In a surprise twist the medals were the original items missing since the 1960s, and not reproductions as thought.

The family had expected to receive Hilton Charles Burrows' reissued medals in Albury on Tuesday, but discovered they were the originals issued after the war.

The original medals had been lost since 1967 or 1968 while Mr Burrows was moving house.

They next surfaced in Albury - despite the city having no known link to the late soldier - when they were handed in to the RSL sub-branch last month.

"It's closure," his son Michael said.

"It's kind of the last tenable link that we have to our father."

Michael and three of Mr Burrows' other children collected the medals on Tuesday.

A family researcher in Geraldton had managed to track down information about the family.

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The late soldier wrote a letter to the Department of Defence in February 1968, stating he had moved house since the previous Anzac Day.

He said he had "lost a box off the truck" while moving and was hopeful of receiving a replacement set.

That replacement set was destroyed during a fire in 1995.

"To think the original medals exist after all this time is absolutely incredible," his son said.

"Our father has never lived here as far as we know.

"He's never visited Albury.

"So how they came here is still just as much of a mystery as when we were first notified by Graham (Docksey)."

Mr Docksey, the president of the Albury RSL branch, made a public appeal to track down the medals' rightful owner.

"I think it's a great outcome," he said.

"It was just the off chance that someone picked it up off Facebook.

"It's amazing how it works."

Family members plan to have the medals restored and put behind glass with a photograph of Mr Burrows, who died in 1994.

His children travelled from as far as the Gold Coast to make the collection.