Eight years ago almost to the day the head of Victoria's maximum security Barwon Prison vanished.
David Prideaux was 50 when the experienced hunter went on a trip with his brother-in-law in Victoria's rugged Alpine National Park on Mount Stirling and simply vanished.
The terrain along the Buckland Spur Track is notoriously harsh - terrain trekked by experienced bushmen who know most of everything that could go wrong.
But vanish he did. Gone without a trace.
Ever since, conspiracies about what happened to the prison boss have abounded - from being killed by gangland figures to faking his own disappearance.
Barwon Prison boss David Prideaux went missing on Mount Stirling while on a hunting trip in 2011. His body has never been found
Tomahawk Hut on Mount Stirling. Mr Prideaux signed the guest book there before heading out to hunt deer. He never returned
Mistakes happen when one goes bush. Just ask former Victorian Water Minister Tim Holding, who fell off Mount Feathertop while attempting a solo hike back in 2009.
Mr Holding was found, but Mr Prideaux was not so lucky. Everyone who knew him said he was prepared.
He was no slouch when it came to living it rough.
But the timing of Mr Prideaux's disappearance could not have come at a more interesting time in Victoria's criminal history.
Melbourne underworld kingpin Carl William had only a year earlier being bashed to death inside the very prison he was in control of.
Williams had been giving information to police about a murder that involved an allegation that one of their own had organised a hit on an informer.
Police had made arrangements with Mr Prideaux for release visits, where Williams could rat on his underworld friends.
The police had made a deal to pay the school fees of his daughter in return for the damning information.
Williams was of course bludgeoned to death inside Barwon Prison while reading a front page story of that very deal.
Matthew Johnson prepares to murder Carl Williams as he reads a newspaper containing a front page article that outed him as a rat. Barwon Prison officials later came under fire for housing Williams with a man known for his hatred of police informers
April 2010: Carl Williams is murdered in Barwon Prison
June 4, 2011: Barwon Prison boss David Prideaux vanishes on Mount Feathertop
The search officially ended eight days after Mr Prideaux entered the forest
Police investigate foul play linked to Williams' death
October 2011: The search resumes over 50 hectares of dense forest
Reports emerge he had been having an affair when he disappeared
December 8, 2012: A newspaper reports that Mr Prideaux had been seen in Broome
2014: The coroner declares Mr Prideaux dead
It was a messy end to what had been a bloody period of unbridled murder in Melbourne.
A history that now extended to the very concrete blocks where the surviving members of the so called 'Underbelly War' were being housed.
When Mr Prideaux went missing, reports suggested he had possessed copies of statements on a CD ROM made by Williams and his father, George, including the allegations of police involvement in corruption and murder.
The Australian reported that during the eight-day search for Mr Prideaux, a work colleague found sensitive files in his four-wheel-drive vehicle parked at the remote Tomahawk Hut, on the Buckland Spur Track, where he was last seen.
Police were unable to find the CD-ROM in the car and later searches of Mr Prideaux's home in suburban Melbourne and office failed to turn up the disk.
Rumours that he had been taken out by gangland figures started to emerge from unlikely places.
Paul Prideaux was vocal about what he believed may have happened to his brother.
His public thoughts divided his family amid accusations of betrayal, adultery, conspiracy and murder.
The former bank robber was the black sheep of the family.
Both David and his other brother Peter, had been prison staff.
'I'm going to cop a barrage of abuse for speaking out about this, but I'm doing this for my [late] father,' he told crime reporter Adam Shand in 2013.
'I know he would be saying, "Get in there boots and all and find the truth".'
One of seven boys, David Prideaux had a love for the Aussie bush and was no stranger to the kind of terrain he went missing in.
He had taken off with his hunting partner, Robbie Dale, who is married to David's elder sister Janine, for a four-day trip.
Matthew Johnson inside Barwon Prision. He murdered Carl Williams about a year before David Prideaux went missing in the bush. Some have linked his disappearance to his involvement with Williams turning rat
The prison boss was apparently obsessed with 'risk management' and had been prepared for the cold and formidable conditions.
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