Yesterday it was revealed by the authorities in Melbourne that the legendary bushranger's remains are missing and their whereabouts are a mystery. One theory is that they were mistakenly discarded, along with the bones of other executed prisoners, in a quarry during drainage works at the prison around 1960.
Kelly's exploits have inspired films, television programmes, songs and books and debate about his place in Australian history has raged for decades, with opinion divided over whether he was a reckless killer or a young man driven to crime because of poverty and social injustice.
News of the mix-up, however, has been greeted with merriment in Australia. "Once again Ned Kelly has authorities scratching their heads," noted the Melbourne Herald Sun newspaper gleefully.
Born in Beveridge, Victoria, Kelly and his family lived in poverty and his first clash with police was at the age of 14. He was proclaimed an outlaw some years later after he and his gang were involved in a shootout at Stringybark Creek, which left three policemen dead. While on the run, he carried out two bank raids. In the second, he and his gang broke into a police station in the town of Jerilderie, imprisoned the officers in their own cells, changed into their uniforms and posed as reinforcements from Sydney. The gang took over the town for several days, raided the bank and burned mortgage deeds.
Prior to arriving in the town, he dictated the Jerilderie letter, a manifesto of about 8,000 words in which he tried to justify his activities, expressing his antagonism against the police and his sense of injustice about the way he and his family were treated because they were Irish Catholics. He intended the letter to be published as a pamphlet but it was kept and used against him during his trial.
Kelly was finally trapped in an ambush on June 28, 1880. He came out dressed in home-made armour made of metal plate, and walked towards the police firing furiously. He was shot in the legs, arms and groin multiple times before being arrested, while the rest of his gang was killed. He was sent for trial, sentenced to death and hanged. Two newspapers reported his last words as a weary: "Such is life."
Archaeologist Jeremy Smith of the conservation organisation Heritage Victoria said Mr Kelly's remains would have been among those of prisoners transferred from the Old Melbourne Gaol to Pentridge prison in the 1920s. "Although his skull was souvenired, his bones would have been just put in a sack in a disordered and deteriorated condition," he said. "We think there would have been about 32 bodies in a mass grave and probably all of them have been lost."
He and his team are to clear the old prison site, which is due for redevelopment. Mr Smith said he would extend the dig in the hope of finding the outlaw's remains but it was likely they had been dumped in a nearby quarry.
Australian law enforcement.... not people you'd trust
