Victoria and NSW police have arrested a father and his son on suspicion of stealing $6.5 million worth of cash and valuables from a safety deposit box centre and from affluent homes in Melbourne's northeastern suburbs.

The burglars, aged 56 and 33, were arrested on Dec. 19 at a boarding house in Randwick, and their loot were recovered from a storage unit in Waterloo and the elder man's home in Bellevue Hill. The loot consists of $5 million in cash, 120 kilogrammes of silver bars, more than 3,000 pieces of jewellery and a World War I Victoria Cross. Detectives also found several handguns and ammunition.

The two are suspects in the robbery of a storage facility in the leafy Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe four weeks ago. They stole $450,000 in cash and bags of jewellery from safety deposit boxes.

NSW investigators have obtained recorded telephone conversations of the two when the son raided the safety deposit boxes and the father acted as lookout.

The two have kept a very low profile to avoid detection.

"They don't gamble or take drugs," one source said, according to Adelaide Now. "The dad lives with his old mother and drives a cab part-time and the son lives in the cheapest boarding house you could find."

The two accused will appear in Melbourne Magistrates' Court next Thursday.