JOHN KELLY HOUSE

THIS PAGE HAS MANY SCANS OF NEWS CLIPPINGS AND MAY TAKE A WHILE TO LOAD.

This house was built in 1859 by John Kelly in Beveridge Victoria.

The house has had many additions and has not been looked after, despite the efforts of current owners the future looks
no better for this house than it did when historians first sought its restoration in the 1960's.
Kelly biographer Ian Jones was reported in the Sun newspaper pleading for the house to be saved. (see clipping on this page)
Young Ned was 4 or 5 when the house was built, hence he could not have been born here.

The inside of the original part of the Kelly house..the chimney.....myself looking through a window of the additions.

Some older photos of the Kelly House.

The house 'up for sale'. A rare 1971 TV guide with a short doco.

1997 1998

This photo I took in 1997 showing a sign that was later stolen. (All colour photos D. White)

Funds may quell birthplace debate
(Star newspaper Epping)

By Cassie Maher

25th October 2006 01:03:19 PM

Granted … Ned Kelly’s possible birthplace in Beveridge.

THE debate over Ned Kelly’s birthplace may finally be put to rest following State Government
grant for a dilapidated cottage in Beveridge.

Planning MP Rob Hulls said $5000 would be given to the cottage for signage as part of this year’s
heritage grants.

“The site was the birthplace of Victoria’s most notorious bushranger and at present has no
information nearby to explain its historical significance,” he said.

And while the Beveridge cottage has long been considered by locals as the bushranger’s
birthplace, some say it was more likely Ned was born at his mother’s Wallan home.

Most Kelly records say Ned was born in 1855, making him four years old at the time the
Beveridge house was constructed in 1859.

The funding decision may ruffle a few Wallan feathers.

Steve Greenwood, general manager of Hogan’s Hotel in Wallan, said he had no doubt Ned was
born at his mother’s home.

“Why would you give birth to a kid in a ramshackle hut in Beveridge when you could have a
midwife do it a few paddocks away in a nice homestead?” he said.

Seymour MP Ben Hardman said the signage would help to ensure stories attached to local
heritage were preserved for future generations.

FROM THE MINISTER FOR PLANNING

DATE: Monday, November 4, 2002

BRACKS GOVERNMENT BACKS HERITAGE STATEWIDE

A Geelong Church, St Kilda’s pavilion and a gunpowder factory are amongst the 55 important projects to receive support as part of the Bracks Government’s $4 million Public Heritage Program, the Minister for Planning, Mary Delahunty, announced today.

Ms Delahunty said the grants would fund a range of important works on buildings and other sites of heritage significance right across the State.

“These buildings are much more than curiosities or relics they define our communities and are one of the ways we express ourselves to the world,” she said.

“The Public Heritage Program is about breathing life into Victoria’s most important heritage landmarks.”

The money would be used for a variety of purposes including urgent stabilisation works, conservation, restoration and repair work, she said.

Funding applications were called for in June and considered by the Heritage Council who made recommendations to the Government at its most recent meeting in October, she said.

Significant projects include:
· $200,000 for major repairs to the St. Kilda Pavilion;
· $63,750 to replace and repair the roof at the Wangaratta Railway Station;
· $30,000 for urgent stabilisation works at the former John Kelly house in Beveridge;
· $200,000 for restoration works at the Royal Society of Victoria building in Melbourne;
· $75,000 for urgent restoration works at Murchison’s Day’s Flour Mill Complex; and
· $257,050 for conservation works at the Ballarat Mechanics Institute.

The Public Heritage Program, which is administered by Heritage Victoria, funded the conservation of the State’s public heritage assets, she said.

“The community passionately guards its heritage buildings and this funding ensures that much needed works are undertaken to protect some of our most significant architecture,” she said.

“The program is used to support sites that are very significant, not just in terms of cultural heritage but also in terms of our architectural and economic past. The Bracks Government is committed to maintaining Victoria’s rich and diverse heritage for our future generations.

“This program has an important part to play if we are to keep links to the past by keeping these sites usable, accessible and ultimately meaningful.”

FOR A FULL LIST OF RECIPIENTS PLEASE CALL THE PREMIER'S MEDIA UNIT ON
9651 5799.

The chimney was rebuilt and that was it.

Still Beveridge for Ned!

SIR Quoting from The History of Beveridge by J.W. Payne who quotes
from The Kelly Hunters by F. Clune:

One of the first to take advantage of the survey (Robert Mason surveyed
the township in 1852) and sale of the township allotments was John Kelly.
Transported from Ireland in 1841, he served his two years in imprisonment
in Van Diemens Land and worked on a farm until 1848 when he was freed.
He was by this time twenty-nine, could read, but not write, and had some
skill as a carpenter.

Finding his way to this new township, he fell in love with Ellen Quinn, and
despite parental ban, they rode to Melbourne to marry at St. Francis Church
on 18th November, 1850. The small home John built for his bride still stands
as a nucleus of larger additions.

The former Kelly home nearby, added to by the Stewarts Alec and his wife
lived there for some time is claimed as the birthplace of Edward or Ned Kelly.
According to Frank Clune, the first Kelly child, a girl named Mary Jane, was born
in 1851. At about this period, John had an urge to join the gold seekers, and
after his return, further children were born. Anne in 1853, and his first son, Edward
or Ned in 1855. Presumably, Neds early childhood was spent in Beveridge, until
the Kellys departed for Avenel in 1860.

I am not sure if Ellen (Quinn) Kelly would have had her children in her home or at
her mothers home just over the hill to the north. Everybody is just guessing.

Ned would have been five years old when he was taken north by his parents. There
are others who say the Kellys left in 1864 when Ned was nine years of age I am
yet to see their sources.

I doubt five-year-old children were taken into hotels in those early days, or at any time.

XXXXXXXX (name provided)

Kilmore.

Source: The Free Press November 2002. (Kilmore)

Ned Kellys house

SIR I believe the sign pictured in The Free Press of October 16 does not convey the
truth about where the late Ned Kelly was born.

According to my late husband's grandfather, who bought the Beveridge property owned
by Red Kelly (Ned's father) around 1860, Ned was born at Beveridge. Some of the family
later moved to Wallan East.

My husband and I lived in the Kelly residence during our time in Beveridge.

The feathers are ruffled, as we are concerned that the facts of Ned Kelly's history are
being altered.

B. Stewart,

Wallan.

Source: The Free Press November 2002. (Kilmore)

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Funds may quell birthplace debate (Star newspaper Epping)

Funds may quell birthplace debate
(Star newspaper Epping)