The body of a 56-year-old Australian man was found hours after he allegedly left home for a Grindr hook-up.

The unidentified Canberra man was discovered dead on February 2 by a man walking his dog in Boulee, New South Wales.

His body had been dumped in bushland a few metres away from the purple Honda Jazz he had been driving.

He had no visible injuries, and police are waiting for autopsy results to determine his cause of death.

Officers believe the man had been on his way to a Grindr hook-up, as he was known to use the app and others like it.

They will be using these apps to determine who the man was speaking with in the hours before his death.

Police urge locals and Grindr users to come forward with information.

Homicide squad commander detective superintendent Danny Doherty urged locals with any information to come forward.

“This is a small community and we hope that someone may be able to assist our investigators — either through sightings of the car, or who also may have been using dating applications to meet people in the area,” he said, according to Star Observer.

“Someone may come forward who may have knowledge of this person, this area might be an area where people have met before, they may have knowledge of this man in the car that’s important.”

The deceased was found wearing blue jeans, a sleeveless dark blue fitted t-shirt and white sneakers, and was driving a car with ACT number plates YFD 00H.

If you have any information which could assist police, contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

While Grindr and apps like it are used safely by millions of queer people ever day, there are rare occasions where hook-ups end in tragedy.

PinkNews ran through some simple tips that users can take in order to keep themselves safe, including meeting in public and sharing your location with an app such as Find My Friends.