Revealed: The truth about the remote compound where Dezi Freeman made his last stand in a shootout with cops

The landowner of the property where Dezi Freeman was gunned down by police had no idea the double cop-killer was camping on his land, and his family has firmly refuted suggestions he was a supporter of so-called sovereign citizens.

Neil Sutherland told Daily Mail his older brother Rick Sutherland was ‘not a cooker’ and was unaware Freeman had holed up at his sprawling 35-hectare farm. 

‘He’s had no ties with that organisation (sovereign citizens), if that’s what it is. None whatsoever,’ he said on Tuesday. 

Despite Freeman being discovered on the family’s land, detectives had still to speak to either Neil or Rick on Tuesday about what they knew of him living there.

The property is known as Tholo Farm, which on Monday was listed on Google with the slogan boasting: ‘Cookers Welcome.’

But Neil said that must have been changed recently as it was previously known as ‘Woofers’, standing for ‘Willing Workers On Organic Farms,’ he said. 

‘I know he used to have some of them come and work … do his gardens and that [kind of thing] just for [to pay for] their keep,’ he added.

Freeman was shot dead by police following a three-hour standoff at the base of Mount Porcupine, near Thologolong, close to the New South Wales border. 

He was finally tracked down camping in a converted shipping container in the remote compound seven months after he gunned down Sen Const Vadim De Waart-Hottart and Det Leading Sen Const Neal Thompson at his home in Porepunkah, 180km away.

Neil said his older brother, Rick – a fisherman, aged 75 – has been in Tasmania since the start of the year visiting family, and was still there at the time of the shooting, with plans to return after Easter.

Rick had been completely unaware anyone was on his land, Neil said, and when he rang his brother to tell him about the shooting, his brother was astonished. 

‘He said, “Oh, you’re kidding.” He was totally shocked. No, he had no idea,’ Neil said.

He said his brother had ‘nothing to hide’ and was keen to clear his name, though he may wait for Victoria Police to contact him rather than trying to reach out himself. 

‘I don’t think he’s heard from them at all,’ he said. ‘But I don’t know, they might have a good reason for that.’

Neil revealed he had woken to the sound of police hovering overhead before dawn on Monday morning. 

Police used loudspeakers to communicate with Freeman before deploying flash-bang grenades and gas on the cop-killer. 

Neil, who lives on a neighbouring property, described waking to the sound of a helicopter doing tight circles about a kilometre away.

‘I thought there was something going on down at the Kennedy’s Reserve, but it turned out it was on my brother’s property,’ he said.

The retired cattle farmer initially wondered if it was a training exercise, but grew concerned as the operation dragged on for three hours.

‘After three hours, I heard what I thought was a gunshot … I think it was when they pierced the container to put a gas cylinder in,’ he said.

‘I thought, well, it might be more serious than a training exercise. They wouldn’t be wasting that much fuel these days.’

He learned the identity of the fugitive later that morning when a friend called after hearing it on the radio. 

Neil admitted he never expected to hear of Freeman again, saying he had hoped the man’s conscience might have led him to take his own life in the Alps. 

‘I wish he had,’ he said.

‘Because he’s just made too much of an issue here.’

The farm is primarily used for running cattle, with his brother happy to just use the land as a haven for kangaroos. 

Rick had rented it out to a relative at times, with recent bushfires coming close to the property, though the wind spared it.

Neil believes Freeman must have only recently appeared at the property and did not recall seeing any sign of life there. 

‘I’d like to think it would’ve only been a week or so,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t imagine him being there that long without someone seeing him.’

Reports of a Filipino couple possibly assisting Freeman were also dismissed by Neil, who said he hadn’t seen anyone matching that description since his brother left, apart from firefighters who had access while the gate was open during the fires.

While mystery surrounds how Freeman got from Porepunkah to the farm, Neil believes he could have got there on his own steam without assistance. 

‘Oh, yeah, it’s possible,’ he said. ‘He’s supposed to be some super bush craftsman, but you get up on top of these hills and it’s actually quite easygoing, it’s like flat. 

‘I can’t imagine anyone who’d want to help him, but I certainly don’t know anyone around here who sympathises.

‘It probably doesn’t look that good, us having hosted Dezi Freeman here, unknowingly, unwittingly. 

‘Who would want a murderous person in their vicinity. Absolutely no thanks.’

A fresh manhunt is currently underway to track down anyone who helped Australia’s most wanted fugitive.