Finally found: The Irish outlaw's skeleton has been identified by scientists in Victoria.
Ned Kelly’s headless body has been found and correctly identified over 130 years after he was executed at the Old Melbourne Gaol.
A skeleton found in a wooden box in Pentridge Prison was mixed among 33 other sets of remains.
A team at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine (VIFM) were able to verifiy that the bones found among a mass grave were Kelly’s using DNA testing.
Kelly’s sister’s great grandson, Melbourne school teacher Leigh Olver, provided the sample.
It follows an exhaustive effort by the scientists to finally identify the remains of Australia’s most infamous cult character.
There have been many false dawns along the way.
Earlier this month a skull that was thought could be Kelly’s was found to have no link to the outlaw.
The Victorian Attorney-General Robert Clark has paid tribute to the VIFM team’s hard work.
“To think a group of scientists could identify the body of a man who was executed more than 130 years ago, moved and buried in a haphazard fashion among 33 other prisoners, most of whom are not identified, is amazing,’’ he said.
Ned Kelly has been embraced by the Irish Australian community as a man who stood up to the anti-Irish establishment of the day.
He was a hero in his own community and seen as a threat by the government of the day.
His iconic armour was the centrepiece of the recent Not Just Ned – Irish In Australia exhibition at the National Museum which attracted record attendances.
Kelly was born in Beveridge, Victoria, the eldest son of John and Ellen. His father was born in Co Tipperary in 1820 and sentenced in 1841 to seven years’ transportation for stealing pigs.
Forced to leave school at age 11, after his father died and the family was left indigent, Kelly, his mother and seven siblings moved to Eleven Mile Creek, near Glenrowan.
In 1870 Kelly was imprisoned for six months. Soon after release he was sentenced to another three years for receiving a stolen mare.
On April 15, 1878 a police trooper called Fitzpatrick claimed Kelly had shot him as he sought to arrest his brother Dan. The brothers went into hiding, with a £100 reward on their heads, and their mother was jailed for aiding them.
While on the run Ned killed three troopers (all Irish-born as it happens) and the reward was increased to £2,000.
During this period, Ned wote the famed Jerilderie Letter, in which he defended his actions and hit out at those who had “deserted the shamrock” by working for the police.
After the infamous shoot-out at Glenrowan, Kelly was captured and hanged in Melbourne. His reported last words were “such is life”.
VIFM is expected to consult with Kelly’s relatives to decide upon burial of the remains.
