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From Outlaw to Legend: The Life and Times of Ned Kelly
Play Real Outlaws Ned Kelly Part 1: The Bushranger
Ned Kelly is one of Australia's most iconic historical figures, renowned as a notorious outlaw and a folk hero.
His story, one of rebellion against colonial authority and fierce resistance to perceived injustice, embodies the turbulent relationship between the law and the common people in nineteenth-century Australia.
Early Life
To understand Ned Kelly, we must understand Australia in the 1800s.
The Australian colonies in the 19th century were a unique melting pot. In 1770, explorer Captain James Cook claimed the land for the Kingdom of Great Britain. Not long after, in 1788, the first penal colony was established. With British prisons bursting, penal colonies separated criminals from society by transporting them to far-flung corners of the Empire. Transportation, as the sentence was known, was seen as a more humane alternative to execution.
Edward Kelly was born in Australia in December 1854. His father, Red Kelly, was a tough Irishman who had been transported to Australia for stealing pigs in 1842. The family were proud Irish Catholics, and their resentment towards the British Empire would set the tone for Ned's brief life.
A Life of Crime
When Ned was just 12 years old, his father died. Suddenly the man of the house, Ned, unable to provide for his family, turned to crime. At 14, he teamed up with a 50-year-old bushranger named Harry Power. Bushrangers were known to hide away in the thick scrub, jump out when a gold cart came by and rob whoever was in charge.
Harry was Ned’s tutor, and Harry told him and showed him how to conduct robberies. Basically, you just rode up to somebody on the road, pointed your gun in their face and said: “Bail up.” And generally speaking, they did, which was a pretty sensible reaction.
Graham Seal, professor of folklore at Curtin University in Perth and author of Tell Them I Died Game, The Legend of Ned Kelly
Harry and Ned oversaw a reign of terror along Victoria’s byways. But, in 1870, they went too far by robbing a local magistrate. Ned found himself in Beechworth Jail for the first time, facing a hefty sentence if found guilty. Fortunately, witnesses failed to identify him, and a month later, he was released without charge. The following year, Ned was jailed for three years due to a mix-up with a policeman about a stolen horse. Upon his release, he tried to go straight, taking jobs in construction.
It didn’t last. In 1877, he joined a gang whose main grift was horse theft.
Ned's transition from a young troublemaker to a fully-fledged outlaw began in earnest in 1878. After an altercation with a police officer, during which Kelly's mother, Ellen, was accused of aiding in an attempted murder, Ned and his brother Dan fled into the bush. They were soon joined by Joe Byrne and Steve Hart, forming what became known as the Kelly Gang. Over the next two years, the gang's exploits captured the public's imagination. They committed a series of bank robberies, often taking hostages and burning mortgage documents to relieve the debts of struggling farmers. These actions, coupled with their defiance of the authorities, garnered significant public support.
He was a very good PR man. They understood that they were working in this tradition, the noble robber, the idea that you shouldn't offer unjustified violence to people. If it did kill somebody, it should be seen to be justified, which was the argument that he made about killing policemen.
Graham Seal, professor of folklore at Curtin University in Perth and author of Tell’em I Died Game: The Legend of Ned Kelly.
Capture
The Kelly Gang's criminal activities culminated in the infamous siege of Glenrowan in June 1880. Anticipating a final showdown with the police, the gang took over the small town, taking hostages and preparing for battle. They donned homemade suits of bullet-proof armour, which have since become iconic symbols of their rebellion. The siege ended in a dramatic confrontation. The police, heavily armed and prepared, besieged the inn where the gang had holed up. After an intense gunfight, during which most of the gang members were killed, Ned Kelly was captured. Despite his armour, he was wounded multiple times.
After his capture, doctors tended to Ned's wounds. Over the following weeks, he was carefully nursed back to health, only to be hanged on 11 November 1880. He was just 25 years old.
Ned Kelly's legacy is complex and multifaceted. To some, he symbolises resistance against oppression, a folk hero who stood up for the common. To others, he remains a ruthless outlaw whose actions brought violence and lawlessness.
Is he a hero? Is he a villain? Of course, the answer is that he's both.
Graham Seal, professor of folklore at Curtin University in Perth and author of Tell Them I Died Game, The Legend of Ned Kelly.