A toddler’s body has been found buried in a shallow backyard grave by police investigating a disappearance.

The grisly discovery of the 18-month-old boy was made at a home in Brookfield, in Melbourne’s outer northwest.

It took police about six hours to find what they were looking for after they began digging on Monday.

The toddler was buried in a grave just 50cm deep, and it is possible his remains have been there for more than a decade.

7NEWS understands he lived at the home with his parents and two siblings in 2014, before they moved back overseas, possibly Albania.

He was not reported missing at the time.

The home’s current owner met with police where they explained they believed a body had been buried just metres from his back door.

“Something like this is not supposed to happen but it’s happened 14 years ago. Something very bad. Very terrible,” he told 7NEWS.

Victoria Police stressed the current residents have no knowledge or connection to the investigation or people who lived at the property previously.

The remains are yet to be formally identified.

“The coroner has been advised and a postmortem will occur in due course,” Victoria Police said.

“The Missing Persons Squad will now assume primacy of the investigation which remains ongoing.”

It appears police were tipped off by one of the toddler’s relatives who could no longer keep the secret.

It is not yet clear if authorities have reached out to Albanian authorities but Australia does have an extradition treaty with the Balkan country.