Life Down Under
Ned Kelly
How a bushranger became an Australian legend, by Meredith Roux
Ned Kelly created sensation in the 1870s and became Australia’s most famous bushranger. In the late 19th Century, Australia was socially divided between Squatters and Selectors. Squatters used their wealth and other advantages to enlist the law and have the police on their side. This caused a sense of injustice among the poor Selectors.
Ned Kelly was born at Beveridge, Victoria, in December 1854. Edward “Ned” Kelly was the first-born son of an Irish Catholic couple. His father was an ex-convict and his mother was a migrant. Ned attended school at Avenel. It was during his school years that Ned risked his life to save a seven year old drowning boy, Richard Shelton, who was swept off the banks of the Hughes Creek and into the raging waters. Ned 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. However, as a teenager, Ned Kelly was regularly in trouble with the law. At the age of 15, Ned was first brought before the Police Court on a charge of assault on a fowl and pig dealer, named Ah Fook. Also Ned Kelly was arrested, although the police could not manage to prove a link, because he helped the bushranger, Harry Power, in some of his robberies. But Ned was released after a month. Later, he was jailed for six months for assaulting a hawker and in 1871, a year later, he was found guilty of being in possession of a stolen horse and as a consequence served three years in Pentridge.
In April 1878, a warrant was issued for the arrest of Ned’s brother Dan Kelly on a charge of horse theft. Constable Fitzpatrick got too friendly with Kelly’s sister Kate and he ended up being slightly wounded by a gunshot to the wrist. The following day he reported to his superiors that Dan Kelly had resisted arrest, and that Ned had entered the room and shot him in the wrist. Kelly’s mother was sent to jail for three years after this incident "for assisting in the attempted murder of a police officer". Ned Kelly, his brother Dan, and friends Steve Hart and Joe Byrne hid from the police. When the police were searching the bushland for them, a violent encounter occurred, resulting in three policemen being shot and killed. This was known as “the Stringybark Creek gunfight”.
The four of them became know as the “Kelly gang”. The Kelly Gang were outlaws, however they did not rob stage-coaches or people and so did not behave like other bandits and were called in Australia, “bushrangers”. Ned Kelly became increasingly angry about the system which he thought picked on the poor. The gang robbed two banks, one of which, involved a daring raid on Jerilderie in New South Wales where the bushrangers captured the town’s policemen, locked them up and then stole more than 2000 pounds from the bank’s vault. In both robberies, they did not fire a single shot. From then on, the “Kellys” became a part of Australian folklore.
The rich upper class of Australian society at that time saw Ned Kelly as a blood thirsty murderer but the working class saw him as a hero. Ned Kelly saw himself as a Robin Hood and a defender of the free against the oppressive British overlords. His escapades were always dramatic. Instead of just robbing coaches, his gang bailed-up whole towns, cutting up telegraph wires and robbing banks.
The gang discovered that one of their sympathisers, Aaron Sherritt, Joe Byrne’s best friend, was a police informer. On the 26 June 1880 Dan and Joe Byrne went to Sherritt’s house and murdered him. During the murder, four policemen were hiding under the bed. They delayed reporting the murder. This delay of time compromised Ned Kelly’s plan for another ambush. The four bushrangers doubled back to a small town called Glenrowan to prepare a trap for the police. The Kelly Gang had their “last stand” in this town, in Victoria, where they took 60 hostages in a hotel. The gang members wore their now famous armour. The armour was made with stolen and donated plough parts. Each man’s armour weighed about 96 pounds. On Monday 28 June, Ned Kelly appeared from the hotel in his suit of armour. He marched towards 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.
This major firefight between the police and the gang lasted for almost half a day. At its end three of the Kelly Gang were dead and Ned was severely wounded and easily captured. Ned Kelly was sentenced to death by Sir Redmond Barry for “the Stringybark Creek gunfight”. On 11 November 1880, 25-year-old Ned Kelly was hanged at the Old Melbourne Gaol. It is said that about 32,000 Victorians signed a petition against Kelly’s sentencing. After Ned Kelly’s death, there was a Victorian Royal Commission which led to many changes in the police force.
Even now, opinions are either black or white about Ned Kelly. Some consider him to be a merciless killer who commited horrible crimes but others consider him a national hero. He is the most written about Australian character and is the subject of radio and television programs, movies and theatre productions. Ned Kelly is regarded as an Australian legend. He is Australia’s folk-hero and a symbol of national pride to many.
Dernière modification le 08-11-11 par
