The body of missing man Taddeo Haigh has been found within 1 kilometre of where he went missing, police say.

His body was found in dense scrub in difficult terrain near a holiday house at Sawmill Settlement, near Merrijig, where he and his wife were staying over the Anzac day long weekend.

A large-scale search was launched after 31-year-old Mr Haigh, also known as Ted, failed to return from a walk in dense scrub on Sunday.

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Victoria Police Acting Superintendent Libby Murray said there were no suspicious circumstances.

“We’re working with Ted’s family to provide some support. Obviously they’re pretty shocked and upset at the moment,” she said.

“He was found within a radius of a kilometre of that holiday house. So [it was] not particularly close, but within the search area we’d identified.”

Acting Superintendent Murray was asked why the area where he was found had not been previously searched.

Mr Haigh’s body was found by police officers who were searching on foot. Photo: ABC

“It’s pretty thick and rugged terrain through there, so it’s one of those areas where we were doing some pretty systematic searching,” Acting Superintendent Murray said.

“We did line searching where we had to keep line of sight and keep people pretty close because of how dense it was.”

His body was found by Victoria Police officers and it is not known how long he had been dead.

Mr Haigh’s parents flew in from Germany last night to join police and volunteers who were scouring a 1.5-kilometre area where he was last seen.

Police will prepare a report for the coroner.

About 200 people were involved in the search, including the State Emergency Service, Parks Victoria, Victoria Police, the dog squad and the police helicopter.

Acting Superintendent Murray said the searchers had been working very hard to find Mr Haig and were “heartbroken” at not finding him alive.

Mr Haigh had been mountain biking at Sawmill Settlement with his wife Elizabeth and four friends on the long weekend.

Police said the body, which has yet to be formally identified, was found around 3:00pm in a steep area of dense scrub.