Ned Kelly Biography

By James Anthony

Ned Kelly

One of Australia's most famous bushrangers - another term for highwaymen or bandits - was Ned Kelly, whose deeds created a sensation in country Victoria during the 1870s.

Of Irish parents a teenage Kelly was regularly in trouble with the law - although while at school he saved a seven-year-old boy from drowning and received a green-silk sash fringed with gold for his courage.

At the age of 12 he was forced to quit school to become the family breadwinner after the death of his father, but despite this he educated himself and was known for his good use of language and fine sense of humour.

His work involved cattle and horses and not all of it was legal and he had his first serious run-in with the law at 14 when he was jailed briefly for assaulting a Chinaman.

Kelly was also an assistant to bushranger Harry Power, although the police could not manage to prove a link.

In 1870 he spent another six months in prison for beating up a salesman and a year later was found guilty of being in possession of a stolen horse and served three years in Pentridge.

Increasingly angered by what he saw to be an unfair system that he thought picked on the poor, Kelly and his relatives began to pay back the local wealthy landowners by rustling their cattle.

That sort of activity could have kept going for years, but one night a policeman, Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick, got too friendly with Kelly's sister Kate and he ended up being slightly wounded by a gunshot to the wrist. Fitzpatrick swore he'd pay the Kelly family back and his false report about the incident led to Kelly's mother being jailed for three years.

Ned Kelly, his brother Dan, and friends Steve Hart and Joe Byrne then went bush to avoid the police. In the subsequent hunt three policemen were killed in a shootout at Stringybark Creek when they inadvertently set up camp too close to the Kelly hideout.

Kate's Cottage is full of authentic Ned Kelly antiques, and is located 25 kilometres from Benalla

The Kelly Gang, as it became known, robbed at least two banks including a daring raid on Jerilderie in New South Wales where the bushrangers captured the town's policemen, locked them up and then proceeded to take more than 2000 pounds from the bank's vault.

It was here that Ned Kelly wrote his famous Jerilderie letter to make known his side of the story. Click here to read it.

In 1879 the Kelly Gang's trademark armour was created to afford them better protection against police bullets. It was not a highly scientific production system with the armour being made from metal plates fashioned over not-hot-enough open fires. It was fastened together with iron bolts and held on with leather straps.

Still, it was better than nothing and test firing showed it could stop a bullet from a police rifle. However, it's weight - about 44 kilograms - was a major problem.

On 26 June, 1880 the Kelly Gang executed a former friend-turned-police informer Aaron Skerritt and then doubled back to Glenrowan to prepare a trap for the police pursuit that would follow by train from Benalla. Ned's plan was to secure the town, hold everyone hostage, and then rip up the railway lines hoping to wreck the police locomotive.

The plan seemed to be working but the local schoolteacher, Thomas Curnow, escaped and managed to flag down the train before it was derailed.

When the police reached the township a major firefight broke out with the gang that lasted for almost half a day. At its end three of the Kelly Gang were dead and Ned was severely wounded and easily captured.

He was eventually taken to Melbourne and tried before Sir Redmond Barry who sentenced him to death for the Stringybark massacre. On 11 November 1880, 25-year-old Ned Kelly was hanged at the Old Melbourne Gaol giving him the distinction of being the first white Victorian-born prisoner to be hanged.

His death mask - which was moulded after his head was removed - and armour can be seen at the jail in Russell Street, Melbourne.

As famous as he was during the last years of his life, Ned Kelly has passed into Australian legend. He is the most written about Australian character and has featured in no less than 11 films. His iconic armour and helmet features prominently in the very famous series of paintings by Sir Sydney Nolan.

Click here for a travel piece on the Glenrowan Ned Kelly trail that covers much of Victoria's high country.

Links:
IronOutlaw.com
NedKellysWorld.com.au