Ned Kelly Totally Explained

Everything about Ned Kelly totally explained

Edward "Ned" Kelly (c. 1855 – 11 November 1880) is Australia's most famous Bushranger, and, to some, a folk hero for his defiance of the colonial authorities. Ned Kelly was born north of Melbourne to an Irish convict father, and as a young man he clashed with the police. He was offered an apprenticeship as a stonemason. Following an incident at his home in 1878, police parties searched for him in the bush. After he murdered three policemen, the Colony of Victoria proclaimed Ned and his gang wanted outlaws. A final violent confrontation with police took place at Glenrowan. Kelly, dressed in home-made plate metal armour and helmet, was captured and sent to trial. He was hanged for multiple murder at Melbourne Gaol in 1880. His daring and notoriety made him an iconic figure in Australian history, folk lore, literature, art and film. On March 9 2008, it was claimed that Kelly's burial site had been found by Australian scientists

Early life

John "Red" Kelly, the father of Ned Kelly, was convicted in Ireland and transported to Van Diemen's Land. There is uncertainty surrounding "Red's" conviction as most of Ireland's court records were destroyed during the Irish Civil War.
   Ian Jones claims that 'Red' stole two pigs. According to Jones, 'Red' was an informer, but again this claim is contested. 'Red' was sentenced to seven years of penal servitude and transported to Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) and arrived in 1843.
   After his release in 1848, Red moved to Victoria in 1849 and found work in Beveridge at the farm of James Quinn. 'Red' Kelly, aged 30, married Quinn's daughter Ellen, then 18. Their first child died early, but Ellen then gave birth to a daughter, Annie, in 1853. In all they'd eight children.
   Their first son, Edward (Ned) Kelly, was born in Beveridge, Victoria just north of Melbourne in 1855. The exact date is unknown; various dates have been proposed, but there's no general agreement.
   Ned was baptized by an Augustinian priest Charles O'Hea. As a boy, he obtained some basic schooling and risked his life to save another boy, Richard Shelton, from drowning. As a reward he was given a green sash by the boy's family, which he wore under his armour during his final showdown with police in 1880.
   The Kellys were always suspected of cattle or horse stealing, though never convicted. 'Red' Kelly was arrested when he killed and skinned a calf, which the police said belonged to a neighbour. He was found not guilty of theft, but guilty of removing the brand from the skin and fined 25 pounds or six months with hard labour. Not having money to pay Red served his sentence in Kilmore gaol and the affair broke his health and brought about his early death. The saga surrounding Red, and his treatment by the police, remained with Ned.
   Red Kelly died at Avenel, Victoria on 27 December 1866 when Ned was only eleven and a half. (as recorded by Ned on his father's death certificate) It was at this time, that the Kelly family acquired land and moved to the Greta area of Victoria, which to this day is known as Kelly Country.
   In all, 18 charges were brought against members of Ned's immediate family before he was declared an outlaw, while only half that number resulted in guilty verdicts. This is a highly unusual ratio for the time, and is one of the reasons that has caused many to posit that Ned's family was unfairly targeted from the time they moved to North-East Victoria. Perhaps the move was necessary because of Ellen's squabbles with family members and her appearances in court over family disputes. Antony O'Brien however argued that Victoria's colonial policing had nothing to do with winning a conviction, rather the determinant of one's criminality was the arrest. Further, O'Brien argued, using the 'Statistics of Victoria' crime figures that the region's or family's or national criminality was determined not by individual arrests, but rather by the total number of arrests.

Rise to notoriety

In 1869, 14-year-old Ned was arrested for assaulting a Chinese pig farmer named Ah Fook. Ah Fook claimed that he'd been robbed by Ned, whose story was that Ah Fook had a row with his sister Annie. Ned spent ten days in custody before the charges were dismissed. From then on the police regarded him as a "juvenile bushranger".
   The following year, he was arrested and accused of being an accomplice of bushranger Harry Power. No evidence was produced in court and he was released after a month. Historians tend to disagree over this episode: some see it as evidence of police harassment; others believe that Kelly’s relatives intimidated the witnesses, making them reluctant to give evidence. Kelly would later admit to being one of Power's accomplices . Power was eventually arrested while hiding out on land belonging to Kelly's relatives. Ned's grandfather, James Quinn, owned a huge piece of land known as Glenmore Station at the head waters of the King River. It was at the top of this land where Power lived - on Quinn's land. Just over the range on the other side of King River is Stringybark Creek (see below).
   In October 1870, Ned was arrested again for assaulting a hawker, Jeremiah McCormack, and for his part in sending McCormack's childless wife an indecent note that had calves' testicles enclosed. This was a result of a row earlier that day caused when McCormack accused a friend of the Kellys, Ben Gould, of using his horse without permission. Gould wrote the note, and Kelly passed it on to one of his cousins to give to the woman. He was sentenced to three months' hard labour on each charge.
   Upon his release Ned returned home. There he met Isaiah "Wild" Wright who had arrived in the area on a chestnut mare. The mare had gone missing and since Wright needed to go back to Mansfield he asked Ned to find and keep it until his return. Ned found the mare and used it to go to town. He always maintained that he'd no idea that the mare actually belonged to the Mansfield postmaster and that Wright had stolen it. While riding through Greta, Ned was approached by Constable Hall who, from the description of the animal, knew the horse was stolen property. When his attempt to arrest Ned turned into a fight, Hall drew his gun and tried to shoot him, but Kelly overpowered the policeman and humiliated him by riding him like a horse. Hall later struck Kelly several times with his revolver after he'd been arrested. After just three weeks of freedom, 16-year-old Ned was sentenced to three years imprisonment along with his brother-in-law Alex Gunn. "Wild" Wright got only eighteen months.
   While Ned was in prison, his brothers Jim (aged 12) and Dan (aged 10) were arrested by Constable Flood for riding a horse that didn't belong to them. The horse had been lent to them by a farmer for whom they'd been doing some work, but the boys spent a night in the cells before the matter was cleared.
   Two years later, Jim Kelly was arrested as part of a cattle-rustling operation. He and his family claimed that he didn't know that some of the cattle didn't belong to his employer Tom Lloyd. Nevertheless he was given a five-year sentence.
   In October 1877, Gustav and William Baumgarten were arrested for supplying stolen horses to Ned Kelly and were later sentenced in 1878. William served time in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne and was released after the Jerilderie Letter was presented at Ned Kelly's trial. Gustav and William Baumgarten owned land in Barnawartha, Victoria.

The Fitzpatrick Incident

Ned's mother, Ellen, was now married to a Californian, named George King, with whom she'd three children. He, Ned and Dan became involved in a cattle rustling operation.
On the 15 April 1878, Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick arrived at Benalla suffering from 'wounds' to his left wrist. He claimed that he was attacked by Ned, Dan, Ellen, their associate Bricky Williamson and Ned's brother-in-law Bill Skillion. Fitzpatrick claimed that all except Ellen were armed with revolvers. Williamson and Skillion were arrested. Ned and Dan were nowhere to be found, but Ellen was taken into custody along with her baby, Alice. She was still in prison at the time of Ned's execution. (Ellen would outlive her most famous sons by decades and die on 27 March 1923).
The Kellys claimed that Fitzpatrick came into their house to question Dan over a cattle incident. While there, he made a pass at Dan's young sister Kate. Her mother hit his hand with a coal shovel and the men knocked Fitzpatrick to the ground. They then bandaged his injured wrist, and he'd left saying that no real harm had been done. No guns, they claimed, were used during the incident, and Ned wasn't involved since he was away in New South Wales. The belief that Ned was in New South Wales is still disputed, though the fact that Fitzpatrick was later dismissed from the force for drunkenness and perjury has led many to accept the Kellys' version of events.

The Killings at Stringybark Creek

Dan and Ned doubted they could convince the police of their story. Instead they went into hiding, where they were later joined by their friends Joe Byrne and Steve Hart.
   On 25 October 1878, Sergeant Kennedy set off to search for the Kellys, accompanied by Constables McIntyre, Lonigan, and Scanlon. The wanted men were suspected of being in the Wombat Ranges, north of Mansfield, Victoria. The police set up a camp near two shepherd huts at Stringybark Creek in a heavily timbered area.
   On arrival, the police split into two groups: two officers went in search of the Kellys, while the other two, Lonigan and McIntyre remained to guard their camp. Brown suggested in his book, Australian Son (1948) that Sgt. Kennedy was tipped off as to the whereabouts of the Kellys. O'Brien (1999) drew attention to the 1881 Royal Commission's questioning of McIntyre, (Questions 14319-14414) which explored a possibility that Kennedy and Scanlon may have searched for the Kellys to gain a reward for themselves. The inference to gain a reward for Scanlon and Kennedy, at the expense of the other two police, was clear from the tone of Questions 14376 & 79.
   The police at camp fired at some parrots unaware they were only a mile away from the Kelly camp. Alerted by the shooting, the Kellys nearby discovered the well armed police camped near the 'Shingle hut' at Stringybark Creek. They were in disguise and dressed as prospectors - yet their pack horses hobbled nearby had leather strap arrangements suitable for carrying out bodies.
   Ned Kelly and his brother Dan considered their chances of survival against such a well-armed, determined party, and they decided to overpower the two officers, then wait for the two others to return. The plan was for them to surrender, take their arms and horses. At least this way they could be some match against another police party that had set out at the same time from Benalla but heading south (Ned was tipped off to this other party's existence). Ned and Dan advanced to the police camp, ordering them to surrender. Constable McIntyre wasn't harmed as he threw his arms up. Lonigan drew his revolver and Ned's shot hit him. Lonigan staggered some distance, cried out 'Oh Christ I'm shot' and collapsed dead.
   When the other two police returned to camp, Constable McIntyre, at Ned's direction, called on them to surrender. Sergeant Kennedy went for his gun; Ned fired. Scanlon was killed. Kennedy ran shooting from tree to tree with Ned in pursuit. In an exchange of gun fire Kennedy was mortally shot. Unable to give assistance and in view of the distances from help Kelly fired a fatal shot into Kennedy. McIntyre, in the confusion, escaped on horseback uninjured and later hid in a wombat hole fearing for his life.
   The exact place at Germans Creek where this occurred has only recently been identified, after 129 years. On leaving the scene Ned stole Sergeant Kennedy's hand written note for his wife - and his gold fob watch. Asked later why he stole the watch, Ned replied, "What's the use of a watch to a dead man?" Kennedy's gold fob watch was returned to his kin many years later.

Bank robberies

The gang committed two major robberies, at Euroa and Jerilderie. Their strategy involved the taking of hostages and robbing the bank safes. There were no reported deaths or injuries in the course of these robberies.

Euroa

On the 10 December 1878, the gang raided the National Bank at Euroa. They had already taken a number of hostages at Faithful Creek station and went to the bank claiming to be delivering a message from McCauley, the station manager. They got into the bank and held up the manager, Scott, and his two tellers. After obtaining all the money available, the outlaws ordered Scott, his wife, family, maids and tellers to accompany them to Faithful Creek where they were locked up with the other hostages, who included the station's staff and some passing hawkers and sportsmen (It is claimed that Ned, posing as a policeman, took one of the men prisoner on the grounds of being the "notorious Ned Kelly". The man was locked up in the storeroom saying that he'd report the "officer" to his superiors. It was only then that he was told who his captor was).
The outlaws gave an exhibition of horsemanship which entertained and surprised their hostages. After having supper, and telling the hostages not to raise the alarm for another three hours, they left.
The entire crime had been carried out without injury and the gang had netted £2000, a large sum in those days.

Jerilderie

The raid on Jerilderie is particularly noteworthy for its boldness and cunning. The gang arrived in the town on Saturday 8 February 1879. They broke into the local police station and imprisoned police officers Richards and Devine in their own cell. The outlaws then changed into the police uniforms and mixed with the locals, claiming to be reinforcements from Sydney.
On Monday the gang rounded up various people and forced them into the back parlour of the Royal Mail Hotel. While Dan Kelly and Steve Hart kept the hostages busy with "drinks on the house", Ned Kelly and Joe Byrne raided the local bank of about two thousand pounds. Kelly also burned all the townspeople's mortgage deeds in the bank.

The Jerilderie Letter

Months prior to arriving in Jerilderie, and almost certainly with considerable help from Joe Byrne, Ned dictated a lengthy letter for publication describing his view of his activities and the treatment of his family and, more generally, the treatment of Irish Catholics by the police and the English and Irish Protestant squatters. The Jerilderie Letter, as it's called, is a document of some 8,300 words and has become a famous piece of Australian literature. Kelly had written a letter (14 December 1878) to a politician Cameron stating his grievances, but that correspondence was suppressed from the public. Hence, Kelly's determination to have the 'Jerilderie Letter' published. From the first lines of the letter Kelly states his case, understanding that in his fight against his 'oppressors' that the printed word was more important than guns, or money. It also highlights the various incidents that led to him becoming an outlaw (see Rise to notoriety).
The letter was never published and was concealed until re-discovered in 1930.
It was then published by the Melbourne Herald. Max Brown published the letter in his book, Australian Son (1948).
The handwritten document was donated anonymously to the State Library of Victoria in 2000. Several historians have researched the letter and published articles and books. The historian McDermott says, 'even now it's hard to defy his voice. With this letter Kelly inserts himself into history, on his own terms, with his own voice...We hear the living speaker in a way that no other document in our history achieves...' The language is colourful, rough and full of metaphors; it's 'one of the most extraordinary documents in Australian history'.

Capture, trial and execution

Aaron Sherritt, Joe Byrne's erstwhile best friend, was a police informer. On the 26 June 1880 Dan and Joe Byrne went to Sherritt's house and killed him. (Ian Jones, authority on the Kelly Gang, has made a compelling case in his book, The Fatal Friendship that the police manipulated events so that Sherritt appeared a traitor and to provoke the gang into emerging from hiding to dispose of him.) The four policemen who were living openly with him at the time hid under the bed and didn't report the murder until late the following morning. This delay was to prove crucial since it upset Ned's timing for another ambush.
   The Kelly Gang arrived in Glenrowan on 27 June forcibly taking about 70 hostages at the Glenrowan Inn, owned by Ann Jones. They knew that a train loaded with police was on its way and ordered the rail tracks pulled up in order to cause a derailment.
   The gang members donned their now famous armour. The armour was made with stolen and donated plough parts. It isn't known exactly who made the armour. Some suggest they made it themselves, others suggest it was made by sympathetic blacksmiths. Each man's armour weighed about 96 pounds (44 kg); all four had helmets, and Joe Byrne's was said to be the most well done, with the brow reaching down to the nose piece, almost forming two eye slits.
   While holed up in the Glenrowan Inn, the Kelly gang's attempt to derail the police train failed due to the bravery of a released hostage, schoolmaster Thomas Curnow. Curnow convinced Ned to let him go and then as soon as he was released he alerted the authorities, at great risk to his own life, by standing on the railway line near sunrise, waving a lantern wrapped in his red scarf (Sam Aull). The police then stopped the train and laid siege to the inn.
   At about dawn on Monday 28 June, Ned Kelly emerged from the inn in his suit of armour. He marched on to the police firing his gun at them, while their bullets bounced off his armour. His lower limbs however were unprotected and he was shot up to twenty-eight times in the legs (sources vary, some saying six times). The other Kelly Gang members died in the hotel, Joe Byrne allegedly by loss of blood due to a gunshot wound that severed his femoral artery, and Dan Kelly and Steve Hart, which the witness Father Gibney said was by suicide. The police suffered only one minor injury: Superintendent Francis Hare, the senior officer on the scene, received a slight wound to his wrist, then fled the battle. For his cowardice the Royal Commission later suspended Hare from the Victorian Police Force. Also, several hostages were shot, at least two fatally.
   Ned Kelly survived to stand trial, and was sentenced to death by the Irish-born judge Sir Redmond Barry. This case was extraordinary in that there were exchanges between the prisoner Kelly and the judge, and the case has been the subject of attention by historians and lawyers (see Philips). When the judge uttered the customary words "May God have mercy on your soul", Ned allegedly replied "I will go a little further than that, and say I'll see you there when I go". He was hanged on 11 November at the Melbourne Gaol for multiple murder by Elijah Upjohn. Although two newspapers (The Age and The Herald) reported Kelly's last words as "Such is life," another source, Ned Kelly's gaol warden, writes in his diary that when Kelly was prompted to say his last words, he (Kelly) opened his mouth and mumbled something that he couldn't hear—and since the warden's office is closer to the scene of the hanging than the witnesses' allotted space, Ned Kelly's last words actually remain uncertain. Sir Redmond Barry died of the effects of a carbuncle on his neck on 23 November, 1880, twelve days after Kelly.
   About 32,000 Victorians signed a petition against Kelly's sentencing.

Grave discovered

On March 9 2008 it was announced that Australian archaeologists believed they'd found Kelly's grave on the site of an abandoned prison The bones were uncovered at a mass grave in the abandoned prison, and Kelly's are among those of 32 felons who had been executed by hanging. Historians had discovered records which suggested that Kelly's remains were buried at Pentridge prison after having been removed from the Old Melbourne Gaol when it closed in 1929. Jeremy Smith, a senior archaeologist with Heritage Victoria said, "We believe we've conclusively found the burial site but that's very different from finding the remains." Forensic pathologists are examining the bones (March 2008), which are much decayed and jumbled with the remains of others, making identification difficult. However, Kelly's remains could be identified by an old wrist injury and by the fact that his head was removed for phrenological study. Mrs Ellen Hollow, Kelly's 62 year old great-niece, has offered to supply her own DNA to help identify Kelly's bones.

The Kelly aftermath and the lessons

There are two schools of debate around the Kellys.
   Some dismiss the Kelly Outbreak as simply a spate of criminality. These included: Boxhall, The Story of Australian Bushrangers (1899), Henry Giles Turner, History of the Colony of Victoria (1904) and several police writers of the time like Hare and more modern writers like Penzig (1988) who wrote legitimizing narratives about law and order and moral justification.
   Others, commencing with Kenneally (1929), and McQuilton (1979) and Jones (1995), perceived the Kelly Outbreak and the problems of Victoria's Land Selection Acts post-1860s as interlinked. McQuilton identified Kelly as the "social bandit" who was caught up in unresolved social contradictions - that is, the selector-squatter conflicts over land - and that Kelly gave the selectors the leadership they so lacked. O'Brien (1999) identified a leaderless rural malaise in Northeastern Victoria as early as 1872-73, around land, policing and the Impounding Act.
   After Ned Kelly's death, the Victorian Royal Commission (1881-83) into the Victorian Police Force led to many changes to the nature of policing in the colony.
   Though the Kelly Gang was destroyed in 1880, for almost seven years a serious threat of a Second Outbreak existed because of major problems around land settlement and selection (McQuilton, Ch. 10).
   McQuilton suggested two police officers involved in the pursuit of the Kelly Gang — namely, Superintendent John Sadleir (1833-1919),(External Link

) author of Recollections of a Victorian Police Officer, and Inspector W.B. Montford — averted the Second Outbreak by coming to understand that the unresolved social contradiction in Northeastern Victoria was around land, not crime, and by their good work in aiding small selectors.

The Kellys and the modern era

Ned's mother Ellen died at the age of 92, by which time planes, cars and radio had been introduced to Australia. Photographs have recently been discovered showing her sitting in a motor car.

November 2007 auctioning of claimed Kelly revolver

On 13 November 2007, a weapon claimed to be Constable Fitzpatrick's service revolver was auctioned for approximately $70,000 in Melbourne.
   The vendor's representative, Tom Thompson, claimed that the revolver was left by Constable Fitzpatrick at the Kelly house after the mêlée in 1878, given to Kate Kelly, and then (much later) found in a house or shed in Forbes, New South Wales.
   According to press reports in the days following the auction, firearms experts assessed the revolver as being of a design (a copy of an English Webley .32 revolver) not manufactured until 1884, well after the claimed provenance had the weapon changing hands from Constable Fitzpatrick to the Kellys. In addition, a stamp on the gun which the auction catalogue interpreted as R*C, an indication that the revolver was of the Royal Constabulary, was instead read as a European manufacturer's proof mark.
   Further, evidence by Constable Fitzpatrick said that when he left the Kelly homestead after the incident, he'd his revolver and handcuffs; (cited in Keith McMenomy (1984), p. 69.)

Cultural effect

One of the gaols in which he was incarcerated has become the Ned Kelly Museum in Glenrowan, Victoria, and many weapons and artifacts used by him and his gang are in exhibit there. Since his death, Kelly has become part of Australian folklore, the language and the subject of a large number of books and several films. The Australian term 'as game as Ned Kelly' entered the language and is a common expression.
Films included the first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang (Australia, 1906), another with Mick Jagger in the title role (1970), and more recently Ned Kelly (2003) starring the late Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom and Geoffrey Rush. A TV mini series of six episodes The Last Outlaw (1980) highlighted the plight of the selector and the social conflicts and battles between selector and squatters. During the 1960s, Ned Kelly graduated from folk lore into the academic arena. His story and the social issues around land selection, squatters, national identity, policing and his court case are studied at universities, seminars and lectures.

Ned Kelly as a political icon

In the time since his execution, Ned Kelly has been mythologized among some into a Robin Hood, a political revolutionary and a figure of Irish Catholic and working-class resistance to the establishment and British colonial ties. It is claimed that Kelly's bank robberies were to fund the push for a "Republic of the North-East of Victoria", and that the police found a declaration of the republic in his pocket when he was captured, which has led to him being seen as an icon by some in the Australian Republicanism cause (itself including a lot of Australians of Irish Catholic descent, most notably previous Prime Minister Paul Keating and author Thomas Kenneally).

Ned Kelly captures President Kruger and wins the Boer War, 1900

In early June 1900, when the Boers' Transvaal capital, Pretoria, fell to the British assault, President Paul Kruger and his government fled east, on a train and evaded capture. In the Melbourne Punch of 21 June 1900, a cartoon titled "BAIL-UP!" depicted the Kelly Gang capturing Paul Kruger's train and seizing Kruger's gold, thus winning the Boer War for the British. This is among the first of the Australian political cartoons, invoking Ned Kelly's historical memory, to fix a national problem.

Ned Kelly the honest bushranger, 1915

During the tough days during World War 1 in cartoon in the Queensland Worker, later re-printed in Labor Call, 16 September 1915, showed profiteers robbing Australian citizens, while Ned Kelly in armour watches on saying; "Well Well! I never got as low as that, and they hung me.'

Ned Kelly - invoked to fight the Japanese in 1942

During World War II, Clive Turnbull published, Ned Kelly: Being His Own Story of His Life and Crimes. In the introduction Turnbull invoked the Kelly historical memory to urge Australians to adopt the Kelly spirit and resist the oppression of the potential invader.

Ned Kelly in iconography

The distinctive homemade armour he wore for his final unsuccessful stand against the police was the subject of a famous series of paintings by Sidney Nolan.
   Ironically Jerilderie, one of the towns Ned Kelly robbed, has built its Police Station featuring no less than 19 structural components mimicking his distinctive face plate. Some examples include walls made of differently toned bricks making up his image to storm drains with holes cut in them to form it.
Ned Kelly, based on Sidney Nolan's imagery, appeared in the "Tin Symphony" segment of the opening ceremony for the year 2000 Olympic Games.
   Ned Kelly has appeared in advertisements, most notably in Bushells tea on television. A man drinking tea in the iconic suit of armour is the focal point of part of the ad.
   Australia Post produced a (now collectable) stamp/envelope set No. 027 The Siege Of Glenrowan - Centenary 1980 to mark the capture of Ned 100 years before. The $0.22c 'stamp' printed on the envelope shows Ned 'at bay' wearing his armoured helmet and Colt revolver in hand.

Books

Black Snake: The Daring of Ned Kelly

Ned Kelly in fiction

A. Bertram Chandler's novel Kelly Country (1983) is an alternate history in which Kelly leads a successful revolution; the result is that Australia becomes a world power. Peter Carey's novel True History of the Kelly Gang was published in 2000, and was awarded the 2001 Booker Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize. O'Brien's, Bye-Bye Dolly Gray, though fiction, has detailed insights into local Kelly folklore. Kelly in non-fiction writings
Many books on the Kelly outbreak exist. Some are police histories, others academic pieces. Many are listed below in the references section.

Films

Films and television

The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) now recognised as the world's first feature length film had a then-unprecedented running time of 70 minutes. One of the actual suits worn by the gang (probably Joe Byrne's) was borrowed from the Victorian Museum and worn in the film. Pieces of the film still exist.
   Harry Southwell wrote, directed and produced three films, The Kelly Gang (1920), When the Kellys Were Out (1923) and When the Kellys Rode (1934), and began work on a fourth, A Message to Kelly (1947). The Glenrowan Affair was produced by Rupert Kathner in 1951, featuring the exploits of Ned Kelly and his "wild colonial boys" on their journey of treachery, violence, murder and terror, told from the perspective of an ageing Dan Kelly. It starred the famous, tough Carlton footballer Bob Chitty as Ned Kelly. It was one of the last films to portray him with an Australian accent.
   In 1967, independent filmmaker Garry Shead directed and produced Stringybark Massacre, an avant garde re-creation of the murder of the three police officers at Stringybark.
   The next major film of the Kelly story was Ned Kelly, starring Rolling Stone Mick Jagger, directed by Tony Richardson, running 1 hour, 43 minutes. It wasn't a success and during its making it led to a protest by Australian Actors Equity over the importation of Jagger, with complaints from Kelly family descendants and others over the film being shot in New South Wales, rather than in the Victoria locations, where most of the events actually took place.
   Kelly expert and author Ian Jones and Bronwyn Binns wrote the script for the 1980 television 4 part, mini-series, The Last Outlaw, and which they co-produced. The series premiered on the centenary of the day that Kelly was hanged. The film's detailed historical accuracy distinguished it from many other Kelly films. It was released (by EMI in 2005) on DVD and runs for 379 minutes. It rates among the best of the Kelly movies.. Yahoo Serious wrote, directed and starred in the 1993 satire film Reckless Kelly as a descendant of Ned Kelly. It was a disappointment when compared to his first film, Young Einstein.
   In 2003, Ned Kelly, a $30 million budget movie about Kelly's life was released. Directed by Gregor Jordan, and written by John M. McDonagh, it starred the late Heath Ledger (as Kelly), Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, and Naomi Watts. Based on Robert Drewe's book Our Sunshine the film covers the period from Kelly's arrest for horse theft as a teenager to the Kelly gang's armour-clad battle at Glenrowan. It attempts to portray the events from the perspectives of both Kelly and of the authorities responsible for his capture and prosecution. It wasn't a success, nor did it honour the story; one review dismissed it as fiction. http://www.newsweekly.com.au/articles/2003apr19_ned.html
   That same year (2003) a low budget satire movie called Ned was released. Written, directed and starring Abe Forsythe, it depicted the Kelly gang wearing fake beards and tin buckets on their heads.

Bush poems and verse

Many poems and ditties emerged during the Kelly era (1878-80) relating their exploits. Some were later put to music. Stringybark Creek (below) was, according to Brown, sung during the Outbreak. Offenders caught chanting or singing this piece were fined (£2) $4 or (£5) $10, in default one or two months. � :::Stringybark Creek

   ::A sergeant and three constables � ::Set out from Mansfield town

   ::Near the end of last October � ::For to hunt the Kellys down;

   ::So they travelled to the Wombat, � ::And thought it quite a lark,

   ::And they camped upon the borders of � ::A creek called Stringybark.

� ::They had grub and ammunition there

   ::To last them many a week. � ::Next morning two of them rode out,

   ::All to explore the creek. � ::Leaving McIntyre behind them at

   ::The camp to cook the grub, � ::And Lonigan to sweep the floor

   ::And boss the washing tub.

Music

Songs

Kevin Shegog, (1959) Little Kangaroo, Planet, later re-released on W&G; Re-release as Kevin Shegog: Ballad of Hillbilly Singer, Canetoad Records, a CD, 2004.
   In 1971, US country singer Johnny Cash wrote and recorded the song "Ned Kelly" for his album The Man in Black.
   Other songs about Ned Kelly include those by Paul Kelly (musician) ("Our Sunshine" (1999)), Slim Dusty ("Game as Ned Kelly"), Ashley Davies ("Ned Kelly" (2001)), Waylon Jennings ("Ned Kelly" (1970)), Redgum ("Poor Ned" (1978)), Midnight Oil ("If Ned Kelly Was King" (1983)), The Whitlams ("Kate Kelly" (2002)), and Trevor Lucas ("Ballad of Ned Kelly", performed by Fotheringay on their eponymous album). He was also referred to in the Midnight Oil song "Mountains of Burma" (1990) ("The heart of Kelly's country cleared").
   The Australian band, The Kelly Gang consisted of Jack Nolan, Scott Aplin, Rick Grossman (bassist for Hoodoo Gurus) and Rob Hirst (drummer for Midnight Oil) and recorded one album Looking for the Sun (2004) which has one of Sydney Nolan's iconic "Ned Kelly" series as its album cover.
   "Shelter for my Soul" was written and recorded by Powderfinger's Bernard Fanning for the 2003 film Ned Kelly. It was written from Kelly's perspective on death row and played over the movie's closing credits.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Ned Kelly'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://ned_kelly.totallyexplained.com">Ned Kelly Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.