DESPITE the Polair helicopter and the fixed-wing aircraft with imaging equipment, despite the global positioning systems and the digital telecommunications, the hunt for the alleged murderer Malcolm Naden came down to men with guns slogging through tough terrain in the rain - and it came to nothing.

Teams of camouflaged anti-terrorist police bearing sidearms and rifles piled into a fleet of five unmarked, four-wheel-drives at the Nowendoc Memorial Hall just after 8am and headed south down Thunderbolt's Way, the highway named for the bushranger that once roamed the region.

Police prevented any attempts to follow them, though the location of houses Naden has recently broken into suggests they are searching rugged terrain along the north side of the highway.

The Herald has learnt that in recent weeks a man thought to be Naden burgled a remote home known by locals as Jones's hut - after its out-of-town owners - not far from the village.

About 10 kilometres south he is believed to have twice broken into John Sutherland's home. Police have fingerprinted and DNA-tested both locations.

The first break-in at Mr Sutherland's house was in October when John, who spends weekends with his family in Sydney, returned to find a security grill prised off a window which was jemmied open.

All his frozen and tinned food was taken, along with two pairs of binoculars, wet-weather gear and warm socks. The beer fridge in the shed was cleaned out of Crown lager.

There was no damage and it did not appear anyone had stayed in the house.

''I have to admit he was a very tidy burglar,'' says Mr Sutherland. ''It just left you with the feeling that he respected your place - not like other burglars.''

The next break-in was six weeks later. That time Mr Sutherland lost his XXXX Gold beer and more food.

The word around town is that the Jones boys lost their beer too but that the bottles were re-capped and left in place.

The search during the past two days - and the shooting of a police officer at a makeshift camp - appear to have taken place between these two homes, Thunderbolt's Way and Nowendoc River.

In these parts Naden sightings are like Tasmanian tiger sightings - but more common and more credible. Since he is believed to have moved into the region about two years ago he is thought to have ranged between Barrington Tops to the south, Kempsey to the north and Walcha to the west.

The first locals knew that police were about to launch an operation in the area was a fortnight ago when the motel took a call booking out its rooms. Police began moving in on Friday and locals report seeing a federal police fixed-wing aircraft sweeping the region at the weekend.

If the former abattoir boner's bushcraft is nearly as good as it is reputed to be, it seems fairly clear he knew something was coming when police moved in on a bush camp after dawn on Wednesday. Though police are tight-lipped about the details, it seems only one shot was fired, and an officer was hit in the shoulder. He was lucky, the bullet passed clean through him, and he is expected to make a full recovery.

Despite the violence of the act, a grudging respect for Naden's bush skills lingers.

One woman living outside town said she had been warned to lock up but said she did not fear Naden because he had been in the area for years without approaching a soul.

As for the shooting, ''Well, they were pursuing him.''

A neighbour says she would make him a cup of tea and send him on his way. Many around the area believe Naden is receiving help from someone.

Others believe he has survived so long because he is careful to live in the wild hilltops and valleys as he cases houses to rob, and to make his raids only when he is sure no one is around.

About 4pm yesterday the armed police returned to the village hall and the man suspected of two murders, a child sexual assault and now the attempted murder of a police officer remained at large. Another day of the seventh big search for Naden had ended.

A dirty white Ford station wagon sat unnoticed in the parking lot. It was stuffed full of brown cardboard evidence bags, one of them marked: ''Pillow case and bags containing pornography. (Campsite).''

Back at police headquarters in Sydney, they were doing their best to be optimistic. ''I'm quite confident that we'll arrest him,'' said the acting deputy commissioner David Hudson.

He revealed that on Wednesday Naden had probably used a rifle to shoot the police officer, who was wearing a bullet-proof vest.

His appearance was likely to be very different from that depicted in an old photo that had been widely distributed.

''We believe that he is very unkempt,'' Mr Hudson said. ''He has lost weight from our last visual sighting of him.''

with Saffron Howden