Accused killer Chris Dawson expected to be released today and head home for Christmas

Chris Dawson was arrested over the 1982 murder of his first wife, Lyn. Photo / News Corp

Accused killer Chris Dawson has walked free from a Sydney jail and will head home to Queensland for Christmas, two weeks after he was arrested over the 1982 murder of his first wife, Lyn.

Dawson, 70, was granted bail in Sydney Central Local Court last Monday but remained behind bars in Silverwater Correctional Complex held up by paperwork, which was accepted today.

The process was delayed in part because of an issue with documents relating to the valuation of his Sunshine Coast home, which is part of the $1.5 million surety required to secure his release.

Lawyer Greg Walsh flew up to the Gold Coast on Thursday afternoon to collect the documents himself in a bid to speed up the process but said he was held back by a seven-and-a-half hour plane delay, The Australian reports.

On Friday, Dawson's bail documents were rejected by the court because of a complication with land deeds.

Walsh said it had been an "ordeal" to get all of the documents required to process his client's bail.

Dawson's brother Peter has also put up his Sydney home as security to meet the strict bail conditions which require Dawson to surrender his passport and report daily to Queensland police.

Dawson was extradited from the Gold Coast to Sydney on December 6 over the murder of Lynette Dawson, his wife who was 33 years old when she disappeared from Sydney's northern beaches in 1982. He will plead not guilty, according to his legal team.

Her body has never been found.

Two coronial inquests, between 2001 and 2003, found that Dawson was murdered by her husband, but he was not charged, with the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions ruling there was insufficient evidence.

In 2015, detectives from the Homicide Squad's Unsolved Homicide Unit established Strike Force Scriven to reinvestigate the circumstances surrounding Dawson's disappearance and suspected murder.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions has been accessing the task force's new brief of evidence since April this year. The file included two key statements obtained "by the media" from witnesses not previously interviewed, NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller told reporters.

The major breakthrough in the cold case follows revelations in the The Teacher's Pet podcast series, which topped download charts around the world, by News Corp's The Australian.

Investigative journalist Hedley Thomas uncovered two new witness statements, which police indicated would be part of their new brief of evidence.

The Australian recently revealed key witnesses that formed part of the police case included a former northern beaches schoolgirl who kept diaries from the time she knew Curtis and Dawson. The unnamed woman reportedly met with detectives in recent weeks.

Curtis, 54, who shares an adult child with Dawson, has given new information to investigators that led directly to his arrest.

In a statement, Dawson's family said they expected him to be found not guilty of the murder charge.