The undertaker arrives at the site where a body was found at Mount Macedon. Credit:Aisha Dow However, the body is yet to be formally identified. "Police are currently in Mount Macedon after the discovery of human remains about 12.30pm," a police spokeswoman said. "The remains will be taken for forensic testing to determine the identity of the deceased and the cause of death." The body was found not far from an area where police searched for missing Melbourne mother Karen Ristevski in December.

Police investigate the discovery of a body in Macedon Regional Park. Credit:Simon Schluter Police expect to be at the scene of the find overnight on Monday. Homicide squad detectives and members of the State Emergency Service are there as well. It's believed the body remains at the scene. Police at Mount Macedon. An undertaker arrived just after 9pm as investigators continued to work under spotlights.

Detectives are not expected to comment on the discovery until forensic tests confirm the identity of the dead person. Bushland in Mount Macedon regional park, where the body was found. Credit:Courtesy of Seven News The site is accessible via a series of narrow dirt roads, which wind past country homes close to the Mount Macedon golf club. Police have cordoned off an area at the corner of Salisbury Road and Loch Road, a hilly single-vehicle track that runs past the Macedon Regional Park. Karen Ristevski with her husband, Borce, and daughter, Sarah.

Although it is likely to be some time before police are able to officially identify the body, dozens of journalists and photographers are gathered at the scene watching from afar as investigators, some with shovels, work among thick undergrowth. The place where the body was discovered is a number of metres from the road, behind a small hill, making it difficult to observe from behind the police cordon. A forensics police officer at Mount Macedon. At about 6.45pm, a couple turned up at scene and told officers they had previously seen a man in the area with a shovel and made a joke to him about burying a body. After recounting the story to uniformed officers, the couple was taken away from the media contingent to behind the police cordon.

They are currently being spoken to by plain-clothes detectives. Locals Krystal Pate and Alastair McLellan visited the scene on Monday afternoon and said the entire area around Mount Macedon was a very popular place for hikers. However they said they didn't realise the road near where the body was found went so deep into the forest. "I thought it was a no-through road until today," said Mr McLellan. "Though you would have your local people going for walks around here."

However, resident Paul Gordon said walkers avoided the bush track, near where the body was found, because it was so rough. "It's isolated. No one walks through there because it's so rough," Mr Gordon told Channel Seven. "It's just real rough bush." Ian Flannery said "very, very few people at all" ventured into that part of the bush. "You might see a couple of walkers, maybe a four-wheel-drive driven down every now and then, but it's very, very isolated."

In December, police looking for Ms Ristevski searched dams and grassland in Toolern Vale, about 25 kilometres from where the body was found on Monday. However, it is not known if the case is linked. Ms Ristevski, 47, was last seen at her Avondale Heights home by her husband Borce Ristevski on June 29, 2016. There have been reports Ms Ristevski's phone pinged on towers on the Calder Highway and at Gisborne on the day she went missing. Police and SES volunteers searched an area spanning from Blackhill Road to Gisborne Road, looking in grassland, waterways, creeks and farms on December 19 and 20.

Mount Macedon is a 23 minute-drive from Toolern Vale, and a 15 minute-drive from Gisborne. Fairfax Media understands the Ristevski family is aware of the discovery, but has not been formally notified by police. Loading Ms Ristevski's husband, Borce, did not respond to calls on Monday afternoon.