elder Trevor Bellangarry said.

"This is a win-win situation that we've finally got to put them back."

The State Government bought the land and work began on a memorial garden earlier this year after a long dispute about where the bones should be laid to rest.

"I honestly think that two years was too long, [but] nobody wanted to make a decision — we were just at a stalemate," Mr Bellangarry said.

"It was fairly depressing for a lot of the people around here, and I can understand that they were a bit upset on how things were going," he said.

"Now we've thrown all our problems aside."

Bones were found under the house at Nambucca Heads. ( ABC News )

'You do all the work'

When the Walkers found out ancient Indigenous remains were buried on their property, they got behind a push to turn their riverside property into a memorial.

"From day one we made the decision we weren't going to build on a burial site of anybody," Mr Walker said.

They were surprised to find that much of the legal responsibility and expenses fell to them personally and not with the Office of Environment and Heritage.

"I don't believe that the Office of Environment made it any easier," Mr Walker said.

"They could have allocated their Aboriginal staff to the job [that] they were asking us to do.

"It seems that they've set up this organisation … to allow you to do all the work."

Terence and Joanna Walker were left in a legal and moral limbo following the discovery of bones beneath their Nambucca property. ( ABC Coffs Coast: Meghna Bali )

He felt that the red tape that he and his wife needed to wade through would be beyond most people.

"You've got to fill in all of the documents [yourself and] get the archaeologist," he said.

The Walkers worked with the community and the NSW Government to find a solution and ultimately the Government purchased the land.

"The plus for us is that we got to know the Aboriginal community very well," Mr Walker said.

"They've become really good friends of ours, so we're really happy that it's been resolved."

Terence and Joanna Walker were at the reinterment ceremony. ( ABC News: Kirstie Wellauer )

Cultural heritage study could have seen situation avoided

Archaeologist Tim Hill said the complexity with the project for his team was that it was being conducted retrospectively.

"We were doing it after the harm had occurred," Mr Hill said.

"There was a lot of emotion and confusion, and, to be honest, anger in the community around the circumstances of it."

The Nambucca Shire Council had said there had been no council record of a midden, a term used to describe places of Aboriginal occupation or Aboriginal significance, marked by concentrations of shellfish, at the site.

Local elders says cockle shells like this are an indication a site is a midden. ( ABC Coffs Coast: Meghna Bali )

Mr Hill said that local knowledge "not coming up through the system" demonstrated a lack of resources needed on a council level to protect Aboriginal history.

"This one could have been resolved before it became an incident, by having an additional resource for the Nambucca Shire Council to consider this proposal before it was approved," he said.

Tim Hill said the project would have been easier if a cultural heritage survey had been conducted on the land before building work commenced. ( ABC News: Claudia Jambour )

Mr Hill said a cultural heritage assessment of the land would have saved the Walkers and the community the conflict about where to bury the bones.

"To my mind, that was one of the critical errors that happened, which led to the circumstances that led to the discovery of the bones and doing everything retrospectively," he said.

"If we'd done a cultural heritage study, we would have known about the midden and Terry and Joanna could have said, 'Well, maybe we won't buy the property'."

Better resourcing of councils is key

Mr Hill has warned cases like the Walkers' will become more frequent, with middens and other culturally significant sites well-documented along the coastline, which is being increasingly developed.

"The pressure is really on now as we have this coastal expansion into the little villages like Sawtell, like Nambucca," he said.

"We'll see increasingly this conflict between residential expansion and Aboriginal sites."

Mr Hill said better resourcing of councils was the key to ensuring Aboriginal heritage was preserved, because of their extensive local knowledge.

"The biggest shift that we'll see is local decision-making and bringing things back from a regional to a local level — that's the direction cultural heritage is going in," Mr Hill said.

The day was a cultural experience for young Indigenous people. ( ABC News: Kirstie Wellauer )

Nambucca Shire Council general manager Michael Coulter agreed more support was needed.

"Just in the Nambucca Valley, it's unfortunate we don't have the recognition and acknowledgement of Aboriginal settlement that we do, for example, for white settlement," he said.

'Whole community celebrates'

Mr Bellangarry is hopeful things will be done differently next time.

"I think this has been a big learning curve for both sides and especially for [the] Government," he said.

"If they ever find some bones again that they can get together a little bit better than what this one — this was a real shocker."

He said the return and the reburying of the bones was "a culmination of a lot of effort".

The site is being turned into a memorial park and a rock will be placed on top of the bones. ( ABC News: Kirstie Wellauer )

"We need that support if we are going to be a united community," Mr Bellangarry said.

The council said it would be open to conducting further investigations, particularly along the Nambucca River and the estuary mouth.

The memorial site will be officially opened in January and will include signs about the Indigenous history of the land, as written by elders.