At 16, Kelly was convicted of receiving a stolen horse and served three years in gaol as a result. In 1878 a police officer by the name of Fitzpatrick accused Ned's mother of assaulting him and Ned of shooting him in the wrist. Mrs Kelly was sent to prison for three years and a £100 reward was offered for Ned's capture.
From then Ned and his brother Dan became bushrangers. After Ned shot and killed three policemen, the reward was raised to two thousand pounds, the equivalent today of $2 million. Police finally caught up with the Kelly gang in June 1880. In the ensuing gun battle, members of the Kelly gang were shot dead. Ned survived and in October was tried and convicted of wilful murder. Despite a petition with 30 000 signatures pleading for his release, Ned Kelly was hanged at the Old Melbourne Gaol on the 11th November 1880. He was 25 years old. Source: Skwirk.com |
Ned Kelly |
Kelly was born in June 1855 in Beveridge, around 40 kilometres north of Melbourne. The eldest son of eight children to John 'Red' Kelly and Ellen Quinn, the infamous bushranger was first arrested at the age of 14 for assaulting a Chinese man. After his mother was arrested and sentenced to three years' imprisonment for aiding and abetting an attempted murder in 1878, Ned and his brother Dan, along with friends Joe Byrne and Steve Hart - the members of 'The Kelly gang' - went into hiding from police. The four ambushed a group of police on their trail in Stringybark Creek, killing three, and from that point on became outlaws. After more than two years the gang's period on the run ended in 1880 when police cornered them at the Glenrowan Hotel. Ned Kelly, wearing a suit of armour made from heavy steel, was captured after being repeatedly shot, while the other three gang members died in the shootout. He was taken to Melbourne and sentenced to death for murder. Source: http://www.abc.net.au/ |
Ned Kelly timeline of his life and death
1854/1855 (circa): Born Edward Kelly in Beveridge, north of Melbourne.
1869: A 14-year-old Kelly assaults a Chinese pig farmer and spends close to two weeks in police custody. October 1870: Arrested again for assault. 1871: Arrested for riding a stolen horse and fighting with police. Sentenced to three years' jail. April 1878: Ned Kelly goes into hiding after being accused of assaulting a police officer. |
|
October 1878: Ned Kelly and his gang kill three police from a group sent to track him down at Stringy Bark Creek in bushland near Mansfield.
December 1878: Ned Kelly and his gang hold up a bank in Euroa. February 1879: Ned Kelly and his gang dress as cops and rob a bank in Jerilderie. June 1880: Shootout between police and the Kelly gang at Glenrowan Inn. Ned Kelly is arrested, the three members of his gang die in the shootout. October 1880: Ned Kelly faces trial and is sentenced to death. |
11 November 1880: Ned Kelly is hanged. Two Melbourne newspapers report his last words as "Such is life".
1929: The remains of prisoners, including Ned Kelly's remains, transferred from Old Melbourne Gaol to Pentridge Prison.
November 2009: A skull believed to belong to Ned Kelly is given to the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine for identification. Efforts to identify his remains among those exhumed from Pentridge Prison begin.
1 September 2011: Victorian government announces the remains are those of Ned Kelly.
18 January 2013: Ned Kelly's remains are buried
Source: http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/
1929: The remains of prisoners, including Ned Kelly's remains, transferred from Old Melbourne Gaol to Pentridge Prison.
November 2009: A skull believed to belong to Ned Kelly is given to the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine for identification. Efforts to identify his remains among those exhumed from Pentridge Prison begin.
1 September 2011: Victorian government announces the remains are those of Ned Kelly.
18 January 2013: Ned Kelly's remains are buried
Source: http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/
Other Useful Timelines
The Kelly Gang
Stuck into the collective minds of the Australian public is a curious sense of national pride towards the infamous Ned Kelly and his gang of bushranging outlaws, younger brother Dan Kelly and friends Steve Hart and Joe Byrne.
In their brief years as outlaws, the Kelly Gang murdered three police officers (Sergeant Michael Kennedy and Constables Thomas Lonigan and Michael Scanlan) and former-friend-turned-police-informant Aaron Sherritt. Between 1878 and 1880, they robbed the National Banks in Euora and Jerilderie. "When they raided the bank at Jerilderie, they burnt the mortgage papers of small scale farmers who were indebted to the bank," says Associate Professor Hamish Maxwell-Stewart from the University of Tasmania."There's a definitely political agenda to some of that activity." On 28 June 1880, the Gang made their final stand against police at the Glenrowan Inn, Victoria. The shootout lasted for half a day. After negotiating the release of hostages, police set fire to the building at around 3pm in an attempt to drive the bushrangers from its shelter. Dan, Hart and Byrne died in the smoke and gunfire of the famous shootout. Ned was arrested and eventually hanged on 11 November 1880 at the Old Melbourne Goal, Victoria. Source: http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/ |
Other information on Ned Kelly
On this day: Ned Kelly is hanged |
On this day: The Kelly Gang's last stand |
The armour was made by the Kelly Gang with the help of local blacksmiths. It is made of steel from plough shares, leather, iron bolts, in five pieces with separate helmet and visor. Total weight of armour and helmet: 41.4 kg. approx.
Source: State Library of Victoria This rifle is believed to have belonged to Ned Kelly. It has a number of inscriptions carved on it including NK son of RED (Kelly's father was known as Red Kelly).
Source: State Library of Victoria |
The four suits of armour reunited, seen here after being deep-etched by National Museum photographer Jason McCarthy. From left: armour worn by Ned Kelly, State Library of Victoria; armour worn by Joseph Byrne, private collection; armour worn by Dan Kelly and Steve Hart, Victoria Police Museum.
|
Ned Kelly: Hero or hell raiser? BY PETER NORDEN
Although Ned Kelly has finally been laid to rest with his family, the nation is still divided on whether he was a hero or hellraiser.
Click here to read the article from the |
Australia’s most famous bushranger is Ned Kelly.
Kelly’s mother, Ellen, was a free Irish immigrant. His father, ‘Red’, was born in County Tipperary, and transported from there in 1841.
Ned Kelly described Irish convicts as a ‘credit to Paddy’s land’, since they had died in chains rather than submit to English rule.
Edward ‘Ned’ Kelly was born in 1854. As a teenager he was in trouble with the police and took to stealing horses.
Feeling driven by police harassment, and the wrongful imprisonment of his mother on perjured police evidence, Kelly fled into the bush in mid-1878. Joined there by his brother, Dan, and two others, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart, they became the Kelly gang.
Outlawed
The gang was outlawed after killing three Irish-born Victorian policemen in 1878. For two years the gang robbed banks and evaded capture, largely because of sympathy for them among the struggling small farmers of north-east Victoria.
Kelly penned a detailed ‘manifesto’ of his grievances and tried to have it published.
The siege at Glenrowan
The Kelly gang was eventually cornered at the Glenrowan Inn. The police surrounded the pub, and a gun battle raged throughout the night of 27–28 June, 1880. The gang had made suits of improvised armour to protect themselves. Each suit, made from the mould boards of ploughs, weighed about 44 kilograms.
Ned Kelly left the inn during the night, but returned next morning to help his friends. At first, his armour stopped the bullets, but he was brought down by wounds to his unprotected legs. Kelly’s refusal to surrender, and his loyalty to his mates when he could have escaped, has helped create the Kelly legend.
When he appeared from behind the Glenrowan Inn, Ned Kelly was a startling figure. Onlooker Thomas Carrington described a ghastly figure looking ‘for all the world like the ghost of Hamlet’s father with no head, only a very long, thick neck’. The initial failure of police gunfire to bring him down only added to the supernatural effect.
Kelly was eventually brought down by police sergeant Arthur Steele, who shot him in the legs. The National Museum holds the ceremonial sword later presented to Sergeant Steele by grateful pastoralists
More than a bushranger’s tale
Much more than a simple bushranger story, the Kelly outbreak was part of a land war between small landholders and squatters. One of the weapons used by Kelly and others was the theft of horses and cattle from large landholders. So, once Kelly was finally captured and eventually executed, the members of the Moyhu Stock Protection Society rewarded Sergeant Steele by presenting him the sword.
Kelly’s mother, Ellen, was a free Irish immigrant. His father, ‘Red’, was born in County Tipperary, and transported from there in 1841.
Ned Kelly described Irish convicts as a ‘credit to Paddy’s land’, since they had died in chains rather than submit to English rule.
Edward ‘Ned’ Kelly was born in 1854. As a teenager he was in trouble with the police and took to stealing horses.
Feeling driven by police harassment, and the wrongful imprisonment of his mother on perjured police evidence, Kelly fled into the bush in mid-1878. Joined there by his brother, Dan, and two others, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart, they became the Kelly gang.
Outlawed
The gang was outlawed after killing three Irish-born Victorian policemen in 1878. For two years the gang robbed banks and evaded capture, largely because of sympathy for them among the struggling small farmers of north-east Victoria.
Kelly penned a detailed ‘manifesto’ of his grievances and tried to have it published.
The siege at Glenrowan
The Kelly gang was eventually cornered at the Glenrowan Inn. The police surrounded the pub, and a gun battle raged throughout the night of 27–28 June, 1880. The gang had made suits of improvised armour to protect themselves. Each suit, made from the mould boards of ploughs, weighed about 44 kilograms.
Ned Kelly left the inn during the night, but returned next morning to help his friends. At first, his armour stopped the bullets, but he was brought down by wounds to his unprotected legs. Kelly’s refusal to surrender, and his loyalty to his mates when he could have escaped, has helped create the Kelly legend.
When he appeared from behind the Glenrowan Inn, Ned Kelly was a startling figure. Onlooker Thomas Carrington described a ghastly figure looking ‘for all the world like the ghost of Hamlet’s father with no head, only a very long, thick neck’. The initial failure of police gunfire to bring him down only added to the supernatural effect.
Kelly was eventually brought down by police sergeant Arthur Steele, who shot him in the legs. The National Museum holds the ceremonial sword later presented to Sergeant Steele by grateful pastoralists
More than a bushranger’s tale
Much more than a simple bushranger story, the Kelly outbreak was part of a land war between small landholders and squatters. One of the weapons used by Kelly and others was the theft of horses and cattle from large landholders. So, once Kelly was finally captured and eventually executed, the members of the Moyhu Stock Protection Society rewarded Sergeant Steele by presenting him the sword.