Belanglo State Forest
Encyclopedia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n state of New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
; its total area is about 3800 hectares. The Belanglo State Forest is located south of Berrima in the Southern Highlands
Southern Highlands, New South Wales
The Southern Highlands, also locally referred to as the Highlands, is a geographical region and district in New South Wales, Australia and is 110 km south-west of Sydney. The entire region is under the local government area of the Wingecarribee Shire...
, three kilometres west of the Hume Highway
Hume Highway
The Hume Highway/Hume Freeway is one of Australia's major inter-city highways, running for 880 km between Sydney and Melbourne. It is part of the Auslink National Network and is a vital link for road freight to transport goods to and from the two cities as well as serving Albury-Wodonga and...
between Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
. The forest is owned by the New South Wales Government
Government of New South Wales
The form of the Government of New South Wales is prescribed in its Constitution, which dates from 1856, although it has been amended many times since then...
and contains some of the earliest pine
Pine
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...
plantings in the state. The public has free access to the forest; it is popular with recreational trail bike riders.
In 1992 and 1993, seven skeletons were found in the forest, in what was described by media as The Backpacker Murders
Backpacker murders
The Backpacker Murders is a name given to serial killings that occurred in New South Wales, Australia during the 1990s. The bodies of seven missing young people aged 19 to 22 were discovered partly buried in the Belanglo State Forest, south west of the New South Wales town of Berrima...
and was considered to be the work of a serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
. Eventually, Ivan Milat
Backpacker murders
The Backpacker Murders is a name given to serial killings that occurred in New South Wales, Australia during the 1990s. The bodies of seven missing young people aged 19 to 22 were discovered partly buried in the Belanglo State Forest, south west of the New South Wales town of Berrima...
was convicted of the murders in 1996 and sentenced to life imprisonment.
On the 29th of August 2010 trail bike riders discovered a human skeleton in the forest. Media reports at first linked the killing to Milat, but later forensic work looks to disprove this theory as evidence suggests that the remains have been left there at a later date.
On the 22nd of November 2010, three teenagers (including one related to Ivan Milat) were arrested on suspicion of connection with the discovery of a murdered male in the forest, following a tip-off.
David Auchterlonie was celebrating his birthday on the 20th of November Milat’s Relative and Cohen Klein planned for over a week to lure David Auchterlonie to his death. Chase Nathaniel Day went to police midday the 21st November to confess about the murder.