Ned Kelly skull could be woman's | National News | Breaking National News in Australia

Infamous Australian outlaw Ned Kelly.

www.libraries.vic.gov.au

THE skull claimed to be that of legendary Australian bushranger Ned Kelly could well be a woman's, former Pentridge Prison chaplain Father Peter Norden says.

Father Norden on Friday expressed doubts about the skull being Kelly's, saying he had been advised previously it looks like a woman's skull.

And while the Coroners Court of Victoria said on Friday any identification of the remains would be "difficult and complex", Father Norden said forensic experts would be able to tell its gender "in five minutes".

"Medical experts who have seen photos of it have always said it's a female skull," Father Norden told AAP.

"That's the advice I've had."

West Australian farmer Tom Baxter this week delivered the skull to authorities for DNA testing, claiming it is Kelly's.

He had had it in his possession since it was stolen from the Old Melbourne Gaol in 1978.

The Victorian Coroner's Court confirmed on Friday it had received remains for forensic testing.

"The identification process in these circumstances is often difficult and complex and in some situations, identifying the remains is not possible," a statement from the court said.

Father Norden said while identifying the gender of the skull would be easy for experts, pinning down its identity would be much harder, because of the difficulty of getting DNA from a skull as old as Kelly's.

The bushranger was hanged in 1880.

Involved in the 2007 exhumation of Ronald Ryan, a Melbourne prisoner hanged in 1967, Father Norden said it was extremely difficult to confirm the identity of Ryan's remains.

"They had a lot of trouble getting confirmation, despite the fact we had his three daughters and that was only 40 years ago that he was hanged," Father Norden said.

Father Norden said he was in contact with living descendants of Kelly, who were willing to provide DNA for testing if required.

He said the rest of Kelly's remains were believed to be among those at Melbourne's former Pentridge Prison site, which are also currently being DNA tested.

Remains of several executed prisoners were moved from the site of the Old Melbourne Gaol, where Kelly was hanged, to Pentridge in 1929.

Father Norden is campaigning for a memorial to all the executed prisoners at the Pentridge site, now a housing development in Melbourne's north.

He said if Kelly's remains were to be identified, the famous bushranger's relatives could decide where to lay them to rest.

This could be at Avenel, in north-east Victoria, Kelly's hometown and the burial place of his father, who died when Kelly was 12, he said.