They're Digging up Ned Kelly's Glenrowan

Archeological diggings have begun at Glenrowan, where Australian bushranger Ned Kelly made his last stand and was eventually captured.

It's been nearly 130 years since the Glenrowan shootout but a team of archeologists and archeology students from Victoria's La Trobe University hope to find artefacts from the siege that will shed new light on the episode.

The most enduring image of Ned Kelly is that of a man suited in rough armor — wrought from, no doubt stolen, iron plows — and with his gang facing the superior force of police at the Glenrowan Inn in Glenrowan in 1880.

Facing wave upon wave of policemen, Ned Kelly was finally brought down when the police realised he could be felled by shooting at his unprotected legs.

The generally accepted story is that only he, of the Kelly gang, survived the shootout at Glenrowan which lasted well into the night.

Captured and tried, Ned Kelly was hanged at the old Melbourne Gaol in November 1880.

The Glenrowan diggings are expected to continue for four weeks.

Photo: Giant Ned Kelly statue in Glenrowan, Victoria © Tourism Victoria