A national park shut down during the hunt for Australia's most wanted man has reopened, as police say accused cop killer Dezi Freeman might have left the area.
Mount Buffalo National Park partially reopened to the public on Tuesday, seven weeks after Neal Thompson and Vadim de Waart-Hottart were shot dead while serving a warrant at Freeman's home in Porepunkah, 300km northeast of Melbourne.
Detective Senior Constable Thompson, 59, was just a week away from retiring, while Senior Constable de Waart-Hottart, 34, was on temporary assignment to the area.
There has been no sign of Freeman since the shooting on August 26, when the 56-year-old was last seen fleeing into bushland shortly after the shooting.
Hundreds of Victoria Police officers and specialist resources from across Australia and New Zealand have been involved in the search, including in large areas of the Mount Buffalo National Park.
Police have spoken to more than 800 people, including several of Freeman's associates, and officers have searched hundreds of properties.
On Tuesday, Victoria Police said their investigations had given them the confidence to reopen the park, although some areas remained off limits.
Police urging anyone with hunting or trail cameras to check their video and share any information that might help investigators.
Despite reopening the park, Commissioner Mike Bush said finding Freeman was one of the force's top priorities.
"Is he still alive? We don't know. Is he alive and still in the area? We have no real information to suggest that," Bush told reporters on Monday.
"Or has he been unable to leave the area and is being looked after by others?
"We don't know – all of those are assumptions, possibilities, and we plan a resource for those three."
People in the area have been told to remain vigilant and not approach Freeman, who was considered armed and dangerous, if they spotted him.
Cafe owner Leanne Boyd in the town of Bright was cautiously optimistic about the news of the national park partially reopening.
"That's really exciting," Boyd told AAP when asked about the news.
"It means people can visit Mt Buffalo again and come back and enjoy the area."
She said more than 600 people had attended a photography festival in Bright at the weekend, showing that people were slowly returning to the area.
The Melbourne Cup long weekend, usually a busy time for holiday-makers, would show a "true tale" on whether people had confidence to come back after weeks of road closures and increased police presence, Boyd said.
Police offered a AU$1 million (NZ$1.1 million) reward for information leading to Freeman's capture – the largest financial offer in Victoria's history for facilitating an arrest.
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