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NED KELLY - Outlaw And Folk Hero (AUSTRALIA)

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Bianca
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« Reply #15 on: June 28, 2008, 03:39:12 pm »












                                        As bold as Ned Kelly and very much nicer







January 09, 2008



A gun once owned by Kate Kelly has sold at auction. Troy Lennon reports on the iron outlaw's sister



The initials ``KK'' are inscribed on the stock of a pistol found in the wall of a house at Forbes two years ago. It is an ordinary-looking pistol, certainly nothing fancy, and the sort of gun that was issued to police in the 19th century.

But because the house was where Kate Kelly, the sister of bushranger Ned, lived the last 10 years of her life, it fetched an impressive $72,870 at auction on Tuesday.

If it is really the gun that once belonged to the sister of Australia's armour-plated outlaw, what a story it must have to tell. Kelly's sibling was, by most accounts, no shrinking violet. She was a staunch supporter of her brother and according to legend is credited with the incident that sent Ned on the run.

She was born Catherine Ada Kelly on July 12, 1863, at Beveridge, Victoria. Kate was the seventh child in the family. Her father, Irish-born John ``Red'' Kelly, had been transported to Van Diemen's Land on a conviction of theft in 1841. Red made some money on the goldfields to establish himself on a farm at Beveridge, breeding cattle and horses. He married the feisty Ellen Quinn, whose family had arrived from Ireland as assisted migrants, also in 1841.

Ellen defied her parents to marry Red. The couple had their first child, Mary Jane, about 1850, but she died in infancy. More children followed: Anne in 1853, Edward (Ned) in 1854, Margaret (Maggie) in 1857, James (Jim) in 1858 and Dan in 1861.

The family prospered at the Beveridge farm for many years. But Red borrowed too much and was forced to sell his property and move. His business ventures failing, and finding himself increasingly harassed by the police as a former convict, he took to drinking. Then in 1865 he served a six-month jail term for stealing a calf.

In 1865, Kate's younger sister Grace was born and in 1866, Ned stole a horse, giving his brother's name as an alias to police. Ned was not convicted but it brought him to the notice of authorities.
Two days after Christmas that year, Kate's father died. Ellen, left destitute, took out her frustrations on other people and was convicted of assault on at least two occasions.

In 1867, Ellen moved the family to the town of Greta and in 1868 took up a selection at Eleven Mile Creek, between Greta and Glenrowan, where she would be nearer her Quinn family relatives. But the land was poor and once more, they were soon struggling to survive.

Ellen ran a ``sly grog'' shop from the family home and the Kellys were often suspected of thefts of livestock in the area.

Ned was also earning a reputation - avoiding conviction for assaulting a Chinese man in 1869 and suspected of being an accomplice of bushranger Harry Power in 1870.

In 1870, Kate was looking after another sister, Ellen jr, sired by William Frost. Ellen sr married George King in 1874, by which time Kate had ended formal education and was working full time helping her mother raise the family - soon expanded by two: John (Jack) and Alice. Kate's mother later said: ``Dear little Kate! I can see her now bustling about the place, keeping things tidy, helping outside whenever she got the chance; she was always bright and cheerful, just like a sunbeam about the house.''

By then Ned and Jim were both convicted criminals. And hardened by his time inside, Ned continued a life of crime with the aid of his siblings. In 1878 a warrant had been issued for the arrest of Dan Kelly. On April 15, Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick of Benalla police station was dispatched to take charge of the station at Greta and told to arrest Dan on his way.

Fitzpatrick stopped off at Lindsay's, an unlicensed establishment at Winton, for a few drinks along the way.

According to Fitzpatrick's account, he tried to arrest Dan but claims he was assaulted by family members and shot in the wrist by Ned. After allegedly removing the bullet with his own pen-knife, the constable was released to make his way back to Lindsay's where the proprietor provided brandy, first aid and a trip back to Benalla.

Fitzpatrick's account only briefly mentions the presence of Ned's sister. But Ellen sr told a different story. She claimed that Fitzpatrick - a known womaniser - had come into their home under the influence of alcohol and tried to kiss Kate. ``She was a fine, good looking girl, Kate,'' Ellen said. ``The boys tried to stop him. He was a fool.''

It is unlikely that Ned would have fired at the officer in a small room filled with family members. Fitzpatrick's wrist was probably injured as the brothers hustled him out of the house. During the stoush he was relieved of his pistol, thought to be the pistol sold at auction on Tuesday.

But Fitzpatrick's story, with all its holes and inconsistencies, was what the authorities believed. Warrants were soon issued for family members including Ellen, Ned, Dan, Maggie's husband William Skillion and Kelly's neighbour William Williamson, long suspected of being an accomplice in Kelly exploits. Dan and Ned went into hiding while Ellen Kelly, Skillion and Williamson were arrested.

Kate was left looking after the family and providing assistance to her brothers and their gang while they were on the run. In October 1878, Ned and his gang shot dead three policemen at Stringybark Creek.

The gang were declared outlaws, making it lawful for any citizen to shoot them dead. Police kept Kate under surveillance but she often evaded them and managed to keep supply lines open to the gang on their two-year crime spree.

On a trip from Melbourne, she helped Maggie avoid being caught with ammunition by deftly offloading it to a sympathiser through a train window.

When Ned made his last stand at Glenrowan on June 28, 1880, Kate and other family members made their way there. Kate, Maggie and Grace were allowed time with their captured brother and later claimed the charred bodies of Dan and gang members Joe Byrne and Steve Hart.

Dan and Steve's bodies were taken back to Greta where police raided a wake for the men attended by Kate and other family members.

Kate was never called to testify at Ned's trial but she was in Melbourne throughout it, visiting her brother whenever permitted. She was followed by reporters wherever she went as she raised funds for Ned's defence and begged influential people to show her brother clemency.

She made her last visit to Ned on November 10, 1880. He was hanged on November 11. Kate could have capitalised on her fame. But oddly enough, when she toured with travelling shows, showing off her shooting and riding skills, she used a pseudonym.

In 1888 she settled down in Forbes to marry William ``Brickie'' Foster. The couple had six children, three of whom died in infancy. After the birth and death of her last child, Catherine, in 1898, she became depressed and was found drowned in a lake at Forbes.



http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23027157-5015682,00.html
« Last Edit: June 28, 2008, 03:44:50 pm by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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« Reply #16 on: June 28, 2008, 03:50:01 pm »



Ned Kelly's mother, Ellen,
then 79,
with two of her grandchildren









                                           Ned Kelly shot with his mother - in sepia






March 23 2002
 
As historical photographs go on sale, Geoff Maslen takes a look at the early days of a wild brood.

She peers out at us from the long past. Years of tragedy and privation have taken their toll but, even at 79, Ellen Kelly looks strong and resourceful as she always was.

The story of Ned Kelly's mother was as dramatic and even more eventful than his and now, after 125 years, she is in the public eye again.

A collection of early photographs she compiled of her wild brood, their relatives, friends and comrades-in-arms will go for auction at Christie's saleroom in South Yarra on Tuesday. Some of the photos date from the 1870s. They pull back time's curtain to provide a glimpse of legendary people who have become part of our history.

Christie's head of rare books and manuscripts, Michael Ludgrove, estimates the 100 or so photos could fetch up to $200,000. They contain previously unknown pictures of Ned, his mother and members of the Kelly gang likely to create new saleroom records. The highest auction price for a Ned Kelly photo was set in 1987 at Sotheby's in Melbourne when a tattered, full-length shot of Ned in fighting pose fetched $19,800.

Christie's catalogue cover, though, shows Ned "in his respectable years".

With a $20,000 estimated price, it is the most highly valued and is also the only known image from the "honest, hard-working period" of his life.

Yet it is the tiny, sepia-toned pictures of Ellen Kelly that capture the imagination. In one, taken to celebrate her release from prison in 1881, we see her with some of her children, the family dog and friends outside the slab and bark-roofed Kelly homestead, built by Ned four years earlier.

Another shows her at the age of 79 in 1911 with two grand-daughters, sitting outside the last house she occupied, while a third, a 1917 portrait, was taken at Benalla railway station as she waited for the Melbourne train.

Nell Kelly lived through the days of the Victorian goldrushes, the pioneering horse-and-buggy, candles and kerosene-lamp era. She was still alive when the first steam trains puffed their way north to the Murray River at Echuca, when the first motor cars coughed their way across the dirt roads, when the first planes spluttered across the sky, when electricity replaced gas lamps and ghostly voices could be heard coming from the wireless.

Nell, who was born in 1832 in County Antrim, Ireland, married twice in Australia, and in October, 1878, the widowed mother of 11 was sentenced to three years' hard labour for a crime she did not commit.





She lived to tell her great-grandchildren of her exploits right up to her death in 1923.

"People blame my boys for all that has happened," she recalled. "They should blame the police. They were at the bottom of it all ... We were not getting too rich but were doing all right. It was a lonely life but we were all together and we all loved each other so dearly.

"The trouble began over a young constable named Fitzpatrick ... He tried to kiss my daughter, Kate, and the boys tried to stop him. They were only trying to protect their sister but his story was believed ... After that, nothing but misery. And it has been nothing but misery ever since."

Fitzpatrick had gone to the house to arrest Ned's brother Dan. Photos of them will be sold on Tuesday. The policeman was a liar, perjurer and drunkard and soon after was sacked. But not before Justice Sir Redmond Barry the man who later sentenced Ned to hang sent Ellen away for three years, even though she had a baby at the breast.

In his Jerilderie letter, a copy of which sold at Christie's last August for $58,750, Ned wrote bitterly of Fitzpatrick and the other police who persecuted the family: "They kept them six months awaiting trial and then convicted them on the evidence of the meanest article that ever the sun shone on ... [Fitzpatrick] has the wrong appearance of a manly heart the deceit and cowardice is too plain to be seen in that puny cabbage hearted looking face ..."

On November 10, 1880, Nell visited her first-born son the night before he went to the gallows. Her last words were: "Mind you die like a Kelly, Ned."

Legend has it that as the noose was tightened around his neck, Ned murmured philosophically,

"Such is life." He was 25.
« Last Edit: June 28, 2008, 05:31:27 pm by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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« Reply #17 on: June 28, 2008, 04:00:06 pm »



Kelly House








THE FAMILY TREE



- Ellen Kelly (nee Quinn): sailed with her family from Ireland to Australia. Eloped at 18 with an Irish ex-convict, John "Red" Kelly, and married him in 1850. They had eight children before Red died in 1866.

- George King: A Californian married Ellen in 1874 and they had three children. King disappeared after becoming involved with Ned Kelly in 1878.

- Ned Kelly: Ellen's third child and first son. Born June, 1855, hanged at Melbourne in November, 1880.

- Dan Kelly: Sixth son of Ellen and the last of the three boys born to Red Kelly. Died in the shootout at Glenrowan in June, 1880.

-Joe Byrne and Steve Hart: Kelly gang members who also died in the battle at Glenrowan.
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Bianca
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« Reply #18 on: June 28, 2008, 04:13:04 pm »



Exact replica of the Kelly homestead
The original is not far.










Ned and Dan Kelly helped build this fine homestead in 1875-6,
still in excellent condition today.

Ned Kelly was often described as a labourer, but he here de-
monstrated his skills as a stone mason.

The building is of pink granite from the local area.

Already convicted of relatively minor crimes, Ned Kelly hoped
that by 'going straight' he could escape a life of criminality.

The homestead strongly demonstrates his hopeful spirit then.

An impend- ing court case against his mother, and the need
to engage legal help led the Kellys to a life of further
minor crimes.

Despite these efforts, Ellen Kelly went to gaol.






Ellen Kelly’s eventual release from prison
was celebrated by this photograph taken
at the Kelly homestead in early 1881.
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« Reply #19 on: June 28, 2008, 04:20:13 pm »



Britton Shelton and his father Richard in a 1934 photo









                         Ned Kelly saved our drowning dad ... the softer side of old bucket head






By Ann Rennie
and Julie Szego
August 1 2001

                                                        Ned Kelly was all right ...
 
Harold and Britton Shelton have many yarns collected over most of the 20th century but underpinning them
all is a story from another century - of the day 135 years ago when a larrikin lad saved their father from
drowning.

The lad would later gain infamy as Ned Kelly.

Edward Kelly was 11 when - at some risk to himself - he plucked seven-year-old Richard Shelton from
Hughes Creek in Victoria. The boy was to become the father of four daughters and eight sons. Harold,
91, and Britton, 87, who live in Melbourne, are the youngest and last survivors of Dick Shelton's large
brood.

The brothers don't recall their father ever expanding on the story, although local folklore and the remi-
niscences of their older siblings ensure that sketchy details of that day are preserved in stories of
Ned Kelly's life.

But the brothers do remember that all his life their father was asked about Ned Kelly and he always
replied brusquely: "He was all right."

Esau and Elizabeth Shelton - proprietors of Avenel's Royal Mail Hotel, near Seymour - presented Kelly
with a green sash, fringed with bullion, in recognition of his bravery in saving their son. Kelly was wear-
ing the sash under his armour at his last shootout at Glenrowan.

The story of the brave young Ned was recalled yesterday as the State Library of Victoria paid more
than $200,000 for Kelly's left shoulder guard, shot off during the 1880 siege at Glenrowan.

It was the last piece of Kelly's fatal battle gear still in private hands. The State Library will display it
with the Kelly helmet and breast-plate it already owns.

The piece fetched the high price at a Christie's auction, after being valued between $150,000 and
$250,000.

State librarian Ms Fran Awcock said she was "thrilled and delighted" the armour was back in public
ownership. She said the Federal Government had used heritage funds to help the State Library buy
the piece, but would not specify how much.


The library, criticised by historians in the past for neglecting Kelly relics, now has a policy of acquir-
ing Kelly items and has its eye on other pieces of armour.

Kelly's other shoulder piece is owned by Museum Victoria, while the Police Museum has his backplate.

The shoulder piece, fashioned from the mould board of a plough, is 25 centimetres long and weighs
2.37 kilograms. It was authenticated with the help of Kelly historian Mr Ian Jones.

Constable Patrick Charles Gascoigne, a member of the police party, claimed it after the battle and it
was passed on to his descendants.

Other items of Ned Kelly paraphernalia sold yesterday included a transcription of the Jerilderie letter,
a confession dictated by Kelly - which he intended to have printed - of his gang's hold-up of the
Riverina town. It sold to an undisclosed bidder for $50,000.



http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/09/16/1032054751911.html
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« Reply #20 on: June 28, 2008, 05:03:23 pm »



Enlarged version of previous photo



http://www.ironicon.com.au/nativened.htm
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« Reply #21 on: June 29, 2008, 03:22:53 am »

Anyone ever see any of the various movie versions about Ned Kelly?  They had one with Mick Jagger in the starring role, and, even though Mick gave a lowkey performance, I thought he was horribly miscast!
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« Reply #22 on: December 25, 2008, 02:54:25 pm »

I saw the new movie with Heath Ledger which I thought was pretty good, and I've also seen Reckless Kelly, but that doesn't count Grin.
I love the story though so maybe I should check out the old movie.
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« Reply #23 on: December 27, 2008, 09:49:52 am »






I very seldom see these kind of movies.

It is pretty hard for any filmmaker to replace what one has already formed in his/her imagination.

The exception probably being GONE WITH THE WIND.....
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« Reply #24 on: May 06, 2009, 07:37:32 am »









                                   Family 'should get Ned Kelly's remains'Greg Roberts






May 5, 2009 .
TheAge.com.au

The remains of bushranger Ned Kelly and other executed prisoners found at Melbourne's old Pentridge Prison site should be returned to their families, says the prison's former chaplain.

The bones of 43 executed prisoners remain in limbo in the custody of the coroner awaiting a decision by the Victorian government.

The discovery of Kelly's last resting place 14 months ago by historians and Heritage Victoria archaeologists in a previously unknown gravesite in the former prison grounds attracted worldwide publicity.

The outlaw's remains should be returned to his family and he should be given a decent burial, former Pentridge Prison chaplain Father Peter Norden said.

"I have a grand niece of Ned Kelly who is prepared to give DNA to identify the remains," he told AAP on Tuesday.

"She is an elderly lady and a descendant of one of his sisters."

The descendant does not want to be identified.

Fr Norden said Kelly should be granted a final resting place with his deceased relatives and the government should recognise with a memorial the grave site of other prisoners who could not be identified.

Fr Norden, the convenor of the Victorian Criminal Justice Coalition and a vice-chancellor's fellow at the University of Melbourne, said the state government's desire to save construction jobs at the Pentridge site did not outweigh the need to pay respect to the dead.

"They may take the path of economic pragmatism on budget day, but there is an overriding responsibility to pay respect to the gravesites and families of these people the government executed," he said.

"His (Kelly's) remains should not be controlled by private commercial interests.

"The front page of the newspaper on May 2, 1997 had the then (Victorian) prisons minister Bill McGrath promising to establish a proper memorial but nothing has happened 12 years on."

Victorian Planning Minister Justin Madden moved last month to take control of the $1 billion redevelopment of the Pentridge site, sidelining Moreland Council.

Mr Madden said at the time he was securing more than 3,000 construction jobs, 3,500 ongoing jobs and 1,400 homes.

The minister did not return a call from AAP on Tuesday.

But Heritage Victoria spokeswoman Pauline Hitchins said the coroner would try to determine the identities of the prisoners interred at the site and the government would then decide if their families could rebury them.

"The coroner's office is busy. That might be holding things up," she said.

It is believed 10 graves belonged to prisoners executed at Pentridge and another 34 - including Kelly's - were relocated there from the Old Melbourne Gaol in 1929.

In 2007, Fr Norden arranged for the remains of Ronald Ryan, the last person to be executed in Victoria, to be exhumed from the prison burial ground 40 years after his death.

Heritage Victoria senior archaeologist Jeremy Smith said he hoped the reburial process would begin soon but dealing with older human remains took time.

"All things related to human remains are complex," he told AAP.

"Giving them to families is another process.

"We have been working closely with a number of government offices over the last two years and the coroner is waiting for information from those bodies to assist them before deciding whether an inquest is needed."
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« Reply #25 on: July 08, 2009, 10:20:59 am »










                                                        TV Guide: Kelly's plot






Tim Martain
Perth Now
Sunday Times
July 07, 2009

DIG reveals secrets of Ned's last stand.

At the corner of Siege St and Beaconsfield Parade in Glenrowan, Victoria, is a vacant block of land.
This unassuming bare patch of land is where Ann Jones' Glenrowan Inn once stood, the building that was the scene of bushranger Ned Kelly's last stand.

This historic site, directly associated with the most famous moments of one of Australia's most iconic figures, is almost completely anonymous in the middle of a town that still celebrates its connection to the infamous outlaw.

Nothing marks it except for a handful of modest signs.

The site has been built over twice since police burnt the hotel to the ground to end the siege in 1880 but now it stands empty and until recently it had not even been touched by archaeologists.
But that changed in May last year.

A team of archaeologists and historians excavated the site to uncover clues about how the gun battle unfolded and the final moments of the three members of the Kelly Gang who died there.

The dig was filmed for TV and British actor, author and presenter, Tony Robinson host of the fascinating documentary Ned Kelly Uncovered.

Robinson, the presenter of archaeology series Time Team said he had wanted to go on a dig in Australia for some time and this project offered the perfect opportunity.

And while he was excited about the significance of the site they would be working on, Robinson said he did harbour grave concerns.

“To be honest, I was a bit worried that we'd find nothing,'' he said.

“Urban sites tend to get cleared, rebuilt and cleared again remarkably quickly. It wouldn't have surprised me if all we'd found under the ground was a smashed up TV and a hubcap off a Holden Commodore.''

But when the top layer of soil was stripped back and the dig got underway, the entire team was surprised by how rich a treasure trove lay beneath and how close to the surface it still was.

They uncovered lead fragments from the bullets and musket balls fired into the hotel by police, spent cartridges and percussion caps from the Kelly Gang's weapons and even a casing from Ned Kelly's own rifle.

“There had been two buildings built on the site after the fire and we weren't sure whether those buildings had completely wiped out any of the previous occupation,'' archaeologist Adam Ford said.

“We thought we'd find foundations of the original inn, evidence of the fire, burnt glass and maybe evidence of the battle if we were really lucky.

“In the end, we found so much more than we expected. We could actually plot where the Kelly boys and the gang members were during the battle.''

The team also conducted experiments, firing historically accurate ammunition at replica Kelly armour and a replica hotel to get an idea of the damage being inflicted.

Through uncovering previously unseen artefacts from the Glenrowan siege, the team also tackles the most enduring question of all surrounding Ned Kelly.

Was he a persecuted hero of the downtrodden, or an overrated, coldblooded killer?

“Outlaws have a romantic quality about them, don't they, because they give themselves permission to do things the rest of us are forbidden from doing,'' Robinson said.

“It's only when you examine them a bit more closely that the complexities of their lives begin to be revealed _ and that story is usually far more interesting.''



NED KELLY UNCOVERED, THUR, 8.30PM, ABC1
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