Source: 7News
Ned Kelly’s descendants say they can finally receive the bushranger’s remains and are meeting the Victorian government to plan the handover.
Representatives of Ned Kelly’s family will meet the Victorian government and the coroner’s office to discuss the handover of the bushranger’s remains.
Anthony Griffiths, whose great-grandmother was Kelly’s sister, said the way was now clear for Kelly’s remains to be returned to the family after an appeals period against their return passed two weeks ago without any appeal being lodged.
“There’s no question the remains can be returned,” Mr Griffiths told AAP on Monday.
Representatives of the family will now sort out the details around handing over the remains with the state government and the coroner’s office on Monday.
But Mr Griffiths said the actual handover was likely to be a long way off with many legalities and practicalities to be sorted through.
He said the family was yet to decide on any burial or ceremony plans and would begin discussing it over coming weeks.
They were yet to decide whether they would hold public or private events.
“That’s part of the process that’s under way, to sit down and work out what are we going to do,” Mr Griffiths said.
Australia’s most famous bushranger Kelly was hanged in 1880 for killing three police officers, but the location of his remains had been a mystery until late last year.
After two dozen skeletons were exhumed from Melbourne’s Pentridge Prison site, where criminals were buried in mass graves, scientists later identified Kelly’s bones through extensive DNA testing.
In August, the Victorian government signed an exhumation licence to grant his remains to his descendants.
But Kelly’s skull is still missing after being stolen from an Old Melbourne Gaol display case in 1978.
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