Ned’s Beveridge house fixed

NED Kelly’s childhood home in Beveridge has been repaired after damage from high winds.

The dilapidated wooden cottage, in which Kelly spent his early years, was mended by a team of Hands-on-Heritage
volunteers from Australia, England and Korea last week as part of a two-day project to weatherproof the house against further
damage.

The house suffered major structural damage in March when wind storms toppled the veranda and extensions.

It also lost several boards from the original structure.

The volunteer project included the replacement of broken weatherboard as well as weeding and general garden maintenance.

The cottage was built in 1859 by John Kelly when his son Ned was four and is the only known home in which he lived as a small
boy.

His younger brother Dan, another member of the Kelly gang, was born in the house in 1861.

The original wooden structure consisted of two rooms and a cool room, but had further extensions done in the mid-1900s.
The Kellys left the house in 1864 when Ned was about 10.

The cottage was added to the Victorian Register of Historic Buildings in September 1992 and underwent intensive restoration
and stabilisation works in 2005.

It remains in a fragile state and is fenced off from the public.

Heritage Care project officer Kirsten Roszak said the project had attracted a lot of interest from volunteers keen to explore
the Kelly story.

“It’s a pretty sexy project,” she said.

“It’s a part of our history and I think people are just fascinated with the legend of Ned Kelly.”