Ned Kelly's grave found at prison in Australia

Almost 130 years after Ned Kelly’s defiant and bloody last stand, in which he was protected briefly from the bullets of police by armour hammered out of plough blades, the authorities are closing in on the notorious Australian bushranger for one last time.

Experts are confident that the bones of Kelly are among those of 32 victims of the gallows that were uncovered in a mass grave at an abandoned prison.

Kelly, the son of an Irish convict, was hanged for murder in 1880, aged 25. His last resting place had remained as elusive as the bushranger during his two years on the run in mountainous bushland until historians found records suggesting that the remains were buried at Pentridge prison after being removed from Old Melbourne Gaol when it closed in 1929.

“We believe we have conclusively found the burial site but that is very different from finding the remains,” Jeremy Smith, a senior archaeologist with Heritage Victoria, said.

The bones have been sent to forensic pathologists but Mr Smith said that identification was likely to be difficult because of decay and the mingling of remains. Several features could mark out the remains of Kelly, including the absence of a skull — his head was removed for phrenological study — and a wrist injury.

Ellen Hollow, the great-niece of Kelly, told The Times that she would supply her DNA for matching if asked. Mrs Hollow, 62, said that it was important for the family to find the remains but a series of previous attempts had left her impassive.

“When you’re part of the family it’s sort of, ‘Hello, here we go again’,” she said. “It just goes on and on.”

Kelly and his gang, which included his younger brother Dan Kelly and two friends, had killed four men including three policemen, robbed two banks, taken hostages, stolen horses, cut telegraph wires and tried to derail a train. They were finally trapped in Glenrowan, a tiny, rural town, 220km (137 miles) northwest of Melbourne, on June 28, 1880.

In his final act of defiance Kelly, wearing an iron helmet, walked towards the police with guns blazing. He was shot in the legs, arms and groin more than 20 times before he was arrested. His gang was killed.

Kelly remains a controversial figure, lionised by some as a class warrior and demonised by others as a murderer and a thief. He has been romanticised in popular culture as a hero.

The iron outlaw's life of crime

— At the age of 14 Ned Kelly was arrested for assaulting a Chinese pig farmer but the charge was dismissed. A year later he was jailed for six months for assault and in 1871 was sentenced to three years for receiving a “borrowed” mare

— Kelly was accused of trying to kill a policeman and went into hiding with his brother Dan. They planned to distil alcohol illegally with Joe Byrne and Steve Hart

— In 1878 Kelly killed two policemen. Later that year he stole £2,260 in notes and gold from the Euroa National Bank

— In June 1880 the Kelly gang seized the railway station at Glenrowan, Victoria. Kelly was shot and captured

— Executed by hanging on November 11, 1880, his last words were: “Ah well, I suppose it has to come to this. Such is life”