A human skull jutting out from a muddy embankment was the first sign that an ancient burial ground lay beneath a modern housing development in Adelaide.
Work at the Emerald Green estate at Parafield Gardens in Adelaide's north has ground to a halt, as Kaurna Aboriginal elders search the site.
Kaurna elder Jeffrey Newchurch has been reduced to tears by what he calls a "desecration" after forensic scientists identified the remains of two men.
Mr Newchurch says he has subsequently discovered more.
"Since then I've identified another burial just a few metres up from where those two was," he said.
"In the spoils here, where the green flags are marking it, and then on the other side, we've found remnants of other remains, from a skull bone to arm bones to rib, vertebrae, so we're at a loss how much".
Elders say this situation never should never have happened as it's known that this part of the Adelaide plains is contains extensive burial grounds. They say the developer should have employed heritage monitors to assess the site.
Kaurna heritage expert, Uncle Joe Mitchell, says the development project tried to cut corners to save money and that will cost them dearly.
"The developers basically should have had monitors here and it could have stopped the exclusion or destroying of most of the remains and dumping them to one side, which is going to cost them three, four times the amount of money now to retrieve these remains from the mounds they're sitting in."
The developers have not responded to requests for comment.
Meanwhile, the Kaurna community is working with the local council to find a short term storage place for the retrieved remains, until a ceremonial reburial can happen.
When and where that will be is anyone's guess, as the bones can't be re-interred at the existing site and there's no dedicated burial place for repatriated Aboriginal remains in South Australia.
