A man believed to have gunned down two police officers in a remote town in Australia's Victoria state was shot dead by police on Monday.

Victorian Chief Commissioner of Police Mike Bush said "there was an opportunity for him to surrender peacefully, which he did not."

While the man is yet to be formally identified, police believe him to be 56-year-old Desmonn Freeman,  known as "Dezi," who had been on the run for seven months.

He was fatally shot following a three-hour standoff at a rural property in the Walwa area of Victoria.

Investigation into sex offenses

Freeman had been on the run since August last year when he allegedly shot dead two police officers and wounded another.

Detective Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart were killed as they raided Freeman's property in Porepunkah, about 300 km (186 miles) northeast of Melbourne.

Police did not reveal the reason for the raid on Freeman's property in August but said officers were executing a search warrant as part of an investigation by the Wangaratta Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team.

Manhunt for Freeman

The search for Freeman at one point involved around 450 police officers and was one of the "most significantly resourced police operations" in Australian history, Bush said.

They believed Freeman may have evaded capture for months with the help of sympathetic locals.

On Monday, police tracked Freeman to a caravan parked on a "very remote" property in rural Victoria, Commissioner Bush said.

Authorities said Freeman was shot after he refused pleas to surrender. 

Local media have described him as a conspiracy theorist and member of the so-called "sovereign citizen" movement that regards the government as illegitimate.

"Today, we won't reflect on the loss of a coward," said the Police Association of Victoria. "We will remember the courage and bravery of our fallen members and every officer that has doggedly pursued this outcome for the community."

Edited by: Darko Janjevic