(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
Work at a housing estate development in Adelaide's north has ground to a halt, following the discovery of ancient Aboriginal bones.
The unearthing of a human skull was the first sign that the development was being built on a traditional burial ground.
Elders from Adelaide's Kaurna community have accused the developer of desecration, and question why cultural monitors weren't employed to oversee the project.
As Karen Ashford reports, the project will be delayed for at least a month while the remains are retrieved.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
Three men trawl through muddy mullock heaps searching for bits of their ancestors.
"That'll do, I don't want it opened up too much because once these bones are exposed then they deteriorate..."
Kaurna elder Jeffrey Newchurch points to a fragment of back bone, adjacent to part of a skull.
"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."
Police don't know either - the remains of two men have been confirmed, but further discoveries are still being made.
Major crime police were called to the scene but swiftly ruled out foul play.
Detective Senior Sergeant Carl Whitaker says forensic investigators and archaeologists were called in instead.
"The bones are treated very respectfully, and what happens is they are parcelled and packaged and taken in via a protocol, and they are managed by people outside of Sapol (South Australian police) who do so in traditional ways with Aboriginal cultures and respect."
It's a situation the elders say should never have happened.
This part of the Adelaide Plains is known to contain extensive burial grounds.
Kaurna heritage expert uncle Joe Mitchell says the developer should have employed heritage monitors to assess the site.
Instead, he thinks the developers tried to cut corners to save money - an action he says 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, Mr Newchurch says 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.
"We don't know what's in our back yard and we Aboriginal people must work together to secure those rights and interests of our Aboriginal ancestors' reburial grounds and their resting places. Yeah, it's getting too emotional now."
When and where the remains will be laid to rest is anyone's guess, as the bones can't be reinterred at the existing site, and there's no dedicated burial place for repatriated Aboriginal remains in South Australia.
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