Clark said the bushranger's remains have been identified by doctors and scientists at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine (VIFM).

　　Kelly was an Irish Australian bushranger, considered by some merely a cold-blooded killer, while by others a folk hero and symbol of Irish Australian resistance against oppression by the British ruling class for his defiance of the colonial authorities. He was hanged for murder in 1880 at Old Melbourne Gaol. His daring and notoriety made him an iconic figure in Australian history, folklore, literature, art and film.

　　The project involved collaboration with the ancient DNA laboratory EAAF in Argentina, which has worked with the VIFM on other forensic projects.

　　Clark said "This is an extraordinary achievement by our forensic team here in Victoria," he told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.

　　"To think a group of scientists could identify the body of a man who was executed more than 130 years ago, moved and buried in a haphazard fashion among 33 other prisoners, most of whom are not identified, is amazing." The investigation started when a skull believed to belong to Kelly was handed to the VIFM on Nov. 11, 2009.

　　The skull handed in in 2009 was found not to be that of Ned Kelly, and Glenrowan historian Gary Deans said the next step is to find Kelly's skull.

　　"The Government should put a request in the public arena for the return of Ned Kelly's skull," he told ABC News.

　　"We know thanks to Jack Cranston, who held the skull around 1929, that it was sitting on a detective's desk. This was around the same time that remains were dug up in the Old Melbourne Gaol.

　　"I imagine that that detective or somebody else took it home."