NED KELLY:  AUSTRALIAN HERO?

By Kylie Fox

The image of armour-clad Ned Kelly has become synonymous in Australia with the Aussie legends of a “fair go” of bucking the system – he has been immortalised as our own Robin Hood-like cult hero.

So what is it that makes a convicted horse-thief, cattle-rustler, bank robber and police murderer such an important figure in the collective consciousness of Australians?

Are we really so hard up for a cultural identity that a bushranger and outlaw is the best we can come up with?

Over the thirteen decades since Kelly’s capture, we’ve immortalised him in film, literature and song and he was recently an addition to a Legends of Australian poster by artist Hugh Fleming,  alongside the likes of Saint Mary MacKillop, Sir Donald Bradman and Dick Smith. Has he earned his place there?

Even the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, arguably the biggest world stage Australia has showcased itself on, paid homage to Kelly. Is that really the image of Australia we wanted to present? Isn’t it time we moved away from our colonial past of first a penal colony and then bushrangers?

Surely the last couple of centuries have given us more to add to our identity than that.

So, what were the events that marked Ned Kelly as a hero forever? Here’s a brief outline of the criminal life of Edward “Ned” Kelly.

Early Life

Ned was the son of an Irish man sentenced to deportation from Ireland to Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania). When he had served his time, he relocated to Victoria where he married Ellen.

Ned was the second surviving child, and eldest son, of Red and Ellen Kelly, with six younger siblings to follow.

Ned’s family did it tough but not much is known of his early life. However, it does seem that unlike many of the contemporary killers that we’ve become acquainted with, Kelly wasn’t “born bad”. One story has a very young Ned risking his own life to save that of another boy from drowning. The boy’s family presented Ned with a green sash which he is reported to have been wearing all those years later, beneath his armour for the final showdown. One has to wonder if that was an act of contrition, a symbol of the one act in his life that he was actually proud of.

First Arrest

Ned was first arrested at the tender age of just 14 for the assault and robbery of a pig-farmer by the name of Ah Fook. Ned spent 10 days in police custody before he was released without charge due to a lack of evidence.

Bushranger Harry Power

The following year, 15 year old Ned was arrested as an accomplice to the notorious bushranger, Harry Power. The police were unable to provide any evidence to hold him and he was released, once again without charge.

The local community became hostile towards Ned when it was rumoured that he’d actually turned police informant on the bushranger.

First Jail Sentence

Ned’s luck ran out in 1870 when he was arrested for assault and jailed for 3 months.

Isaiah “Wild” Wright

Not long after his release, Ned met Isaiah Wright who asked Ned to help him find the horse that, he said, had run off into the bush. Ned found the horse and rode it only to be apprehended by police for the possession of, what they knew to be a horse stolen from the local post master. Despite maintaining that he had no knowledge that the horse was stolen, Ned was sentenced to three years in prison for being in possession of stolen goods.

Ironically, Wright the actual horse-thief, only received a sentence of 18 months for stealing it.

While Ned was imprisoned…

Ned’s brothers continued to bring the Kelly name to police attention (much to their own detriment) during Ned’s years of imprisonment. There were several incidents of horse theft and cattle rustling.

September 1877

Not long after his release, Ned was once again arrested – this time for drunkenness.

Ellen Kelly Remarries

Red Kelly had died when Ned was only 11 years old, but in 1877 Ellen finally remarried. This was not to be the stabilising effect on her sons that she had hoped for however, with her new husband, George King, becoming involved in a cattle rustling operation with Ned and his brother Dan.

April 15, 1878 … from bad to worse

Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick claimed to have been attacked by Ned, Dan, Ellen and two other men who, he said, all armed with revolvers (except Ellen) had set upon him and shot him in the wrist.

The family maintained that Ned was in NSW at the time and couldn’t possibly have been involved and that Fitzpatrick had made a pass at Kate Kelly. Ellen had subsequently hit his hand with a coal shovel to fend him off but that they had then bandaged the constable’s wrist and sent him on his way.

Nobody accepted the Kelly’s version of events and Ellen was imprisoned, along with new baby Alice, where she remained until after Ned’s execution some years later.

The other two men were released but Dan and Ned were nowhere to be found.

The making of The Kelly Gang

Upon the heels of that incident, Dan and Ned Kelly went into hiding and were later joined by friends Joe Byrne and Steve Hart. The four who would gain notoriety as the Kelly Gang.

The search and the ambush

On October 25^th, 1878, Sergeant Kennedy and Constables McIntyre, Lonigan and Scanlon, set out to search for the Kelly’s. It was agreed that they would split up into two pairs so as to cover more ground.

At some point it was decided that Lonigan and McIntyre would set up camp while the others continued their search.

The Kelly gang happened upon the search party, despite their unconvincing attempt to disguise themselves as prospectors. They ordered the two constables to surrender which McIntyre instantly did but Lonigan drew his gun. Ned, without hesitation, shot him dead.

Shortly after, the other two officers returned, and were told by McIntyre to surrender. Scanlon went for his gun and was shot dead by Ned. Kennedy ran, shooting as he went. In the exchange of gunfire that ensued, he was shot. Ned coldly fired a further shot, executing the already injured Kennedy.

McIntyre managed to escape on horseback.

In a final act, Ned stole the dead Kennedy’s gold fob watch. When asked later why, he stated, “What’s the use of a watch to a dead man?”

Outlawed

In response the Victorian parliament passed the “Felon’s Apprehension Act” – outlawing the gang and allowing anyone to shoot them on sight.

From outlaws to Bank Robbers

On December, 1878, the Kelly gang held up the Faithful Creek Station, imprisoning a number of hostages. They then raided the Euroa National Bank, netting themselves £2,260 – the equivalent of around $100,000 today. They took further hostages and forces them back to Faithful Creek where they were locked up with the other hostages.

Before leaving, the gang untethered the hostages but ordered them not to raise the alarm for three hours, giving them time to make a clean get-away.

Public Opinion Changes Tide

In January, 1879, police began arresting all known Kelly friends and sympathisers which created a groundswell of resentment toward the authorities and massive support for the, until now, feared and loathed Kelly gang.

This may well have been the beginnings of what became the Kelly legend.

Jerilderie NSW

On Saturday February 8, 1879, the gang arrived in Jerilderie NSW where they promptly broke into the police station and locked officers Richards and Devine in their own cell, then put on their uniforms and went out to mingle with the locals, posing as reinforcements from Sydney.

On the Monday they rounded up various people, including town officials, and herded them into the Royal Mail Hotel. Dan Kelly and Steve Hart plied them with “free” drinks while Ned and Joe Byrne robbed the local bank of £2,414. Ned then burnt all the townspeople’s mortgage deeds – further adding to his “Robin Hood” persona.(We must remember though that all cash netted was not distributed amongst the poor but kept within the gang.)

Police Informant Killed

June 26, 1880 was a momentous day for the gang for two reasons.

First, the Felon’s Apprehension Act expired thereby dismissing the gangs outlaw status.

On the same day, they discovered that their friend Aaron Sherritt, was a police informer. The gang went to his house and killed him.

Speculation is still rife that Sherritt was set up by police in order to draw the Kelly’s out of hiding.

Glenrowan – Scene of the Final Showdown

The Kelly gang arrived in Glenrowan on June 27, 1880. They took over the local Inn, taking about 70 hostages.

The gang had heard wind that a  train carrying a police detachment was on its way and so ordered that the tracks be pulled up to cause the train to derail.

The gang had equipped themselves with metal armour, consisting of back and breast plates and helmets that covered their entire heads except for slits for their eyes. The armour, forged from ploughs, weighed approximately 44kg for each suit.

All four wore long grey coats over their armour.

One hostage, Thomas Curnow (school master) convinced the Kelly’s to let him go. Freed he ran straight to the railway and flagged down the train, averting the probable disaster that a derailment would have caused.

Under Siege

At dawn on Monday 28^th, police laid siege to the Inn.

Who opened fire first is a matter of speculation but Ned Kelly claimed the police fired first, shooting several volleys of shots haphazardly into the inn, one shot hitting him in the arm and another in the foot.

Only then, he said, did the gang return fire. Ned emerged from the inn and “lurched” toward the police line, firing indiscriminately with his uninjured hand. He was shot again – twice to the body and once in his helmet but despite the impact of the bullets, he continued to advance.

When he was around 15m from the police lines, he was shot repeatedly in the legs, taking him down where he was, finally, arrested.

The rest of the Kelly gang died inside the inn.

Joe Byrne died from a gunshot that severed his femoral artery.

According to a witness, Dan Kelly and Steve Hart committed suicide but this was never verified with an autopsy as the bodies were too badly burnt when police set the inn ablaze.

Police suffered only one minor injury during the siege. Superintendant Francis Hare (the senior officer at the scene) received a slight wound to his wrist and withdrew from the fight. He was later suspended for his cowardice.

Several of the hostages were shot – presumably by the volleys of shots fired from outside the inn – two fatally.

Sentencing

Justice Redmond Barry sentenced Ned Kelly to death. Interestingly, when he uttered the customary “May God have mercy on your soul”, Kelly replied “I will go a little further than that, and say I will see you there when I go.”

Kelly showed some insight as the judge died just 12 days after Ned’s execution from an infection related to a carbuncle on his neck.

On November 11, 1880, at just 25 years of age, Edward “Ned” Kelly’s reign came to an end; he was hanged at Melbourne Gaol.

Two newspapers reported his last words as, “Such is life” but that has been denied by other witnesses to the execution. It has, however, made it into the annals of the Kelly legend.

The Legend

Ned Kelly’s life may have ended but certainly not his memory. Looking at the story of his life it is easy to sympathise with the plight of the Kelly’s and to cast serious doubts as to the way the authorities dealt with Ned and his family. But, does this excuse his actions?

Just about every criminal that enters a courtroom, every serial killer in history, has a tale of woe to tell about their childhood or the wrongs that had been inflicted upon them. Does that make their crimes any less abhorrent to us?

It’s true that the case of Ned Kelly did lead to enquiries about the state of the justice system of the time and eventually led to new legislations laying the groundwork for the police force that we have today. But, arguably, that was never Ned’s intention. He wasn’t thinking about changing the world, he wasn’t sacrificing himself for the good of others.

The hero worship of Ned Kelly goes a long way to explaining our current fascination with Australian underworld figures as depicted in the Underbelly television series. Thugs, crime bosses, drug dealers and their families have become celebrities.

Is it possible that Chopper Read could be endorsed as a representative of Australia in say, the political arena? You’re shaking your head as if that’s ridiculous. But I can only ask what makes Ned Kelly so different?

What do you think? Was Ned Kelly a common criminal or an Australian legend?