EXCAVATORS searching for murdered NSW man Matthew Leveson in the Royal National Park, south of Sydney, have stopped working with police saying they've found "items of interest".

Matthew's parents, Mark and Faye Leveson, were seen hugging emotionally this afternoon as they joined detectives at a specific site.

A police source told The Daily Telegraph that "bones have been found".

Mark and Faye Leveson have never given up hope of finding their son's body and joined police in their search efforts over the last nine days.

This week's search is the third in the past six months after searches in November and January failed to find any trace of Mr Leveson.

Investigators were originally led to the remote roadside site by Mr Leveson's former boyfriend, Michael Atkins, who was acquitted of the younger man's murder in 2009.

He took detectives to the potential burial site after he was offered immunity from prosecution for perjury and contempt of court after admitting to lying at an inquest into the suspected murder.

An ongoing inquest into the death of Mr Leveson, who was last seen leaving Darlinghurst's ARQ nightclub with Mr Atkins in the early hours of September 23, 2007, is scheduled to resume in August.