Remains of Irish-Australian Outlaw Ned Kelly to be Given to Family for Burial

Kelly is perhaps best known for his final standoff with Australian authorities, where he was captured wearing his iconic home-made plate armour after a lifetime of trouble with the police. The son of an Irish convict, his resistance to the ruling class and authority of the time meant he quickly became a hero after his death.

His descendants are now being given the opportunity to bury his remains for the frist time since his death in 1880.

The government has issued an exhumation licence which will enable Kelly’s family to receive his remains from Pentridge prison, where he was buried in a mass grave, and provide him with a proper burial.

Kelly spent a brief time incarcerated in Pentridge prison after his capture before he was hanged for the murder of three police officers. His remains were deposited in a mass grave with more than two dozen others. His bones were only discovered in 2008. Confirmation that the discovery included the bones of Ned Kelly only came last year after extensive DNA tests were carried out on the remains.

The exhumation licence means the developer at the Pentridge prison site, which is being converted into residential housing, will be unable to use the remains for a museum or memorial.

The remains – still without the skull after it was stolen in 1978 – will be returned to the Kelly family to arrange burial. It is believed he will be buried along with his mother and siblings in unmarked graves 230km northeast of Melbourne.