Daryl Floyd sorts through bucketloads of raw sewage and debris hour after hour at a mine site near Avoca in the grim hope he will find his missing brother Terry.

It is a heartbreaking and unenviable task but one that Mr Floyd refuses to stop.

He was just a 10-year-old boy when his older brother Terry, right, disappeared without trace on a Saturday afternoon in 1975.

He has dedicated his life to the pursuit of answers, determined to find the 12-year-old’s remains.

“Terry wasn’t just my brother he was also my best mate at the time,” Mr Floyd said.

“We had a great friendship, a great brotherhood.”

The mysterious disappearance of Terry Floyd has captivated central Victoria and the broader community for years.

He was the cheeky schoolboy who disappeared off the face of the earth without a trace.

Terry had played football before visiting a friend’s place on June 28.

It was at 4.45pm that he was last officially sighted.

Today, a grim search is focused on a disused mine shaft about seven kilometres east of Avoca.

Mr Floyd this week returned to the Morning Star mine shaft to resume the excavation works that he hopes will find his brother’s remains.

The family believes Terry was killed on that fatal Saturday, with his young body discarded into the mine.

The search has cost Mr Floyd his savings and Victoria Police has refused to offer more money to assist.

So day after day, he continues to sort through debris in the hope he will find what remains of his brother.

His life is all in the pursuit of answers for his family.

“I don’t want to find him down there but all the evidence points towards this shaft,” Mr Floyd said.

“To be standing over the shaft pulling up a 60-litre bucket and sorting through bones and things and one of those could be your brother; it is not a nice thought.”