Human bones found buried on Waiheke Island property

File photo / NZ Herald

Police investigators have been called to a Waiheke Island property following the discovery of human bones buried in a yard.

Contractors renovating a Palm Rd home on the Auckland island found the bones as they were digging to remove a water tank.

Bruce Sciascia, whose company is managing the project, said the discovery was unlike anything he'd seen on the island before.

"Currently there's only a femur and part of the pelvis. They were discovered yesterday," he said.

"They're definitely old. It's not like they're just in the top of the dirt. They're buried more than a metre under ground."

Workers were digging out beside a water tank on the property, when the bones were discovered.

Mr Sciascia said the tanks would have been installed more than 20 years ago, but was unclear on the age of the bones or if there was more of the human body yet to be uncovered.

"Police are doing an excavation at the moment," he said this afternoon.

Meanwhile, construction work on the rest of the property was continuing, he said.

A police spokeswoman confirmed this afternoon the bones were ancient.

"[They] have subsequently been determined by forensic specialists and archaeologists to be historic (ko iwi) and have therefore been referred to the Historic Places Trust to manage," she said in a statement.