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    Updated
November 3 2008.
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Ghost of Kelly tumult in torrid
tussle over fate of jail
(Source : The Age.)
Kate Lahey November
3, 2008
BEECHWORTH Gaol, Ned Kelly's home for almost a tenth of
his short life, has become the centre of a fierce stand-off
between a local council and developers who bought the site.
The heritage-listed stone prison was sold by the State
Government in 2004 to Salmore Developments for $1.7 million.
The owner now wants to subdivide the surrounding land
into 23 residential lots, and has flagged its intention to
turn the
jail into a hotel/tourism development.
The council, Indigo Shire, says nothing should be
approved until the full details of the tourism development
are known,
and tailored planning controls are in place.
Kelly expert and Beechworth resident Ian Jones fears the
prison is suffering "demolition by neglect".
"The fabric of that jail has been rotting for four
years," Mr Jones told The Age.
Mr Jones said Kelly had spent about 8% of his life
imprisoned there. "He was there for virtually two years,
remand time,
six months' sentence … his time he spent immediately before
his trial in 1880.
"This is only a part of the significance of that
building, but it's a significant part," Mr Jones said.
Kelly was 25 when he was hanged at the Old Melbourne
Gaol.
Mr Jones said that with 600,000 people passing through
Beechworth each year, even if half of them were interested
in
Ned Kelly "it's a sizeable part of the tourist market".
The developer, through Sunjoule Design, is yet to find an
operator for the hotel, but wants to fund the jail's
transformation
through the residential development it needs approval for.
Sunjoule says it has provided all the information it can
and has urged the Victorian Civil and Administrative
Tribunal to
approve stage one of the project — as Heritage Victoria
already has.
Chris Canavan, for the developer, argued the site was
controlled by sufficient regulation through Heritage
Victoria,
which has imposed a $300,000 bond to ensure conservation
works are carried out within two years.
Indigo Shire fears the unknown plans for the jail might
damage the views of the prison.
The prison was built between 1858 and 1864.
The shire's lawyer, Egils Stokans, argued the developer
showed "flagrant disregard" for the directions of Planning
Minister
Justin Madden who, like the council, has expressed his
desire for a holistic approach to development on the
3.5-hectare site.
Urban planner Roz Hansen told a hearing before VCAT last
week she believed Heritage Victoria's controls were not
enough to
protect the site's role in the Beechworth townscape, and
compared the sale of the jail to the asset-stripping of
schools and
courts under the former Kennett government.
Mr Canavan said his client was now $1.6 million
"out-of-pocket" because of holding, legal and consulting
fees incurred since
the sale. Mr Madden declined to comment on the case while it
is before VCAT.
The hearing concluded last week and members Jeanette
Rickards and Ann Keddie are considering the matter.
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Sword linked to Ned Kelly capture sold. (SMH)
A ceremonial sword awarded to a Victorian policeman who captured
notorious bushranger Ned Kelly in 1880
has fetched $45,600 at auction.
The National Museum of Australia in Canberra bought the sword at
an auction of antiques and collectables at
Sotheby's in Melbourne.
The sword was awarded to police sergeant Arthur Steele.
Sgt Steele and four constables rode from Wangaratta, about 250km
north-east of Melbourne, to nearby Glenrowan
on the night of June 26, 1880.
They arrived shortly before dawn to find the Kelly gang holed up
in the Glenrowan Hotel.
The other three members of the gang - Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and
Joe Byrne - were shot dead in the ensuing
standoff with police.
But Ned Kelly, wearing his now famous armour, emerged from the
hotel.
He was eventually cut down when Sgt Steele hit his legs with two
shotgun blasts.
Kelly was treated for his wounds in Melbourne, where he was tried
and sentenced to death. He was hanged on
November 11, 1880, in the Old Melbourne Goal.
Sgt Steele was later awarded the sword for his part in bringing
an end to the Kelly gang's crimes.
"It's always wonderful to see important pieces of Australian
history going to national institutions for the benefit and
enjoyment of the Australian public," Sotheby's head of decorative
arts, Jennifer Gibson, said.
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Power of speech all ours.
IN the 2003 film Ned Kelly, Heath
Ledger, playing the role of the bushranger, gave Ned Kelly a heavy Irish accent.
This caused some controversy, with experts divided on whether Kelly would have
spoken with an Irish or some other accent.
In an earlier film version of the story, Mick Jagger as the
bushranger had similarly given Kelly an Irish accent, something that surprised
a great-niece of the Kellys who had known Ned's brother, Jim (who died in 1946).
She said that "Uncle Jim", just five years younger
than Ned, had spoken with a broad Australian accent: "It beats me why Mick
Jagger gave Ned an Irish brogue."
Kelly's parents were born in Ireland, but he was born in
Australia at Beveridge in Victoria, 40km from Melbourne. He was educated at
Beveridge and Avenel, and his schoolmates were from a variety of backgrounds. At
home he was certainly surrounded by many Irish
adults, but it is a fact that when kids go to school it is the accent of their
peers that always wins out over the accent of their parents.
Kelly's peers were mostly Australian-born. All that we know about the history of
Australian English leads us to the conclusion that Kelly
must have spoken with an Australian rather than an Irish accent.
There have been several theories about the origin of the
Australian accent, but we can get rid of most of them and be fairly sure about
what someone born in Australia at the time of Kelly would have sounded like.
The most common early theory, that Australian English is a
form of cockney, has been entirely discredited. It is clear that the Australian
accent was not transported holus bolus to Australia from some part of Britain
but that it developed in Australia.
To understand how it developed, we need to imagine the
particular social conditions of the early convicts, administrators and settlers
in the colony at Sydney.
Those who came to Australia spoke a remarkable variety of
dialects and in some situations speakers might have found it useful to
modify aspects of their dialect slightly to make communication easier.
A speaker with some very pronounced dialect sounds might find
it very much to their advantage to modify those sounds if they caused
significant misunderstandings for the speakers of other dialects. Any such
modifications would have been relatively minor and they
would have had no effect on the wider speech community.
The early years of the colony, therefore, would have been
characterised by an extraordinary kaleidoscope of dialects.
Something different would have happened, however, with the
children of these first convicts, administrators and settlers, the children
who became the first generation in the colony. It is in the speech of these
children that we would have heard the first glimmers of the
Australian accent. Individual children would have taken up bits and pieces of
the various dialects of the adult speakers who surrounded
them. The children would have chosen different elements, so that the accents of
the individual children would all have been different,
but many of the really distinctive dialect variants that existed among the
speakers of their parents' generation would have been eliminated.
A process of dialect levelling would have taken place.
Until recently, our understanding of this process has been
largely theoretical. New evidence, however, has become available from New
Zealand.
Between 1946 and 1948, the Mobile Disc Recording Unit of the
National Broadcasting Unit of New Zealand recorded the speech of about
325 New Zealanders from various parts of the country, born between 1850 and
1900.
Many of these were the children of the first settlers there
and for the first time the researchers could hear what the speech of the first-
generation children sounded like in a typical former British colony in the
southern hemisphere. The children of the first settlers in New
Zealand did not imitate their parents and they did not entirely copy any
particular dialect, but selected sounds from different dialects.
Thus a child might pick up some sounds from a southern English speaker and other
sounds from a Scottish speaker. Some of the sounds
might be selected from their parents, but the evidence shows that the children
picked the sounds widely and apparently randomly.
In one case, the evidence shows that two speakers who went to
school together in the same town, and subsequently became brother-
and sister-in-law, had picked up quite different sounds.
Another seven speakers from the same town, born over a
23-year period, similarly acquired very different sounds.
Thus we can now understand two important facts about the
speech of the first-generation children who are born into a new colony.
First, they do not speak the dialects of their parents, nor do they simply
duplicate the dialects of any other adult speakers. Second,
although the speech of one child is not identical with that of any other child,
the children (because extreme dialect sounds have
been deleted from their speech) sound more like one another than like any
particular adult dialect speaker.
The next step in the development of a colonial dialect takes
place among the children of the first generation who are born in the colony.
This next step occurs when this new set of children, as a peer group, select
just one sound from each of the many sounds that their
parents use for a particular vowel or diphthong. Although there is a continuing
stream of newcomers to the colony, all of them speaking
a variety of dialects, the families of the first settlers -- made up of
convicts, freed convicts, free settlers, administrators and so on --
now form a core community within the colony.
Whereas the first-generation children had a vast array of
sounds to choose from, the second-generation children, born to parents
whose available sounds had been reduced, have even fewer sounds available. It is
at this stage that peer pressure operates on the
second-generation children, just as it operates on children in standard social
situations today, and the second-generation children
speak an accent that is shared by all of them.
The accent that is established in this second generation is
passed down to future generations and it is almost impossible for any
later groups of migrants to influence it: the foundation accent has been
established.
The prestige and power of the foundation accent is sufficient
to enable it to make its mark on settlements that are established later.
This power enables us to understand why the Australian accent in the 20th
century, despite being subjected to the potential influence
of American films, television, music and other forms of popular culture, has
been utterly unaffected by American accents.
Although Australia is a vast continent, from the very early
period there was much geographical mobility, by sea and also internally.
Much of the settlement spread out from Sydney, initially with the establishment
of penal colonies at Hobart, Newcastle, and Brisbane.
Indeed, Australian settlement, especially on the east coast, was controlled by a
centralised government bureaucracy, in contrast with
the US where there were various settlements by specific groups with their own
particular and parochial interests, and little mobility
between the various settlements.
This helps to explain why regional dialects became
established in the US, whereas Australia has much the same dialect throughout
the country. It is only the spreading out of the foundation accent that can
explain the homogeneity of the Australian accent. This
dissemination of the accent was enforced in the vast internal migration caused
by the gold rushes from the early 1850s.
We have some contemporary evidence from visitors to Australia
that supports this theory. James Dixon visited Australia in 1820
and wrote: "The children born in those colonies, and now grown up, speak a
better language, purer, more harmonious than is
generally the case in most parts of England. The amalgamation of such various
dialects assembled together, seems to improve
the mode of articulating the words."
Dixon's evidence suggests that the process of the levelling
of dialects was already well under way in 1820. Dixon notes that the
children's speech is not heavily marked for dialect and he says that their
speech is purer than that spoken by children in most
parts of England. By pure, Dixon does not mean that the speech approaches an
ideal; rather he means that the speech is not
heavily marked for dialect. All of this is entirely in keeping with what we know
about the development of a local variety of
English in a colonial society.
Much the same point as Dixon's is made by George Bennett a
decade later in 1834: "Among the native-born Australians,
(descended from European parents) the English spoken is very pure; and it is
easy to recognise a person from home or one born
in the colony, no matter what class of society, from this circumstance."
Bennett, like Dixon, notes the absence of strong dialectal
features in the speech of the native-born. Across all social classes, the
native-born all speak with the same accent. This is what
we call the Australian accent.
It is highly unlikely that a similar mix of dialects in each
of the various colonies could have produced independently the homogeneous
accent that has existed in Australia from the 19th century.
There was a similar mix of migrants to all the southern
hemisphere British colonies -- South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and
the Falklands -- and although we can find some similarity among the accents,
they are certainly very different. The only convincing
scenario is that the Australian accent was established in Sydney and that it
spread out from there to the other centres of settlement.
Kelly, it is certain, could not have avoided this Australian accent in the
1850s.
Opinions on Kelly were divided at the time of his exploits
and have remained divided since then. His critics see him as the worst
type of colonial thug, while numerous plays, novels, ballads and films have
presented him as a champion of the underdog, a brave
opponent of repressive and heartless authority, and a staunch Australian
nationalist.
This dual assessment is reflected in his legacy in Australian
English. The term Ned Kelly can be used to designate a person who is
unscrupulous in seeking personal gain, but it can also describe someone who is
gamely resistant to authority. The phrase "as game
as Ned Kelly" refers to someone who is fearless against the odds. Given Kelly's
Irish background (his father had been transported
from Ireland to Australia in 1841 for stealing two pigs), his rebellion no doubt
carried with it some elements of Irish nationalism,
but to suggest that he spoke with an Irish brogue is to overly romanticise that
Irishness.
There is no doubt that it was with an Australian accent that
Kelly uttered his final words on November 11, 1880: "Such is life."
Source: The Australian October 4 2008.
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Arrest warrant paints new picture of Ned Kelly
THE outlaw wore a
vest, lace-up boots and an old cabbage-tree hat
wrapped in a red veil.
Falsely accused of stealing a chestnut mare
and a filly foal, the young labourer was wanted
by police
who were carrying a warrant for his arrest.
This is the notorious gun-toting, armour-clad
outlaw Ned Kelly as we've never seen him before.
Decked out in "light trousers and vest, old
cabbage tree hat with red veil 'round it and
lace-up boots",
the infamous Australian bushranger sounds more
like a fashionable man-about-town.
This intriguing portrait of Ned Kelly as a
20-year-old comes from a warrant issued for his
arrest on
January 25, 1876.
Handwritten on blue government-issue paper,
the warrant includes the first recorded
description of Kelly.
The 130-year-old document is tipped to fetch
up to $60,000 at auction this month in its first
public sale in
more than 40 years.
"Ned Kelly was at this time a flash boy on
the make," Australiana expert Tom Thompson said
yesterday.
"He was wearing the dress of a confident lair in
touch with high fashion."
A secret owner has held the warrant in his
private collection since 1965.
The Victorian Government owns the three other
known Kelly arrest warrants.
Alex Renwick, a consultant for auctioneers
Shapiro, said the historic document will be
auctioned in Sydney
on September 24.
Article from:
Sep 12 2008.
 See
my BLOG for my thoughts on this one.
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Kelly boots 'burial clue'
Sunday HeraldSun 24
Aug 2008
A BLOODY pair of
boots and a sash could be the keys to solving the
riddle of Ned Kelly's fate.
Kelly buffs and historians are urging the coroner
to try take DNA from the boots and sash and match
them
to bones exhumed from Pentridge Prison this year.
The boots are at the State Library of Victoria
and the sash on display at the Benalla Pioneer and
Costume Museum.
Australia's most famous bushranger wore the items
during the Glenrowan siege at which he was captured
in June 1880.
Amateur historian and Kelly expert Bill Denhold
said the boots and sash - a reward for saving a
drowning teenager -
could settle debate about what happened to Kelly's
body after he was hanged in November 1880.
"If they could take some DNA from the boots or
the sash, which were covered in Ned Kelly's blood
during the shootout,
they may be able to identify one of the sets or
remains removed from Pentridge as Kelly," Mr Denhold
said.
DNA from Kelly's descendants might not be
conclusive, because some researchers believed Kelly
was adopted as a young
child, he said.
The remains of 32 executed prisoners, including
Kelly, are believed to have been exhumed from the
Old Melbourne Gaol
when it closed in 1929.
They were reinterred at Pentridge, but the
whereabouts of the graves became lost over the
decades until they were
rediscovered by Heritage Victoria archeologists in
March.
The remains - held at the Victorian Institute of
Forensic Medicine at Southbank - are the subject of
bureaucratic wrangling
over who will pay for tests to identify them.
For
my comments on this article see
Dave's Blog: Was Ned Kelly Adopted?"
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Irish Ned Kelly monument planned.
Mon Jul 21, 2008
A run-down cottage in Ireland is to become
a new Ned Kelly tourist destination.
Ned's father John 'Red' Kelly was transported to
Australia after stealing two pigs from a farm at
Ballysheehan in Tipperary in 1840.
Now the scene of the crime will become an ambitious
monument to the Kellys, with the cottage being restored.
The remains of the cottage will be surrounded by what
organisers say will be a "modern interpretation of a convict
transport ship"
and a four-storey replica of Ned Kelly's famous helmet will
be built at one end.
The man behind the idea, Irish human rights barrister
Brendan Kilty SC, says audio-visual displays will tell the
full Kelly story.
"Not only of the Kelly gang, but of the policemen
involved as well, because it's both sides of a very Irish
story," he said.
"Ultimately the story will explain that the hunt for
Kelly in Victoria was the playing out in Australia of the
Irish land war agitation that
was going on around the 1800s.
"In the bow of the ship, we will have an audio-visual
theatre, and the bow and the stern will be connected by an
elevated corridor
along which the Jerilderie letter will be fully displayed."
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KELLY GANG SHOOTOUT SITE TO BE UPGRADED.
Source: ABC Goulburn Murray
Plans are afoot to breathe new
life into one of Victoria's most infamous
historical sites.
Stringybark Creek, near Mansfield is the site
of the infamous shoot-out between members of the
Kelly Gang and police troopers.
The events at Stringybark Creek in October
1878 led to the death of three Victoria police
officers and the birth of the legend of the
Kelly Gang.
Sheila Hutchinson grew up in the Stringybark
Creek area and is a local historian.
She says the area has a rich history in
farming, milling and mining. Most famously it's
known for the Kelly Gang story.
"On October 25, 1878 police from Mansfield
set out to apprehend fugitives in the Wombat
Ranges, which is what this area was called back
then," Sheila says.
"The police camped at Stringybark Creek.
Unbeknownst to them, they set up their camp
about a mile from where the Kelly Gang had their
hut."
Sheila says the police were dressed as gold
prospectors but Ned Kelly noticed hoof prints in
the sand were from police issue horseshoes.
Early in the morning on October 26, Ned and
his brother Dan spied on the police camp.
"They realised they had no hope against the
police," Sheila says. "The gang only had two
guns and the police were well armed so they went
back to their hut to discuss a plan of action."
The fugitives decided to bail up the police
and take their food and weapons.
"There were only two police at the camp when
they returned. Thomas McIntyre surrendered, but
Thomas Lonigan fired at the outlaws. Ned fired
back and killed him."
The other two police, Sergeant Michael
Kennedy and Michael Scanlan returned to the camp
that night.
"Officer McIntyre tried to warn them, he told
them they were surrounded and should surrender,
but the other police thought he was joking.
"When Sergeant Kennedy got off his horse
McIntyre jumped on it and left to get help.
"Ned Kelly saw Kennedy going for his gun and
fired a warning shot. A shoot-out followed.
"The gunfight continued for some time and
Kennedy eventually headed over to German Creek.
It ended there, where Kennedy was killed."
Sergeant Michael Kennedy, Mounted Constable
Thomas Lonigan and Mounted Constable Michael
Scanlan died at Stringybark Creek. It was
Victoria's first multiple police deaths.
"That was the day the Kelly Gang was
created," Sheila says. "They were wanted
fugitives up to that stage. After that day they
were outlaws, big rewards were offered for their
capture."
During the battle a gum tree was marked by a
stray bullet. The tree became known as the Kelly
Tree.
But in 1908 that tree was cut down by
sawmillers.
In the 1920s another tree was chosen, white
ants destroyed that one in the 1940s.
In the 1930s a third tree was marked and the
name of the three police troopers were carved
into it as a living memorial. In 1985 it became
offically identified as the Kelly Tree.
New plans, under a joint initiative of DSE
and Benalla Rural City Council, aim to upgrade
facilities at Stringybark Creek and tell the
story of the area.
"Tens of thousands of tourists visit the site
every year," says Mansfield DSE forest
management officer Scott Edwards.
"The plans will improve what's here now and
improve the quality of the site."
The project includes a new car park, picnic
tables, fireplaces and improved toilet
facilities.
The display board at the day visitor area
will be improved and signposted walking tracks
to the Kelly Tree and the area where the
shoot-out started will be created.
"Concept plans have been finished, reviewed
by the stakeholder reference group and have gone
out for public comment," Scott says.
"We had a few submissions and some
alterations are being made."
The project will be rolled out in several
stages. It's expected work on the new carpark
will start in July.
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Media frenzy over 'Ned Kelly' protest
18/06/2008 11:01:00 PM Source: The Courier.
DRESSING up as Ned Kelly seemed like a good way to "make a point",
but Rod Kirby's stunt on
Tuesday night caused a media frenzy yesterday.
And he got his views on Hepburn Shire Council's rate rises across
to the whole state - via TV, radio,
newspapers and internet media.
Mr Kirby caused a stir at the shire's council meeting when he
turned up dressed as Ned Kelly and
refused to remove his helmet during his silent protest.
He only intended to stay at the meeting for 20 minutes, but Mayor
Tim Hayes adjourned the meeting
until further notice.
Yesterday, Mr Kirby remained behind his helmet.
He said a friend made the replica of the famous bushranger's
helmet, and Mr Kirby had once joked it
would be fun to wear it to a council meeting.
But he didn't realise it would create such a fuss.
"I walked in 20 minutes after the meeting had started . . . I
only did it to stir them up, and it did," he said.
But he made no apologies for his actions, saying he had a
constitutional right to attend the meeting under
peaceful protest.
"I didn't care if I got thrown out by the police . . . I've been
removed from a council meeting by police in the
past."
And like Ned Kelly, Mr Kirby's protest was a bid to make aware
the plight of others.
He said his main concern was the impact council's rate rises were
having on the local people.
He believed some locals were being "driven out of town" to more
affordable areas and were "living in fear"
of further rises.
"I've only done this on behalf of the low-income earners and
pensioners in this town," he said.
"The council rates have all gone up again ... this is bloody
highway robbery."
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Ned Kelly trio stage ‘hold-up’ over line. The Border Mail. 16 June
2008.
Those on board the train making what is likely to be steam's final
journey to Albury had an unscheduled stop at
Glenrowan on Saturday afternoon after they were held up by “Ned Kelly”.
Gary Dean, one of three Ned Kellys in full metal gear, had
gathered with almost 100 townspeople and flagged down the
train to protest the failure to include Glenrowan as a scheduled stop in
multi-million dollar plans to convert the broad
gauge track to standard gauge.
Mr Dean, who operates the town’s Cobb and Co store, believes
it will cost nothing to redesign the new northbound track
to move it the two metres required to bring it in line with the existing
Glenrowan platform.
Alternatively, he said a branch line and switching point could be
constructed at a cost of about $1 million.
Mr Dean said locals were also considering seeking Federal Government
funding for the reconstruction of a replica timber
platform to align with the existing south-bound line where a branch line
already exists.
He said the “hold-up” had given locals the chance to create a photo
opportunity for passengers on the steam train, raise
the profile of their cause and speak with former deputy prime minister
Tim Fischer, a passenger on the train and chairman
of the Rail Freight Network Review Committee.
Mr Fischer said he supported moves to build a platform at Glenrowan,
citing the desire of locals to encourage more Ned
Kelly-related tourism in the region.
Mr Dean said Mr Fischer had been supportive in advising the bid to
return the rail service to Glenrowan. |
Ned’s hiding spot pinpointed in dig
BRAD WORRALL
31/05/2008 12:00:00 AM
ARCHEOLOGISTS now believe the Kelly Gang took refuge in a bedroom
completely protected from the hail
of bullets fired by police during the Glenrowan siege.
Yesterday at the end of a month-long dig of Ann Jones’ Inn, project
leader Adam Ford said the discovery had
redefined the site.
He said it now had international significance and compared it to
Custer’s Last Stand at Little Bighorn.
“We can now map the movement of the Kelly Gang in their last hours,”
Mr Ford said.
“The bullets that came in from police smashed through the front wall
but didn’t penetrate the rear wall.
“Behind that wall, which was one of the bedrooms, is a host of
cartridges used by the Kelly Gang as they took
refuge and reloaded and then came out and re-engaged the police.
“To find that dynamic movement and understand that is incredible.
“I don’t recall any other site, perhaps only work done on the Little
Bighorn dig in the 1980s, having that.
“It is beyond our wildest dreams.”
Thousands of artefacts, some relating directly to the siege and the
inn, have also been recovered.
But the most exciting discovery may well be one of the smallest items
found on the site.
A tiny copper percussion cap from an early musket or revolver may
well have belonged to Ned Kelly himself.
“We know of only three weapons involved in the siege that used such
percussion caps — and all three were actually
owned and used by Ned,” Mr Ford said.
“And because the firing cap was found within the remains of the
original Ann Jones’ Inn we can reasonably surmise
that it was Ned Kelly himself who last handled this tiny but hugely
significant object.”
Mr Ford has not ruled out returning to the site.
“We can walk away from here knowing we have exhausted all the avenues
on the inn site but I would like to get to the
residence behind the inn,” he said.
A final report on the findings is not expected to be completed until later this
year.
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7500 treasures found at Ned Kelly
site
By
Katie Bradford
May 30, 2008
SEVEN-and-a-half thousand archaeological
treasures have been uncovered at the site where
outlaw Ned Kelly fought his way into Australia's
history.
The artefacts tell more about the battle of Glenrowan
in June 1880, where Kelly and his gang
held locals hostage at the Ann Jones Inn, than ever
known before.
A month-long dig at the site in northern Victoria
ended today.
Kelly was arrested and later hung for his actions,
while his partners in crime were killed during
a shoot-out that ended the siege.
The inn was burnt to the ground during the siege and
its remains lost to history - until now.
Adam Ford, of Dig International, led the team of
archaeologists involved in the groundbreaking
project.
Cartridges from rifles fired by the police during the
siege, cartridges from the Kelly Gang's weapons
and melted lead bullets that were fired into the hotel
as the battle raged, were uncovered.
Mr Ford said those cartridges told historians more
about the battle than was ever known before.
"The physical evidence of the battle is an amazing
discovery, we can look at it in full details," he told
AAP.
"We can see where police fired rounds from outside
the building, coming through the front walls and hitting
the back of the wall near where the Kelly gang were.
"We know this because all the cartridges are lying in
a line."
It's also now known where the Kelly gang was hiding
out.
"In the back bedroom, we found cartridges and
percussion caps, so it appears the Kelly gang were going
in
there and reloading and getting protection, then heading
back out again to the front of the building."
Potentially the most exciting find was a tiny copper
percussion cap from an early musket or revolver, which
may
well have belonged to Ned Kelly.
Mr Ford believes a large part of a 128-year-old
mystery has now been solved.
"It's absolutely outstanding, amazing. The
preservation of the artefacts, what we've found is
beyond our wildest
dreams."
The burnt post holes and charred foundation timbers
of the inn have also been uncovered.
"For the first time since the siege itself, we have
an accurate picture of how the famous hotel looked, how
big it was,
how it was built and of what was going on during the
desperate, brutal hours of the gun battle."
Coins dating back to the late 1850s and personal
items such as jewellery, glass buttons and slate pencils
were other
discoveries.
Melted window glass and bottles that were uncovered
show the ferocious heat of the fire, Mr Ford said.
Ian Jones, who has written books about Ned Kelly, was
at the site today and was completely amazed by what
archaeologists had found, Mr Ford said.
"It's sad it's the last day, but we can walk away
happy that we've found everything we could," he said.
The artefacts will now be taken away and examined in
close detail by specialists and reports compiled.
Mr Ford's final wish is for the artefacts to be
stored on public display in Glenrowan - although not on
the site of the
inn itself.
The dig was funded by Heritage Victoria.
SOURCE: NEWS COM.AU
..................................................................................................................................................................................................................
THE fate of
Ned Kelly may remain forever a mystery
because the State Government
will not spend $200,000 to identify his
remains.
In a major archeological coup, the
skeleton of Australia's most famous
bushranger is believed
to have been exhumed in March, among those
of 31 other executed prisoners, from a plot
at
Pentridge Prison.
The sets of remains are being held under
the jurisdiction of the State Coroner at the
Victorian
Institute of Forensic Medicine at Southbank,
where it was intended they would be
identified
using the latest forensic technology -
including DNA testing.
But sources close to the exhumation say
the Department of Justice is refusing to pay
for the
identification of all but two of the sets of
remains.
The remains of Ronald Ryan, the last man
hanged in Victoria, and Colin Campbell Ross,
who
was executed for murder in 1922 and later
proved to be innocent, have been claimed by
their
descendants and will be identified and
handed to their families
Source Herald Sun 25 May 2008. |
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................
Smallness of siege site is shown up
BRAD WORRALL
The Border Mail
22/05/2008 12:00:00 AM
Ann Jones' inn was tiny, not much larger than a garden shed.
The site of Ned Kelly's last stand, where more than 40 people
including hostages and the bushranger's gang took refuge, is now
emerging from the dust at Glenrowan,
Archeologist and team leader of the month-long dig Adam Ford says it
is one of the major points to emerge from their work.
Charred wooden posts that had fallen when the five-room inn was
torched to end the siege have been uncovered for the first time in 128
years.
Molten glass, another remnant of the arson, also litters the site.
"The outline of the inn is contained within the confines of the brick
foundations of a wine shanty that was built on the site much later,"
Mr Ford said.
"To think so many people would have been inside.
"It is said that they were laying on top of each other as the hail of
bullets crashed through the walls.
"It would have been terrifying."
Mr Ford said progress had slowed in the past week.
"We have worked through five periods of occupation to get where we
are," he said.
"It is quite complex and now that we have reached this level we need
to be meticulous, it is slow going, almost tedious.
"But this is our only chance to do this, we need to squeeze the life
out of it, get as much information as possible —it is unlikely this
will ever be done again."
The team of about 20, including archaeologists and university
students, is expected to move up to 400 tonnes of dirt in the dig that
winds up tomorrow week.
Last week two Martini-Henry shell cases, almost certainly fired in the
battle, were uncovered.
.......................................................................................................................................................
Kelly 'not guilty' in trial re-enactment
source: ABC
News 15 May 2008.
Folklore
hero or terrorist? Bushranger Ned Kelly (file
photo). (Anne Delaney)
In 1880, bushranger Ned Kelly was found
guilty of the murder of three policemen and sentenced to
death by hanging.
The Irish Catholic Kelly became a popular folklore
figure. But how would Kelly be viewed and treated if he was
alive today
and charged under Australia's terrorism laws?
Last night the idea was tested by an all-star cast of
defence lawyers and prosecutors along with a real life
Supreme Court judge.
An actor playing Kelly went on trial for terrorism
offences, all part of Law Week in Melbourne.
His defence team included veteran barrister Gerry Nash,
who once represented Tony Mokbel, and Rob Stary who is
currently
representing several men charged with terrorism offences in
Melbourne.
The prosecutor was played by the maverick former chairman
of the NCA (National Crime Authority), Peter Faris, who did
not
have a high opinion of the bushranger.
"Kelly is nothing more than a Irish Catholic secessionist
dog," he said.
Playing the part of Justice Redmond Barry, who sentenced
the real life Kelly to death, was Victorian Supreme Court
judge
Justice Lex Lasry:
"Have the prosecution satisfied you beyond reasonable
doubt that the prisoner, Kelly, committed a terrorist act,
that the prisoner
caused a death or several deaths for the purpose of coercing
or influencing by intimidation the Government of the Colony
of Victoria?"
In his defence, Kelly claimed he was acting in
self-defence when he shot three policemen at Stringy Bark
Creek.
"Was it ever your intention to shoot them?" the counsel
asked Kelly at the mock trial.
Kelly replied that it was not.
The counsel then asked if Kelly if he had disarmed them,
what would he have done?
"Sent them packing with the message that I'm an innocent
man, that my family has been wronged and that this needs to
come to
an end," the actor playing Kelly said.
"I'm only defending my family."
When the jury found Kelly not guilty, the audience
applauded and cheered.
Speaking to the audience after the trial, Mr Stary
detailed his ongoing concerns with Australia's terrorism
laws.
"They can encapsulate any conduct," he said.
"Any person who promotes disaffection, any person who
suggests or any person who thinks that there ought to be a
change of
government or that there ought to be some change in the way
society is structured really is vulnerable to the commission
of a
terrorist offence."
Mr Faris hit back, defending the laws.
"We have a genuine problem with Islamic terrorism in this
country," he said.
"We need to be as safe and secure as we can."
Based on a report by Alison Caldwell, first aired on
AM.
....................................................................................................................................................
'Exciting' finds in Ned Kelly dig. (The Age May 14)
Two cartridges and burnt artefacts have been excavated from the site
of infamous bushranger
Ned Kelly's last stand. Kelly was badly wounded and captured at
the Ann Jones Inn at Glenrowan, in north-eastern Victoria
on June 28, 1880 after he took 60 locals hostage and was involved in
a ferocious gun battle with police.
Heritage Victoria is overseeing the month-long project involving
six archaeologists, a conservator and
40 students who are mapping out the site and searching for relics.
Project director Adam Ford said the discovery of the two hard
brass cartridges is "fabulous" and he is
confident they date back to the siege.
"They are the right age, right location, so we are pretty
confident they are evidence of the gun battle."
Police moved from using soft brass cartridges to hard brass, just
weeks before the siege.
"This is very exciting. We had spent a whole week here moving
very slowly and trying to understand
the site so to find this is amazing," Mr Ford said.
The cartridges, which came from a Martini-Henry rifle, were
uncovered last Friday during a dig to the
north of the main site.
Mr Ford said an important part of the project was trying to
identify the original outline of the inn.
Two posts that date back to the original inn, burnt nails and
other burnt or ash covered remnants also
have been found this week.
"Today is very significant because we are really getting down to
where we are identifying outlines, form
and function.
"We're very happy with the progress at the moment, the remains
are in very good condition," Mr Ford said.
"The information is coming out of the ground every second,
really."
He said the burnt nails and posts were very "evocative" of what
happened on the site.
The archaeological site is very shallow - with many of the
remnants being found just 20 centimetres below
ground - because there has been only two other buildings on the site
since.
Once the dig is finished, all information gathered will be sent
to Heritage Victoria and LaTrobe University.
The data will be researched and analysed then added to the
existing history of the battle.
"The great thing about archaeology is we can look at it in a very
objective way," Mr Ford said.
"We're finding stuff that has not been looked at before, or seen
since the siege. That information can add
to the story of the siege, it's very exciting."
The dig, which started on May 5, continues for two and a half
more weeks.
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Archaeologists find bullet cartridges from Kelly siege
Wed May 14,
2008
One of
the cartridges found at the scene of Ned Kelly's
last stand. (ABC News: Narelle Graham)
Archaeologists believe they have found more
evidence of the 1880 gun battle between Ned Kelly's
gang and police at Glenrowan, in central Victoria.
Bullet fragments were uncovered during excavations at the
former Anne Jones Inn site earlier this month.
Now archaeologists have revealed that two bullet
cartridges from a Martini-Henry rifle were discovered in
the northern section of the site on Friday afternoon.
Excavations Director, Adam Ford believes they came from
weapons that would have been used by police
at the time.
"They [the cartridges] were only released to the police
approximately two weeks before the siege event,"
he said.
"They were superseded reasonably quickly after the event.
I mean within a couple of years. S I feel quite
certain that they are physical evidence of the gun battle."
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Site of Ned Kelly's last stand being excavated.
Archaeologists have begun scouring the site
of Ned Kelly's last stand at Glenrowan.
It has been nearly 130 years since the shootout but they
hope to find artefacts from the siege that
will shed new light on the episode.
The dig is being conducted at what had been a vacant
block of land for the past 30 years.
Now the site of Ned Kelly's last stand is being scraped,
dug and sifted.
Project director Adam Ford says no stone is being left
unturned in the hunt for Kelly artefacts.
"I'm pretty sure we will find physical remains that I can
attribute to that night in June 1880," he said.
Kelly historian Gary Dean thinks the dig could help
substantiate rumours that Ned Kelly's brother Dan
escaped the siege and subsequent fire by hiding in a cellar.
"Actually locating the cellar means the story, the actual
oral histories from families that tell this story,
means it's probably a true story.
Archaeology students from La Trobe University will spend
the next four weeks working on the dig and
they are excited about working on the site of one of
Australia's most fabled legends.
Student Luke Falvey says it is a fantastic opportunity.
"I never thought that I'd be working on a site like this.
The guy's a legend and to be working on the famous
shootout site, it's just indescribable, really," he said.
As the dig begins, the exhumation of 20 sets of remains
has ended at the old Pentridge Prison.
It is hoped the remains include the bones of Ned Kelly.
Source: ABC News.
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Spade gang hoping to unearth Kelly relics at
Glenrowan.
ARCHAEOLOGISTS will start a major month-long dig today on the
site of Ned Kelly's doomed siege at Glenrowan.
Heritage Victoria is overseeing the project involving six
professional archaeologists, a conservator and 40 student
volunteers.
They hope to map out the site and find relics of the Glenrowan
Inn, which police burnt down on June 28, 1880, in a bid to flush
out the Kelly Gang — Ned, his brother Dan, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart
— after it had kept 60 locals hostage.
The gang had ripped up train tracks 40 metres away, hoping to
derail a police train. But police were tipped off, and on arrival
in the north-eastern Victorian town troopers surrounded the inn — a
five-room weatherboard belonging to Ann Jones.
According to historian Ian Jones, four locals, including two of
Mrs Jones' children, died in the ensuing shootout, and Dan Kelly,
Byrne and Hart perished either from gunshot wounds or in the fire.
Despite his famous metal body armour, police shot and badly
wounded Ned Kelly and he was captured and sent to Old Melbourne
Gaol, where he was later hanged.
Bizarre stories of dancing, singing and card games held during
the siege later emerged. In his book Ned Kelly: A Short Life,
Mr Jones said that most of the hostages "stood in that strange
borderland between sympathiser and neutral".
Ann Jones rebuilt on the site with government compensation. A
later, 1890s wine shanty on the 80-metre by 25-metre block on
Siege Street was demolished in 1976 and the privately owned site is
now vacant.
The Rural City of Wangaratta received a $121,000 Federal
Government grant to excavate.
The project director, archaeologist Adam Ford, said the siege was
a "brutal gun battle" in which 15,000 rounds were fired.
It was a "momentous event in Australia's history" that still
polarised the town. "One challenge of the excavation will be
distinguishing
what relics and deposits relate to the siege and the inn, as opposed
to periods before or after June 1880," he said.
Heritage Victoria senior archaeologist Jeremy Smith said the
project could help direct future use of the land for tourism, and
any
remains or relics could be conserved and displayed, "in a way that
can help share the story of the Kelly Gang, particularly with
visitors to the region".
Source: The Age May 5.
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Bid for Ned Kelly's head (Source HeraldSun) Apr 20 2008.
THE State Government
is considering an amnesty to secure the return of
Ned Kelly's missing skull.
Kelly's bones are believed to be among the
remains of 32 executed prisoners exhumed from the
site of the former
Pentridge Prison last month.
The prisoners' remains were re-interred at
Pentridge after being taken out of graves at the Old
Melbourne Gaol
when it closed in 1929.
Heritage Victoria's senior archaeologist Jeremy
Smith yesterday confirmed an amnesty had been
proposed by
the National Trust.
Exhumation field work at the former Pentridge
prison was now complete, Mr Smith said.
"The last set of the remains has been delivered
to the forensic institute and we are now waiting for
the analysis," he said.
But a source close to the bones dig said an
amnesty had been suggested as a way of reuniting the
hanged bushranger's
skull with the rest of his remains.
"This idea is that, if whoever has got it
understands there will be no questions asked, they
might give it back," the source said.
Archaeologists working for Heritage Victoria have
completed the exhumations and passed their skeletal
findings to the
Victorian Institute for Forensic Medicine for tests
to identify them.
The Sunday Herald Sun understands the
archaeologists think Kelly's remains were found
without a skull - supporting an
often-told story that it was removed in 1929 after
his exhumation from the Old Melbourne Gaol.
A skull, thought to be Kelly's, with the initials
"E.K." attached to it, was stolen from the Old
Melbourne Gaol in what appeared
to be a university student prank in December, 1978.
One of the culprits was rumoured to be a former
prime minister's son, yet it is still not known what
happened to it.
Some observers think the E.K. skull was actually
that of Edward Knox, who was also executed at
Melbourne Gaol.
And in a further twist, a farmer in Western
Australia claims he has the controversial E.K. skull
buried in a tin can in his
backyard. But evidence - at this time - does not
prove his claim.
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Find excites bone hunters.
Lawrie Nowell
March 09, 2008 12:00am
NED Kelly has always held a
fascination for Victorians.
His story reads like part
wild west cowboy adventure, part
Dickensian crime novel.
And the hunt for Kelly's
final resting place is as
intriguing a tale as any
forensic potboiler.
"It's a great archeological
detective story that has taken
two years to get to the bottom
of," Heritage Victoria senior
archeologist Jeremy Smith said
yesterday.
"It's the most exciting
archeological find I've been
involved in."
The push to find Kelly's grave
first loomed large in 2005 when
developers moved in to redevelop
Pentridge Prison, which had been
closed and sold off by the
Kennett Government in 1997.
Heritage Victoria launched a
serious bid to find Kelly's
grave and those of more than 30
others in 2006.
Slow progress was made until
the stunning discovery this year
of an undated Department of
Justice document purported to
show the locations of mass
graves in a little-visited area
of the prison complex.
The 'eureka moment' came this
week when archeologists
unearthed multiple graves.
Three square, deep pits have
been found.
"It's doubtful we will be
able to identify all the
individuals because of the
diversity of conditions," Mr
Smith said.
"The bones are not complete
and they have been mixed,
co-mingled and decomposed.
"Some go back to the 1860s.
"Until
recently
it
was
thought
there
was
only
one
burial
plot
at
the
eastern
end
of D
division
building
where
Ronald
Ryan
was
buried
in
1967.
Now
we've
confirmed
the
existence
of
an
earlier
historic
burial
ground
at
the
eastern
end
of F
division."
The
remains
of
the
32
executed
prisoners
were
transferred
from
Old
Melbourne
Gaol
in
1929,
but
the
exact
locations
of
their
burials
were
lost
when
old
prison
records
were
thrown
out
a
decade
later.
The
document
was
the
only
evidence
of
the
re-burials
at
Pentridge.
The
investigation
has
thrown
light
on
the
deaths
of
Victorian
criminals
including
Frederick
Deeming,
who
killed
successive
wives
and
children
during
the
1890s.
Source: Melbourne HeraldSun 9
Mar 2008
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Kelly Gang Siege site dig.
By Narelle Graham
Glenrowan in north east Victoria will
soon become a hive of activity as archaeologists investigate
the legendary Kelly Gang siege site.
It's expected the dig will attract
both Australia-wide and overseas attention.
The Wangaratta Rural City Council has
appointed Dig International as the consultant archaeologists
to investigate the remnants of the
Kelly's Last Stand at the Ann Jones Inn site.
Director of Dig International Adam
Ford will run the project in collaboration with Latrobe
University.
"Over a period of about four weeks
archaeologists will be excavating the site," Adam says.
"We're hoping to find physical
remains of the original inn, the Ann Jones Inn and artefacts
of the siege that happened there in 1880, that
resulted in the death of three members of the Kelly gang and
the capture, of course, of Ned Kelly."
Adam has been an archaeologist since
1991 and has been involved in digs in the Middle East, the
Caribbean and the U.K. For the past
12 years he's been based in Australia.
"I've worked on some brilliant
sites," he says. "Recently I worked on a Chinese market
garden site in the goldfields and last year I excavated
a shipwreck survivor site on the most remote part of
Australia, off Dirk Hartog Island in Western Australia.
"They're all fantastic sites and each
has a great element but I think the siege site is pretty
much the pinnacle at the moment in terms of historical
importance."
Adam is excited to be involved in
uncovering evidence of what he considers one of the most
widely known events in Australia's history, an event
known overseas.
"Ned Kelly is known throughout the
world as a bushranger and as this larrikin character. He
created some part of the Australian image overseas,
that legend of larrikinism and the underdog fighting against
authority.
"To have a chance to look at the
physical remains of that and add information to the story is
very exciting indeed," he says.
The excavation will carry its share
of challenges for the team of archaeologists.
The siege in 1880 ended with the pub
being burnt down. Since then there's been two other
buildings constructed on the site. One of those also
burned down.
Adam says there's also been a lot of
souveniring by people trying to get a piece of the Ned Kelly
story for themselves.
"It's not going to be a pristine
site, which is how we'd describe sites that haven't been
disturbed since an event," Adam says.
"It's going to be quite a mix of
archaeological remains. But I'm still confident we're going
to find some really good stuff."
The trick for the team will be to
work out the sequence of events to be sure what they find
relates to the time of the siege.
"On many sites you get this layering
of occupation over a period of time," Adam says.
"In some parts of the world layers
can be up to 15 metres thick - making them very complicated
sites, this one is going to be complicated
because it's going to be quite shallow."
Adam says he expects to find three or
four site occupations layered upon each other, but also
intertwined. It will make the work slow and delicate.
"The reason we go slowly is that
we're trying to look at the soils as much as the physical
artefacts and see where those sequence of soils relate to
each other and that will give us an indication of the
historical development of the site," he says.
The team hopes to find artefacts
common to a 19th Century business and commercial site like
the inn, such as glassware, pottery and cups and saucers.
They hope to find evidence of burning and some remains of
the siege.
Last year Adam found a rifle bullet
casing near the site, which is believed to be from the
siege.
"We've got to remember that it was
the battle site so there's a lot of munitions that were
flying around during the early part of the siege and so
hopefully
we'll find some of those.
"Anything to do with the siege will
be a significant find. If we can attribute what we find
either to the member of the Kelly gang or to the battle it
will be or
great interest because it puts flesh on the bones of the
historic information we already know. It gives us real
tangible physical remains of this site."
The time-frame for the dig is still
being finalised but Adam believes it will start in May and
last for about four weeks.
Source:
http://www.abc.net.au/goulburnmurray/stories/s2160114.htm?backyard
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