A skull purported to be that of Ned Kelly has been handed to medical authorities, more than 30 years after the bushranger's skull was stolen from the Old Melbourne Jail.
However it is expected to take more than a year to determine if the remains are in fact those of the infamous outlaw.
Tom Baxter, a farmer from Derby in remote Western Australia, handed the skull to the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine this week.
He has had the skull for years, but has not revealed how it came to be in his possession.
The skull was stolen from a glass cabinet in the Old Melbourne Gaol in 1978, and its whereabouts has remained a mystery since then.
Mr Baxter told ABC Radio his decision came after the discovery in Melbourne last year of a grave believed to contain Ned Kelly's headless skeleton.
"It seemed like an appropriate time that the skull be reunited with the bones in an effort to properly bury him,'' he said.
Email a friend