Legend of the Bush

Like most outlaws, Ned Kelly died young, being only twenty-five when he was executed. Surprisingly articulate for a self-educated man, he was clannish, loyal to his friends and supporters, and had a sardonic sense of humour. He became an outlaw, hunted for almost two years before he was shot down and hanged. To the last, his mocking courage never deserted him and to be “as game as Ned Kelly” came to symbolise, in Australian folk language, heroism of a reckless, audacious nature. Ned was born in June 1855 to a proud Irish Catholic family, whose resentment of the British set the precedent for his life. His short story is one that saw Ned and three friends take on corrupt police, greedy land barons, and an ignorant government in a quest to change their world for the better. Wrongly accused, they survived a deadly shootout with police in 1878 that saw Ned, his brother Dan, and their friends Joe Byrne and Steve Hart outlawed with the largest reward ever offered in the British Empire: dead or alive. Over the next eighteen months, the Kelly Gang held up two country towns and robbed their banks without firing a single shot, wrote numerous essays explaining their actions, and became folk heroes to the masses. Their grand plan to derail a special police train and declare a Republic of North East Victoria came to a fiery end in Glenrowan when they donned their famous but cumbersome armour against an overwhelming police force. By November 11, 1880, the era of the Kelly Gang drew to a close when Ned, after a brief trial, was hanged. Nevertheless, unwilling to bend to injustice, the legacy of his life and the chord he struck within a young Australia saw Ned Kelly become Australia’s most enduring legend. Far more than a folk hero, Ned Kelly has become one with the Australian spirit. Listed in the top one hundred of the world’s most influential Irish people, and arguably Australia’s best-known historical figure, Ned truly deserves his place in the pages of history. (Reading text adapted from ironoutlaw)