Prospectors scouring the bush near Avoca made a find around the New Year's period near the Pyrenees Highway and tracked down Daryl Floyd, whose 12-year-old brother Terry was last seen in the area in 1975.

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They hoped there might be a connection.

The potential link comes as the family-run mission prepares to launch a grid search with trained dogs on Friday morning about the site where Terry was last seen in the back of a white panel van more than 46 years ago.

This area also centres about a mine shaft where search teams have long focused their efforts in the hunt for answers about Terry.

The site where this latest find was made lies within a search grid of a 500-metre radius and it is close to the last confirmed sighting of Terry on the side of the highway.

Terry disappeared from the corner of the Pyrenees and Sunraysia highways on June 28, 1975. In 2001, a coroner determined Terry was abducted and murdered, but his body has never been found.

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Daryl Floyd said search dogs had never been used in the hunt for Terry, not even at the time of his disappearance.

He said while Friday was about Terry's search, it was also about helping others find their answers for missing loved ones.

A Bendigo family linked to a 1968 cold case, in which a sister and her boyfriend disappeared, will also be in Avoca on Friday, interested to learn how the dogs might help them.

"Your expectations are always low. Many times you get your hopes up and get deflated," Mr Floyd said. "But if you don't search, you don't find. I'm making sure we tick all the boxes.

"You're reliving what happened time and time again. Terry wasn't just my brother, he was my best mate.

"We hope this gives us answers. We've got to live with this for the rest of our lives. I know the torture that can create internally for families."

Floyd and his search team will work with not-for-profit Search Dogs Sydney, an organisation with specially trained canines to find living and deceased humans.

The organisation reached out to Floyd two years ago and a search was initially planned for June last year, only to be postponed by pandemic-enforced border closures.

Floyd said one trained sniffer dog was the equivalent to about 45 humans on the ground so, with five planned to search on Friday, this exponentially boosted search team efforts.

Dogs will be looking for scents called volatile organic compounds, given off by human remains.

The Morning Star Mine at Bung Bong Hill, near Avoca, has yielded clothing fragments, including a piece of a cardigan sleeve and elastic from boy's underwear, a leather shoe, buttons and a silver necklace, all believed to be worn by Terry the day he disappeared.

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The disused mine is strongly believed to be the final resting place of the then 12-year-old.

A $1 million reward is being offered for information in the case, which has haunted the Floyd family for four decades.

Anyone with information can contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

This story Mystery find in missing boy case prompts new search party first appeared on The Courier.

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