Page 78 - All About History - Issue 53-17

Kelly’s death mask, a mould of the bushranger’s features
taken after his death — a common practice in the
Victorian era
By June 1880, the handsome rewards had been
withdrawn and the gang’s status as outlaws
expired, though they were under no illusion
that they would be free citizens. Bolstered by
their previous encounters with the police, they
decided to rob the banks in Benalla, Victoria, but
would first shoot dead an informant under police
protection as a distraction. They dispatched
The Kelly Gang ambushed Aaron Sherritt and disarmed the four police
four policemen in the
Stringbark Creek murders protecting him with ease, then made their way
to Glenrowan with the intention of destroying
the rail lines to prevent reinforcements from
arriving. Little did they know, this would also be
the end of the line for the gang.
The most famous of Ned Kelly relics, a helmet
and suit of armour, are housed in the State
Library of Victoria. They are likely to endure
far longer than the blood-stained green sash he
on 26 October 1878. We know for sure that Ned other serious crimes. They robbed two banks, was awarded as a boy aged 11, when he saved
and three others — Dan Kelly, Joe Byrne and stealing gold, silver, sovereigns and promissory seven-year-old Richard Shelton from drowning
Steve Hart — caught a party of policemen, sent notes to the tune of several thousand pounds, in Hughes Creek, and which he wore underneath
to capture the gang, off-guard in their camp. around 1 million Australian dollars today. The his metal suit at his last stand at Glenrowan.
Of the four policemen, three died — namely reward money for the capture of the Ned Kelly The symbolism here is palpable, depending on
Michael Kennedy, Thomas Lonigan and Michael Gang sky-rocketed to £4,000 in New South which camp you fall into: he’s a boyhood hero
Scanlan — while the other, Thomas McIntyre, Wales — or £1,000 for any one of the outlaws clad in either the armour of his own righteous
escaped to tell the tale. Ned’s account reads like — with a further £4,000 offered by the state of indignation or of an iron-cold murderer. Even
the script of a lone ranger film, giving the men Victoria. The four men completely dropped off Ned’s intent behind the armour, if not the siege
the opportunity to surrender and taking life only the grid, making camp in the Bush near the Kelly and gunfight at Mrs Jones’ Hotel in Glenrowan
when he felt that his own was threatened. “I gave homestead at Eleven Mile Creek while the police where he wore it, is subject to considerable
him my word I would give them a chance,” he patrolled the towns, unable to match the rangers’ degrees of interpretation. The plates covered
told McIntyre as the four outlaws awaited the bushcraft and uncomfortable at the thought of just about every part of the men’s torsos and
return of the other two policemen. And, when straying too far into unfamiliar territory after the heads back to front with iron impenetrable to
he killed Kennedy: “I put his cloak over him and Stringybark incident. After a year of half-hearted police gunfire — but not their legs. It seems an
left him as honourable as I could, and if they attempts to track Ned and his gang down, locals obvious weak spot, and that’s just how Ned
were my own brothers I could not be more sorry had lost confidence and respect for the police. Kelly was stopped: with a hail of bullets to his
for them.”
The three dead men were of Irish descent. It’s Ned Kelly was badly
possible Kelly would indeed have felt he had bruised after using
his homemade suit
some connection with them, although McIntyre of armour
didn’t seem to think so: “...like a great many
young bushmen he prided himself more on his
Australian birth than he did upon his extraction
from any particular race. A favourite expression
of his was: ‘I will let them see what one native
can do’.” We begin to see how Ned Kelly became
an icon for a new nation.
After Stringybark Creek, in early 1879, it seems
the four outlaws had committed themselves to

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