Ned Kelly The True Story

The final public act of the Kelly gangs outlawry is often called The Siege, a showdown between the Gang and the police made especially famous by the heavy suits of armour that the gang had been making in secret over previous months in readiness for the confrontation. It took place 150 miles north of Melbourne […]

  Barely two months after they robbed the bank at Euroa of over £2000, the Kelly Gang went north over the Murray river into NSW and on Monday February 10th 1879, robbed the Jerilderie branch of the Bank of NSW of a similar amount.   Once again, as at Euroa, instead of riding into town […]

Self-published author Aidan Phelan says of his first work, the historical novel “Glenrowan” that it is ‘the story of how one man’s burning obsession can have far reaching consequences, and how a tiny town between towns became as iconic as Gettysburg or Waterloo’. Actually, most Australians know almost nothing about Glenrowan, and anyone who did, […]

Anyone who has read Frickes book and part One of my review might be wondering why I completely ignored its first four chapters.  In those Chapters Fricke provides what he must have thought was relevant background detail, describing the origins of Melbourne itself, of Redmond Barrys early life in Ireland, the colonial milieu into which […]

“Ned Kelly as we all know, was no angel. But how much better was his nemesis, Sir Redmond Barry, who sentenced Ned to death and who succumbed to Kellys courtroom curse by dying within two weeks of the bushranger’s execution?” That question is asked on the back cover of “Neds Nemesis”, a small book written […]

Shortly after the police murders at Stringybark Creek, legislation was passed that made the Kelly gang outlaws, meaning they had no legal protections, and could be shot and killed on sight by anyone. Rewards were posted in ever increasing amounts for the supply of information that would lead to their capture, but nobody ever attempted […]

On one of his Facebook pages bushranger writer Aidan Phelan is asking us to ‘commemorate’ the Glenrowan Affair, by sharing our thoughts on what makes the Story ‘so gripping and engaging for us’. I am banned from his sites for having opinions he doesn’t agree with, so am unable to share my thoughts at that […]

As recounted in the previous post, the Kelly Gang of four armed men bailed up two policemen at their Camp beside Stringybark Creek, killed the one who was armed almost immediately – Lonigan – spared the life of the unarmed one – McIntyre – and then laid in wait for the other two policemen in […]

Immediately after the Fitzpatrick ‘incident’ Dan and Ned Kelly went into hiding in the Wombat Ranges, taking over an abandoned mining claim, reinforcing an existing hut to make it bullet proof and, as a visitor to the site noted some months later using all the trees around it for target practice. Bullets fired into them […]