Ned Kelly keeps fighting back

Press, 23 February 1980, Page 15

Ned Kelly keeps fighting back

By

PETER DEELEY

in Melbourne

Ned Kelly, Australia's nineteenth century Robin Hood, epitomises his countrymen's traditional hostility to authority. Now, on the eve of the centenary of his capture and execution. stirrings of this ancient antagonism have surfaced over official reluctance to recognise the anniversary. History has painted Kelly in contrasting hues: as a merciless killer and

thief — or as a champion of the oppressed, whose enemies, like his, were the rich landowners and their police “protectors.” Kelly, a bushranger, or

outlaw, was captured by police troopers after a shoot-out in the country town of Glenrowan, Victoria. on June 28, 1880, and was executed on November 11, 1880, in the old Melbourne Jail. His skull was on exhibit there until two years ago, when it was stolen.

For two years, Kelly and his gang — brother Dan, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne — had been hunted for horse-rustling, murder and attempted murder and two bank' hold-ups. All were in their early twenties and of Irish Catholic migrant stock. They remained at liberty so long because they were seen as heroes by their own people, poor squatters who were persecuted by the owners of the big farms.

In the shoot-out, the other three were killed, but Ned, wounded, limped into the bush and was found hiding there. Thirty thousand people signed a petition demanding his reprieve. •Now, as then, authority here takes the view that Kelly does not deserve, even in death, to be given the official imprimatur of hero.

The Victoria state government has refused to hold any celebrations, considering’ it “inappropriate to use public funds to commemorate an execution.”

The police maintain that Kelly got what he deserved. The Department of Tourism does not think the occasion warrants any special effort. Although ■he Post Office is to issue a commemorative envelope, it has decided against a special stamp.

Victoria’s Royal Historical Society has said that it does not want “to glorify Ned Kelly,” but it is marking the memory of the man who sent him to the gallows, Judge Redmond Barry, who was the first chancellor of Melbourne University. After the judge had passed sentence of death, Kelly told him from the dock that they would soon

meet again “in a higher place.” Barry died shortly afterwards. In the face of establishment disapproval, a Kelly Centenary Committee has been formed. It will celebrate the events of 1880 with music and arts and crafts festivals — and will try to get signatures for a petition demanding a posthumous pardon for the bushranger.

The committee claims that Kelly was a patriot who was “persecuted and outlawed by the tyranny of the social order” of his time. It quotes from the poem, “The Death of Ned Kelly.”

“Ned Kelly fought the rich men in country and in town.

Ned Kelly fought the troopers until they ran him down.” Business, too, is cashing in on the event, pouring out books, a television series, a replica of- Kelly’s death mask, T-shirts and even Ned Kelly rock (made in Blackpool).

Glenrowan is busily rehearsing a three-day reenactment of the final battle, which it hopes will attract tourists from around the world.

The town’s Siege and Ned Streets are named after the event, and in the Glenrowan Hotel — where the gang held the townspeople hostage before the arrival of the police .by train from Melbourne — you can drink in Ned Kelly’s Bar. Outside the privatelyrun Glenrowan Tourist Museum stand effigies of the Kelly gang wearing the cast-iron armour, complete with helmets and visors, which they put on their for their “last stand.”

While Australia is still divided over whether Kelly was a hero or a scoundrel, research has come up with evidence which casts doubt upon the official line that he was motivated by sheer criminality. His mother Ellen, a widow, and her eight children were subjected to continual harassment by the local police, acting for

the landowners. A policeman whom Dan Kelly was accused of trying to murder was later dismissed from the force for misconduct. Ellen and two of the family’s friends were each jailed for three years for abetting the attempted murder. Ned. on the run, sent the authorities a letter warning: “If my people do not get justice. . . I shall be forced to seek revenge on everyone of the human race in future.” When the gang later shot dead three police troopers at Stringybark Creek, Ned saw this as a matter of self-defence: “I

was compelled to shoot • them or lie down and let j them shoot me.” He had i been warned that the i police intended to shoot ' him “like a dog.” Aged 25, Kelly went to the scaffold with fortitude, and the phrase “as game as Ned Kelly” has entered the Australian language. Yet, in a country 7 which traces its ancestry to the first convict settlers nearly 200 years ago, author- ■ ity still finds it hard to accept that the name Ned Kelly — thanks in part to ' the film portrayal of him by Mick Jagger — is one of the country’s best known exports.