A crime scene is in place after human remains were discovered in southern Queensland.
Investigating police said the first priorities were to discover the identity of the "skeletal remains", which could take more than a month, and a cause of death.
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Human remains near Stanthorpe
A clothed human skeleton is found south of Stanthorpe, with police treating it as a "possible suspicious death".
A member of the public made the discovery about 5pm on Thursday near Stanthorpe, prompting a full police investigation.
The find was being treated as suspicious unless proven otherwise as police worked to identify the body, found at Kerridges Road, Glen Aplin.
"From past experience it could be anywhere from a month to six months depending on if they can get a cause of death at the original post mortem or they've got to await subsequent tests," Detective Inspector David Isherwood said.
"At this point in time, we'd like to hope we can get one from the post-mortem but look, when they're decomposed to a state of skeletal remains, it can quite often take so more time."
Inspector Isherwood said the body was believed to be clothed but it was too early to draw conclusions.
He said the member of the public found one part of the remains, before police discovered the rest of the bones, suggesting animals and the weather could have played a role in the separation.
The discovery came just three days after a member of the public discovered decades-old bones in a pit at Brighton, north of Brisbane, sparking a murder investigation.
Police were treating the Glen Aplin find as a possible suspicious death but stressed it was still early days.
Inspector Isherwood said the body had been there for "some time" and was not buried but discovered about 150-200 metres from the roadway and the same distance from a house on the other side.
"The fact that they've gone to nearly all skeletal remains would indicate they've been there for some time but at this point in time, until the experts actually do an examination, we won't be able to determine that timeframe," he said.