9 Nov 2011

Ned Kelly's remains to go to descendants

9:07 pm on 9 November 2011

The Victorian government is to release the mostly headless remains of the infamous bushranger Ned Kelly to his descendants.

Kelly was hanged in 1880 after a shootout with the police and his gang at the Glenrowan Inn in Victoria.

In September, the Victorian Government announced remains recovered from the old Pentridge Prison site had been identified as Kelly's.

A DNA sample from the remains, missing most of the skull, matched that of a Melbourne school teacher who is the great grandson of Kelly's sister Ellen.

Descendants say the remains will probably be buried near other family members at Greta, near Glenrowan, in north-eastern Victoria, the ABC reports.

A descendant of a police officer shot dead by Kelly is hoping his burial site does not become a shrine.

Mick Kennedy, the great grandson of Sergeant Michael Kennedy, says any memorial would be inappropriate.