Body in Vic mine tip-off leads to arrests

A tip-off from the public has given police the breakthrough they needed to solve the mystery of a body found in an abandoned Victorian mine.

A 26-year-old man and 30-year-old woman from Traralgon were arrested on Wednesday after a public appeal helped homicide detectives identify the victim.

The body, which was found in the Balaclava Mine near Whroo, a Victorian ghost town, was a 56-year-old Mooroopna man.

The man's body was discovered by two men who were climbing inside the former goldmine on March 12.

Victoria Police had been scouring interstate and international missing persons registers for clues about the man's identify before they decided to launch a public appeal on Tuesday.

The dead man was found wearing a Neil Young 2009 tour shirt, a blue, knitted jumper with stripes on the arms, and only his top dentures were attached.

Police say he was killed, most likely in an assault, wrapped in a tarp, and dropped into the mine shaft.

The part of the mine tunnel where he was found was officially closed as a tourist attraction in July 2014, after a geo-technical stability assessment found the shaft had deteriorated to an unsafe condition.

But people can still view it from the outside.

Parks Victoria says the disused open-cut mine is a popular tourist site, and estimate about 20,000 people visit it each year.