Ahmet Oruc, a Craigieburn serviceman who installs energy-and-water-saving equipment, reported the grim discovery about 1pm after he knocked on the door of the house and got no reply.

Police said they don’t know how long the man’s body has been in his own front yard. A police spokesman said: ‘‘We believe there were no suspicious circumstances at this stage.’’

Mr Oruc said a strong odour alerted him to the corpse, which driveway shrubbery had hidden from the view of passers-by.

‘‘I had to double-check to see if I was seeing the right thing. I ran up to a couple of the neighbours and they said ‘Call the cops. Call the cops.’

‘‘It was such a bad smell. There’s been a lot of heat the past few days ... Everyone’s shaken up around here.’’

Neighbour Vladan Mitrovic said he hadn’t seen the man for two weeks. ‘‘He never caused any problems, really. He had no friends, his family are interstate. The only times we’ve seen him was when he knocked on our door after he locked himself out of his house.’’

Mr Mitrovic, who has lived in the street for 10 years, said the discovery would shock the quiet neighbourhood. ‘‘We’ve never had so much as a robbery. There are kids who play around here. Imagine what would happen if they come and see this — it would traumatise them.’’

Neighbour Michael Willis was sheltering his young children from the scene. He said people looked out for the man but ‘‘the position of the body is hard to see from the street’’.