Tarang Chawla, whose 23-year-old sister Nikita was killed two years ago by her jealous husband, said his father found a bullet inside a washing machine at his dry cleaning shop on Sunday night and immediately reported it to Moorabbin police.

But according to Mr Chawla, his father was told by an officer that he was unable to pick up the bullet until "next week" because he was on night shift.

"This is a bullet, not a frisbee," said Mr Chawla, who now advocates for family violence survivors.

"I know that the ongoing apprehension and fear of perpetrators seeking their own sense of revenge or retribution is quite high [for victims] so it's important for support services, such as the police, to act promptly when things happen.

"Im hopeful it's not linked but if their standard service response is that we can come next week - for a bullet, from a gun - then that's a little bit alarming."

Mr Chawla said his family had received death threats during the trial of Nikita's husband, who was jailed in 2015 for 22 years.

"Given what's occurred in the past it is something to be concerned about," he said. "I'm hoping it's just some kind of random thing and if it's not I hope a thorough investigation gets to the bottom of it."

Mr Chawla said the bullet and clothing were found in the washing machine about 9.30pm. He said in the 20 years his parents had run the business they had never found ammunition and that no one had returned to collect the clothing.

In an email to police on Monday, Mr Chawla said Nikita's death was a "source of significant distress, fear and anxiety" for his family. He said his father has mobility problems and is unable to travel, and requested the matter be escalated promptly.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the officer named by the Chawla family was on night shift and the matter would be followed up on Monday evening. She said the police station had no knowledge of the report of the bullet.

Nikita Chawla was savagely attacked by her husband Parminder Singh in January 2015 after he found a photograph of one of her work colleagues on her mobile phone. She was hit at least 35 times with a meat cleaver in the bedroom of the couple's Brunswick apartment.

Singh, who pleaded guilty to murdering Ms Chawla, called triple zero after killing his wife and told the operator: "I want you to come and collect a dead body. I cut my wife's throat. I killed her. She's been cheating on me."

Mr Chawla, who is a guest speaker at this week's National Family Violence Summit in Canberra, said he was shocked by the police response to the bullet.

"It's perplexing," he said. "It's a police station near the family violence court and there's obviously a lot of police on duty in the area. And given the context of finding a bullet in a country like Australia, to have that kind of response is confronting."