The lowering of the standard outside the 1858 Beechworth law court reflects the esteem in which Ian Jones is held by the North East town which he once called home.

The defunct court’s education officer Keith Warren knew Mr Jones, who died last Friday, for the last 10 years.

“He was one of nature’s gentlemen and he freely gave his time to visitors in town,” Mr Warren said, recalling how Mr Jones would sign copies of his books for tourists, between sips of coffee at his pet Beechworth cafe.

Mr Jones wrote Ned Kelly: A Short Life, a hallowed book for volunteers at Beechworth’s historic precinct.

“We regard the Short Life as the Bible,” precinct host Dan Goonan said.

Mr Jones interest in Kelly was ignited by a book he received as a nine year-old from his family’s gardener.

It presented the outlaw as a hero and his police rivals as villains.

The lad then read another volume which depicted Kelly as a murderous thug and the law enforcers as heroes.

Daughter Elizabeth Jones said her father then “spent the rest of his exploring that dichotomy”.

Ian Jones was born an only child in Newcastle, NSW, on September 22, 1931.

As the son of BHP managing director Norman Jones, he had an affluent upbringing in Melbourne.

After starting but not completing an arts degree at Melbourne University, Jones joined The Sun-News Pictorial as a cadet journalist in 1953.

However, television not newspapers proved his best medium as he worked on the coverage of the Melbourne Olympics after having been sent for training at the BBC.

Mr Jones joined Crawford Productions in 1963 and as a writer, director and producer was involved in shows such as Homicide, Matlock Police and Division 4.

Such was their closeness, boss Hector Crawford referred to Mr Jones as “Unc”.

Mr Jones first major link to the Kelly story came with his co-writing of the screenplay of the 1970 film featuring singer Mick Jagger as the outlaw.

In 1980, Mr Jones and then wife Bronwyn Binns were the executive producers of The Last Outlaw, a television mini-series about Kelly.

Mr Jones published his first Kelly book in 1992 with a Short Life released in 1995.

He had married his first wife, actress and singer, Joan Bilcock in 1958 and they had three children Darren, Angus and Caitlin.

Following a divorce, Mr Jones wed Ms Binns, with whom he had Elizabeth, in 1985.

Ms Binns died in 2003 and was buried at Beechworth and Mr Jones shifted to the North East town shortly afterwards.

In 2008, Mr Jones wed Nancy, widow of his best friend, and they resided at Toorak before his death.

Christ Church at Beechworth will host Mr Jones’ funeral from 1pm on Friday.