Life of Ned Kelly

1. THE LIFE OF NED
KELLY

2. COLONIAL AUSTRALIA FROM THE 1850’S:
GOLD RUSHES
• From 1851, the discovery of gold would dominate and transform Australia
politically and economically. People from all over would quit their jobs, pack up
and move out to Bathurst NSW and Ballarat and Bendigo Vic, in hopes of gaining
a fortune.
• With gold bringing great wealth to Australia, it also brought multi-ethnic social
tensions. Migrants from China, North America, Europe were coming to Australia
in large numbers for the first time. The population in 1851 was 437,655, by 1871
the population ballooned to 1.7 million.
• Agriculture would flourish with ex-miners seeking their future on the land and a
greater population of mouths to feed. The wealth of the gold rush would be
reinvested in to upcoming modern cities and railways to open new farmlands.

3. COLONIAL AUSTRALIA FROM THE 1850’S:
EUREKA STOCKADE
• On the 3rd of December 1954, gold miners in Ballarat started a rebellion against the
British colonial authority. The rebellion at Eureka was a culmination of societal unrest
amongst the miners against issues of taxation, licensing, decisions of the government,
and actions of the police and military.
• Although it was a defeat for the minors, they did however gain an overwhelming
support from the people of Victoria. the gold licences were then abolished, and
replaced by an annual miner's right and an export fee based on the value of the gold.
Mining wardens replaced the gold commissioners, and police numbers were cut
drastically. The Legislative Council was expanded to allow representation to the major
goldfields. The event also contributed to the formation of Australia’s national identity,
that Ned Kelly later became strongly apart of.

4. COLONIAL AUSTRALIA FROM THE 1950’S:
LAND ACTS
• During this time there was a belief that he rich squatters (landed gentry) had a
monopoly over farmable land and overtly prevented 'selectors' or small-scale
farmers from becoming landowners and independent farmers. In Victoria the
lower house of Parliament, the Legislative Assembly, passed controversial Land
Acts, which were then blocked by the squatters in the Legislative Council. The
distribution of land became a political issue. The squatters, who were wealthy and
had large sheep or cattle stations, acted to protect their power and influence.
Many squatters had taken vacant Crown land when first establishing their
stations, often outside the limits or boundaries of settlement drawn up by the
government.

5. LAND ACTS CONTINUED
• The Victorian Nicholson Land Act passed in 1860 specified the sale of two types of land: 'special'
land bought at auction, and land that was to be made available for selection after the land had
been surveyed. But the legislation prevented selectors from buying more than one allotment per
year. This legislation was to prevent people buying large areas of land.
• Squatters: In early colonial history, squatters were those who illegally settled on crown land to
graze their live stock. As the colonies became more established and the squatters more wealthy,
they clashed with their local government on their right to use the land. They would use their
money and power to drive selectors away and forfeit their land. The Squattocracy used their
connections with the police and local governments to butt heads with selectors.
• Selectors: Those with limited means could be settle crown lands on the condition of improving
it. Selectors were given squatters land.

6. COLONIAL AUSTRALIA FROM THE 1850’S:
BUSHRANGERS
• Prevalent during the convict era, bushrangers found their prominence during the
gold rush era. The gold travelling from the goldfields to the capital cities ensured
that there were rich rewards for those who were prepared to take the risk of
being caught.
• Most bushrangers were Australian-born. They were very good horsemen and
were well skilled in bushmanship. The stories of daring young men and larrikin
exploits have become part of Australian folklore. Most of these stories generally
present the bushranger as the victim of a corrupt police force. For example, Ben
Hall participated in numerous robberies but never killed anyone. His exploits
endeared him with the public, many of whom offered him a safe haven from the
police.

7. COLONIAL AUSTRALIA FROM THE 1850’S:
BUSHRANGERS CONT’D
• The poor Irish communities who had escaped English oppression in Ireland, or
who had previously been transported, were particularly supportive of the
bushrangers who defied the police.
• In 1865 the NSW government passed an act that would allow the shooting on
sight of any bushranger that had been outlawed, this was called the Felons
Apprehension Act (NSW).

8. THE LIFE OF NED
KELLY: EARLY LIFE

9. EARLY LIFE: PARENTAGE
• Edward ‘Ned’ Kelly’s birthdate is not entirely known but a number of sources suggest
that it was December 1854. Ned was the third (second surviving) of eight children to
John Kelly and Ellen Quinn.
• John Kelly, or Red, was a convict sent from Ireland to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania)
1842 for stealing two pigs. After six years, he received his certificate of freedom and
decided to move to Victoria to make a living as a bush carpenter. During the
backdrop of the Gold Rush, John would turn his attention to gold and be reasonably
successful at it, earning enough to purchase a small freehold in Beveridge a heavily
Irish community.
• As their fortunes declined in Beveridge, the Kelly’s sold their farm for £80 and began
renting a forty acre property near Avenel, Victoria.

10. PARENTAGE CONT’D
• Avenel was where a young Ned would be brought up. The Kelly family would
begin to find themselves at odds with the law as they further slipped into poverty.
In 1865, John would be sentenced to six months hard labour for unlawful
possession of meat.
• John would return home to his family and alcoholic with declining health. This
would have a fatal impact on John as he would die the following year from the
swelling of dropsy. This would leave the twelve year old Ned to become the man
of the house.
• Ellen, now a widow with seven children, moved the family northwards the Greta
to be closer to her family.

11. NED KELLY: SAVING OF THE DROWNING BOY
• While John was sent away, Ned would take on his
responsibilities that he left behind. At age eleven Ned
would leave school, help take care of his then pregnant
mother, and tend to the farm and young siblings.
• During this period, Ned came across a boy who had fallen
in to a river. Ned being the only person in sight would
dive in and rescue the boy. The parents of the boy would
hold a ceremony for his heroism and present Ned with a
green sash. The sash he would later wear under his armour
during the siege at Glenrowan.

12. NED KELLY: LIFE IN GRETA
• The family would select 88 acres of uncultivated and untitled farmland in Greta, but it
would very quickly invite trouble from graziers whose land the Kellys were
encroaching on.
• They would be quickly subject to police persecution. 18 charges would be brought
against the Kelly family for horse and cattle stealing, some justified and others not
with only half of those charges being guilty verdicts. This would promote a view from
the Kelly family that they were targeted from the police forces at work. It’s important
to acknowledge that the Victorian police practice would consider arrest as proof of
guilt.
• Let’s look at Ned, who might a young boy from a poor Irish farming background, with
a penchant for trouble with the law, be influenced by?

13. THE BUSHRANGER HARRY POWER
• At the age of fourteen, in1869, Ned would fall in with convict turned bushranger Harry Power. The Kelly
family had become sympathisers of Power, who had just recently escaped from Melbourne’s Pentridge
Prison. Ned would become Harry Power’s bush ranging protégé.
• It wasn’t long before Ned would be on the wrong side of the law, from attempting to steal horses
belonging to squatters to armed robberies and assault. It was during his altercation with Ah Fook, a pig
and fowl dealer, that Ned first declared himself a ‘bushranger’.
• During a spree of armed robberies, the police captured Ned and held him at Beechworth gaol where he
would be face three charges of armed robbery. Two charges were dropped due to the victims failing to
identify Kelly, but the last one Ned was taken to Melbourne and released soon after due to lack of
evidence. Historians argue over the reasoning for lack of evidence and witnesses.
• Harry Power would often camp on a farm owned by Ned’s grandfather, this is where he would be
captured by a police search party leading many to think that Ned had informed the police of his
location. It turned out to be Ned’s uncle Jack Lloyd.

14. THE LIFE OF NED
KELLY: LIFE INTO
ADULTHOOD

15. RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LAW
• After the capture of Harry Power, Ned would steer clear of bush ranging but would
still find himself in trouble with the law. In 1870, Ned would be sentenced to three
months hard labour for punching Jerimiah McCormack and being the messenger of a
note.
• In 1871, Kelly was charged with feloniously receiving a stolen horse. The event came
about when Isaiah ‘Wild’ Wright arrived in Greta on horse that he had planned to
transport to Mansfield for its owner. The horse would go missing and Wright would
have to borrow a horse from Alex Gunn (married to Ned’s older sister). The horse
would soon turn up but not until Wright had left. Ned would borrow the horse for a 4
day stint in Wangaratta. Ned was intercepted on his way back by Constable Hall, who
would struggle with arresting Ned. After misfiring his gun three times at Ned, Kelly
would be subdued by bystanders with Hall beating him with his pistol.

16. PENTRIDGE PRISON
• Although Ned would plead that he did not know the owner of the horse, he and Gunn would
be charged with stealing. Although the charge would be decreased to feloniously receiving
a horse. The two men would be sentenced to three years hard labour at Beechworth, initially,
then HM Prison Pentridge.

17. FITZPATRICK INCIDENT: FITZPATRICK’S SIDE OF THE
STORY
• In 1878, the officer in charge of the Greta police station caught wind that Kelly was a shearing
station close by and wanted to apprehend him. Because of the nature of Greta, being a lawless like
town, the police station could not be left unmanned and Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick was order
their to relieve.
• Upon spending quite a bit of time in Winton, Fitzpatrick would make his way to Greta. On his
journey he had remembered seeing a warrant for Dan for stealing horses in a police paper. Going
against the police policy of only going to the Kelly homestead if there where two police officers
accompanying, Fitzpatrick went to arrest Dan. Dan wasn’t there however, and he decided to sit with
the Kelly family while he waited for Dan to arrive.
• Dan would arrive with his brother in-law, Bill Skillion. Fitzpatrick would make the arrest, but allowed
Dan to have dinner before he left. While Fitzpatrick stood guard, Ned would burst in and shoot him
in his left arm above his wrist. There would be a struggle where Dan, Mrs Kelly, Skillion, and the
neighbour Williamson would assist and beat Fitzpatrick senseless. Ned would allow Fitzpatrick to
depart if he first dug the bullet out of his wrist with a knife (as to not be used as evidence) and to
not make a report. Fitzpatrick would ride away and report it to his superior.

18. FITZPATRICK INCIDENT: NED’S SIDE
• When asked about the event just three months before his execution, Kelly explained
that he was 200 miles from home, and according to what he was told, Mrs Kelly asked
Fitzpatrick to produce a warrant for Dan which Fitzpatrick did not have with him, so
she explained that Dan did not need to go. Fitzpatrick would then whip his gun out
and threatened to shoot her if she was to intervene. Mrs Kelly would explain to him
that he wouldn’t be so bold if Ned were there.
• Dan would try to trick the constable by leading him to believe that he could actually
see Ned coming from the window. While Fitzpatrick was looking, Dan took his
revolver and let him leave unharmed. Ned didn’t believe that Fitzpatrick tried to take
liberties with his sister Kate.

19. FITZPATRICK INCIDENT: CONTINUED
• Ned was strong in explaining that he was not there and the
Fitzpatrick had self-inflicted his wounds. J.J. Kenneally (a historian
that popularised Ned) would interview youngest brother Jim as well
as Ned’s cousins, including examining the Royal Commission
report. He concluded that Fitzpatrick was drunk, would make a pass
a Kate, and Dan would throw him to the floor.
• As Fitzpatrick drew his gun, Ned would appear and struggle to
disarm him. In the struggle, Fitzpatrick would hit his arm against a
door lock and claim that it was a gun wound.
• Regardless, what we do know is that Fitzpatrick's story was taken as
evidence, Ellen Kelly along with Skillion and Williamson were
charged with attempted murder and sent to prison. Ned would
have a £100 bounty put on him for his arrest, and he and Dan
would flee to the bush.

20. THE LIFE OF NED
KELLY: THE KELLY
GANG

21. THE KELLY GANG
• With the Fitzpatrick incident finding all those involved guilty, plus the £100 bounty for Ned’s arrest,
Ned and Dan would flee into the bush and were soon accompanied by Ned’s friend Joe Byrne and
Dan’s best friend Steve Hart.
• Steve Hart grew up in Wangaratta. He was from an Irish background as his parents were Irish
immigrants. A very good rider (used to jockey occasionally), Hart would spend twelve months in HM
Beechworth gaol for stealing horses. When he got out, he joined the Kellys and Byrne to pan gold.
• Joe Byrne grew up in Woolshed (10km from Beechworth). Family also of Irish decent. Byrne was a very
intelligent student when he was at school, generally at the top of his class, and would befriend fellow
student Aaron Sherritt. Although he would drop out before grade six due to his father passing away
from heart disease. Byrne would learn how to speak Cantonese from the local Chinese gold diggers.
He and Sherritt would find themselves consistently in trouble with the law as the furthered into
adulthood. On a six month stint at Beechworth, the pair would meet Jim Kelly, Ned’s brother, and a
connection to the Kelly’s would be fostered.

22. JOE BYRNE
AND STEVE
HART

23. STRINGYBARK CREEK
• In pairs, you are to use a variety of sources to answer the following questions:
• When and where did this event take place?
• Who were the policemen present? How were they assembled?
• Outline how the event took place
• What was the outcome of the event?

24. EURORA RAID
• 9 December 1878, the gang held up Younghusband’s Station, at Faithful’s Creek. The gang assured the
people that there was no reason to fear them, all they wished for was food for them and their horses.
The people were held in a storeroom and were allowed fresh air after sunset. The gang was mainly
non-aggressive in their time.
• The next afternoon, with burn watching the hostages, the other three cut the lines on all the
telephones poles (restricting communication with police close by at Benalla). The gang went to the
bank with a cheque drawn by the Station’s manager McCauley, and demanded that the bank be open
for the cheque to be cashed. Ned and the gang would accumulate about £3000, they would treat the
bank owner and his wife politely and with consideration. Ned and the gang would leave in the evening
without the town knowing anything of the event.
• This would go down as one of the most polite and bizarre heists that Australia had ever witnessed. The
newspapers would headline with their exploits. The philosophy of politely robbing you wouldn’t place
Ned at odds with the people or the farmers, but the police, the squatters, and the government.

25. THE KELLY SYMPATHISERS
• The Kelly gang had quickly become polarising figures in country Victoria, many still saw the for
the criminals that they were, others (especially those closer to the Kellys) saw the gang as being
a resistance of the downtrodden. The gang would use these sympathisers to lay low, seek
shelter, and evade police.
• The police would crack down on this. In January 1879, the police would arrest up to 23 known
sympathisers of the Kelly gang, mostly known friends. They would be held at Beechworth gaol
for over three months without being charged.
• The move was to dissuade any other sympathisers from aiding the Kellys, but their decision
would backfire and promote a public belief that the police were incompetent and condemn the
government’s abuse of power. This would further cause a groundswell of support for the Kelly
gang.

26. JERILDERIE RAID
• After undertaking a journey to hunt down an elusive known
informant (which was unsuccessful), the gang found
themselves in NSW. On their way back to Victoria the gang
encountered the town of Jerilderie.
• At midnight on the 8th of Feb, the gang would sneak around
the police station and surround it. Ned would call out the
officers, claiming that their was a brawl at the near by hotel.
Once the only two constables came out, they were greeted by
the gang and taken hostage, relieving the officers of their
guns, uniforms, and horses.
• In keeping with the hiding in plain sight style, Ned would
escort one of officers wives to Sunday mass, Dan and Hart
would dress in the uniforms and carry out police duties. Later
in the day, the gang would escort their hostages to the nearby
hotel and take all the patrons there hostage as well.

27. JERILDERIE RAID
CONT’D
• Instead of treating his hostages like one might normally
would, Ned would charm them, treated to drinks and
conversation as he would openly discuss his ambitions and
beliefs. After emptying the local bank of its contents,
accumulating £2141, Ned would acquire deed books
containing land mortgage documents. He would take this
book back to the hotel and burn three of the four books, in
effort to erase debts and create losses for the bank,
although there were copies in Sydney.
• Ned and the gang would take off, leaving behind an 8,000
word letter written by Ned for the Jerilderie newsletter. It
would be seen as Ned’s manifesto, initially beginning with
fleeing from authorities then turning to political thoughts
condemning English rule and promoting the spirit of Irish
rebellion.

28. AFTER THE JERILDERIE RAID
• In response to the raid at Jerilderie, the NSW government would place a bounty
on the gang for £4000, dead or alive. The Vic government would match the
bounty, giving the gang an £8000 (equivalent to $1.5 million Australian) bounty
on their heads, the largest bounty ever recorded for a bushranger.
• Despite the bounty and the news articles, the gang would disappear for months.
The police would exert much of their energy into locating them, even going as far
to enlist indigenous trackers from Queensland, but it would be to no avail and
thus further adding to the public perception that the police were incompetent.
If the gang were to come out of hiding, then it would be on their own terms.

29. AARON SHERRITT
• Aaron Sherritt was a former Greta Mob member and lifelong friend of
Joe Byrne. Aaron and Joe had grown up together in Woolshed Valley,
just outside of Beechworth, which made Aaron the target of police
suspicion for housing the Kelly’s when the gang went into hiding. It is
believed that Sherritt accepted payments from the police to inform on
the Kelly gang, however most information he provided would be false.
Regardless, rumours spread to the gang that Sherritt’s loyalties were
with the police.
• On 26 June 1880, Dan and Joe arrived in Woolshed Valley with the
intention of killing Aaron. Dan and Joe would kidnap Anton Wick, a
man who lived near Aaron and head from Sherritt’s place. Once there,
Dan would force Wick to knock and say he was lost. Once Aaron
opened the door, he would be greeted by Joe and his gun, shooting
him twice. Sherritt would die. Sherritt’s wife Ellen would do her best to
dissuade the men to not burn down the house with her, her child, and
the four police officers in it. Dan and Joe relented and would go back
into hiding.

30. GLENROWAN SHOOTOUT
• The gang knew that their would be a response to the
murder of Sherritt, and that the four policeman at the
house would contact Beechworth. This would prompt a
train to be sent from Melbourne. Ned and Hart, whilst the
others were at Woolshed Valley, tried to rip up the track
at Glenrowan in order to kill all the officers on the train.
Although they failed, they forced line-repairmen to finish
the job. While they waited, Ned and Hart rounded up the
residents of Glenrowan and held them captive in Ann
Jones’s Glenrowan Inn.
• With them, the men had brought along their stolen
horses, blasting powder and fuses, and their iconic bullet
repelling armour.

31. GLENROWAN SHOOTOUT CONT’D
• Dan and Joe would join Ned and Steve at the hotel where they encouraged drinking
and dancing as they waited for the train to arrive. Dan and Joe would become fairly
drunk, whilst Ned abstained preferring to amuse the Glenrowan residents.
Unbeknownst to the gang, the train had left much later than they had anticipated.
This meant that everyone had to wait an exhaustive amount of time.
• By 10pm that night, they had let some of their sympathisers to return home for the
night. Amongst these people was Thomas Curnow, a schoolmaster who the gang
believed to be a Sympathiser, he would make haste to the track and flag down the
train before it reached its impending doom. The train would stop and the police
would disembark heading towards Anne Jones’s in.

32. GLENROWAN SHOOTOUT CONT’D
• The police, led by Superintendent Hare, would read the inn ready to apprehend the gang. They
were greeted with the four men in the armour ready to fight. The hostages remained as low as
they could as they were trapped in the inn.
• The police and the gang would fire at each other for about a quarter of an hour. Hare would
leave the shooting having been hit in the wrist, and Ned would sneak away from the Inn
undetected having been shot in the left wrist in elbow. The rest of the Kelly gang would retreat
into the Inn and the police would surround the premises. Joe Byrne, whilst making himself a
whiskey and toasting to the gang, is hit by a stray bullet during the shooting. The shot would be
fatal.
• At daybreak, the women and children would be allowed to leave, although they would be
encountered by police believing that the gang would sneak out in disguise.

33. GLENROWAN SHOOTOUT CONT’D
• In the morning light, Ned rose in his armour and attacked the
police with handguns from the rear. The police officers would
return fire but it would be to avail, the bullets would ricochet
of the armour. With the morning mist and the size of the
armour, Kelly would appear almost mystical, further adding to
his reputation.
• Kelly would laugh at the police and order the remaining
outlaws to continue firing, which they did. Realising that his
legs weren’t protected, an officer shot twice hitting him in the
thigh and hip. It was then that Kelly surrendered himself.
• Dan and Hart would keep shooting all morning. At 10am, a
white handkerchief was held out the front door, and 30 male
hostages would be released. By afternoon the pair had
stopped shooting, but the police had received orders to not
enter the building but set fire to it instead.

34. GLENROWAN SHOOTOUT CONT’D
• Kate Kelly would appear on the seen to make way to her brothers, but was
stopped by the police.
• The fire would quickly take over the structure. A nearby priest made efforts to
retrieve any survivors, it was then that he discovered the brunt bodies of Dan and
Hart, who seemingly have committed suicide. The mystery remains whether it was
by a pact or by other means.
• All that remained of the hotel was a lamppost and the sign. Byrne’s body was
strung up in Benalla as a curiosity, then would be buried in a unmarked grave.
Dan and Hart would be buried in unmarked graves near Greta.

35. TRIAL AND
EXECUTION
• Ned would survive to stand trial on the 19th of
October 1880 in Melbourne, the same judge who
sentenced his mother would be the man who
sentences him. The trial was adjourned to 28
October, when Kelly was presented on the charge of
the murder of Sergeant Kennedy, Constable Scanlan
and Lonigan, the various bank robberies, the murder
of Sherritt, resisting arrest at Glenrowan and with a
long list of minor charges. He was convicted of the
wilful murder of Lonigan and sentenced to death by
hanging.
• Ned Kelly was hung in Melbourne Gaol on the 11th of
November. It is believed that his last words were
‘such is life’, but it has been challenged that he said
anything at all.