About The Ned Kelly Touring Route

Welcome to the Ned Kelly Touring Route Website! The Ned Kelly Touring Route is a joint initiative between the municipalities of the Rural City of Wangaratta, Benalla Rural City, Mansfield, Strathbogie, Indigo and Jerilderie (NSW) Shire Councils, formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding.  The Old Melbourne Gaol is also a strategic partner in the project which is also strongly supported by Tourism Victoria.

A grant was received from the Federal Government's Regional Tourism Program for  $82,500 to undertake a Scoping Study and prepare a Strategy and Implementation Plan.

The project aims to develop appropriate collateral and interpretive signage at each of the key "Kelly" sites in Victoria and southern New South Wales  and provide visitors with an enhanced level of understanding about the background and events which led to the "Kelly Uprising".

This site is a key part of the project, and brings together information from a variety of sources in one handy location.

Ned Kelly Touring Route goes back to its Irish beginnings

The raw, bittersweet memory of Ned Kelly will now resonate throughout Ireland, with the inclusion of the Kelly family's birthplace in County Tipperary, in the Ned Kelly Touring Route.

By following the Touring Route, Kelly-inspired visitors will gain a deeper understanding of the Kelly narrative through story boards installed at the sites where the historic events occurred - Old Melbourne Gaol, Avenel, Euroa, Stringybark Creek, Glenrowan, Beechworth, Benalla and Jerilderie - geographic markers of a national phenomenon.  A storyboard will also be erected on the site of the Kelly family home in Moyglass, County Tipperary, where Ned Kelly's father 'Red Kelly' lived, before being transported to Australia in 1841.

"Ned Kelly is part of the Australian story - both as one of our best-known historical figures and also as a mythological character.   Through the Ned Kelly Touring Route we are committed to telling the many layers of the story with authenticity and sensitivity," said Graham Nickless, Project Manager of Ned Kelly Touring Route.

"The Irish connection with the Kelly legend is very real.  Extending the Touring Route to Ireland reflects Kelly's Irish ancestry as well as his iconic status, even outside Australia.  Just as the Kelly legend knows no boundaries across our cultural landscape, it also has a strong grip on the Irish consciousness", he continued.

Future development of the Ned Kelly Touring Route in Ireland may include the site of Ned Kelly's mother, Ellen Kelly's hometown in Northern Ireland and other Kelly gang member's Irish connections.

Ned Kelly has been an enduring presence in the Australian psyche for more than 125 years.  Ned Kelly, the bushranger, the larrikin, and to some, the hero, is one of Australia's best-known historical figures. He is also part of the nation's mythology, repeatedly re-emerging through Australia's art, literature, film music and other forms of popular culture.

The Kelly Story in brief

" I am a widow's son outlawed and my orders must be obeyed"
Ned Kelly, February 1879

The era of Ned Kelly and his gang is one of the most remarkable episodes in Australia's history. Spanning just two short years between 1878 and 1880 the "Kelly outbreak" has assumed epic proportions in the Australian psyche, and Ned Kelly is arguably Australia's best known historical character. His short and violent life has been a continuing inspiration for poets, writers, artists and filmmakers. Being "as game as Ned Kelly" is regarded as an admirable trait - courageous, resolute and independent.

Just who was Ned Kelly? Behind the head piece of his famous and crude suit of armour was a man of many faces. He was a common criminal. He was a hero to Irish immigrants who were persecuted by the establishment. He was a bushranger who held up a whole town, not just banks. He was intensely protective of his family and avenged a police officer's assault on his sister.

Ned was barely educated, yet his famous letters were poetic and passionate. He killed police officers, was outlawed and could be shot on sight by anyone. Yet when he was sentenced to hang, more than 30,000 people signed a petition asking for a reprieve.

Ned Kelly has never faded from our national consciousness. Indeed the passing years have served to build Kelly's legendary stature. Why? Perhaps because he had so many qualities ordinary Australians admire. He was a larrikin. Loyal to his family and ready to sacrifice himself for his mates. Represented the struggling classes. Thumbed his nose at the establishment. And he was fearless.

Whatever the truth, Ned Kelly is a central figure in the Australian national identity, characterised by his ambivalent status as both a hero and a villain. He is part of our folklore, our popular culture and our art.

"The day will come when we will all have to go to a bigger court than this"
Ned Kelly to justice Sir Redmond Barry on being sentenced to death in October 1880

Highlights of the Ned Kelly Collection

Ned Kelly’s favourite rifle, ‘Betty’

On 10 December 1878, the Kelly Gang robbed the National Bank at Euroa. The robbery was a public relations exercise, attempting to how the public that the Gang had never set out to be robbers and police murderers.

During the robbery, the Gang kept some of the township prisoner at Faithful’s Creek station, about nine miles out of Euroa. While they were transporting their ‘prisoners’, Ned came across Henry Dudley, one of a party of kangaroo hunters made prisoners by the Gang. Henry Dudley worked for the Government printers in Melbourne. Before he left Melbourne, Henry sold a handsome .577 calibre Snider-Enfield rifle to a work colleague, but asked the colleague if he could borrow the rifle one last time.

This was the rifle that was taken from Dudley by Ned Kelly. It became Ned’s favourite rifle, which he called ‘Betty’. Note the ‘K’ carved by Ned into the wood of the fore-end (above right). Interestingly, there is at least one other rifle owned by Ned Kelly that also has a ‘K’ engraved into it by Ned – the Colt revolving carbine used by Ned at Glenrowan.

‘Murder of police near Mansfield - £2000 reward’

The only surviving example of a £2000 reward notice, printed at Jamieson soon after the police killings at Stringybark Creek.

In November 1878, the Kelly Gang officially became outlaws in the colony of Victoria. This meant that they could legally be shot on site by anyone, with a handsome reward for the killer.

This poster was printed by the office of The Chronicle, on the initiative of the local policeman at Jamieson, Senior Constable Manly Ellis.

Since then, this poster has been widely reproduced – but this the absolute original – the only one of its type.

Ned Kelly's death mask

In the 19th century, the making of death masks from executed prisoners was a common practice. After a prisoner was executed, their head was shaved, and a wax mould was made of their face and head. A plaster cast was then made, which would be examined in the name of the psuedo-science, ‘Phrenology’. In those days, doctors and scientists believed that the bumps, contours and lumps on a person’s head pre-determined their criminal behaviour.

Relics of Ned Kelly's Last Stand

Ned's beltNed Kelly’s belt, souvenired from the injured outlaw at Glenrowan. The belt seems to have been passed down through his family. It is a rather small belt, which Ian Jones believes could have been worn outside his armour, and may have supported an ammunition pouch.

Souvenired from Ned Kelly at Glenrowan are these two cone-shaped bullets, and one ball that would have been used for Ned’s Colt revolving rifle, as mentioned previously. It is believed that these items were taken from Ned Kelly’s coat pocket as he lay near death inside the Glenrowan railway station building.

Young Ned Kelly's initials in the forge door

Forge DoorThe Quinn’s were Ned Kelly’s maternal grandparents, who settled near Wallan. Ned’s parents, Red and Ellen Kelly settled at Beveridge, not far from Wallan. The Quinn homestead was the scene of many Kelly/Quinn/Lloyd family gatherings in the 1860’s, before the Quinns’ move to Glenmore.

A century later, the forge door from the Quinn homestead was discovered at Wallan.

The forge (or ‘smithy’) door from the Quinn homestead contains many initials, and some examples of burns from newly made branding irons. Among them, the distinctive brand ‘JQ’ of Ned’s grandfather, and a faint ‘EK’, carved by young Ned in the 1860’s. Almost eroded by time, it is the earliest physical record of Ned Kelly’s existence.

Ned Kelly's carbine

Ned Kelly’s carbine with which he shot Constable Thomas Lonigan at Stringybark Creek on October 26 1878 – an exact replica recreated for The Last Outlaw mini-series in 1980. The original weapon was thrown out by Melbourne’s Museum of Applied Science in the 1950s.

The weapon may have been given to Ned while he was riding with Harry Power. It was a muzzle-loading Enfield carbine of .577 calibre with the barrel sawn off to about 14 inches and the butt to about 5 inches. The barrel was held on by waxed string.

Ned Kelly described it as a ‘bloody old crooked musket’ that would ‘shoot around the corner’.

‘I will back it against any firearm in the country – I can shoot a kangaroo at 100 yards (with) every shot fired’.

The lock-plate pictured may be a relic of the original.

Ned Kelly's whisky still fragment

Following the Fitzpatrick Incident in April 1878, Ned and Dan Kelly with Joe Byrne retreated to their hideout at Bullock Creek, in the Wombat Ranges rear Mansfield.

There, the Kelly boys and their friends commenced work on a gold sluicing operation, with the intention to raise money for Mrs Kelly’s forthcoming trial.

In his Jerilderie Letter of 1879, Ned commented: ‘We had a place excavated close to the house for the purpose of erecting a small distill, so if anyone informed on us they would not get the most valuable or main distill that was further down the creek with the sugar and other requisites’.

This surviving fragment of the pot from the Kelly whisky still was discovered at the site of the Bullock Creek hideout in 1968 – just where Ned had described.

Farnley at Chesneyvale

In 1875-76, Ned and Dan Kelly were contracted to build a stone house for a doctor near Chesneyvale, just south of Glenrowan. Ned quarried local pink granite to build the house, which still survives. Some of the granite rocks were six feet long. When he completed the construction of the house, he carved ‘1876’ into one of the stones at the rear of the building. It was a year to be proud of. We have taken a mould of Ned’s ‘1876’ and have it ready to exhibit, along with photographs of the house itself.

Mick Jagger's Armour

Mick Jagger's ArmourIn 1969, Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger came to Australia to play the role of Ned Kelly in the film by Tony Richardson. His then girlfriend, Marianne Faithfull, was supposed to play the role of Kate Kelly, but had a drug overdose in Sydney.

Although very controversial, the film itself was a breakthrough in Kelly cinema.

For the first time, Ned Kelly was young, a rebel, and very Irish. Until that time, Ned had been depicted as a man in his forties. From the film comes a large archive of unpublished photographs, the original script, press releases, posters…and the original suit of armour Mick Jagger wore in the film!

John Jarratt's armour and special effects revolver

John Jarratt's armourOf all the Kelly films, The Last Outlaw remains the most lavish, and historically accurate.

Filming began on the eight-hour mini-series in 1980, near Seymour. It starred John Jarratt as Ned Kelly, Sigrid Thornton as Kate Kelly, Gerard Kennedy as Harry Power, and Elaine Cusick as the formidable Ellen Kelly.

It is now a much sought after series, last shown on Channel Seven in 2003.

From The Last Outlaw, we have an archive of photographs, publicity material, an original script, costumes, and the special effects revolver and suit of armour used by John Jarratt in the series.

Rare Kelly Gang postcard

Rare postcardThis extremely rare photograph was taken by a travelling photographer, who came across the Kelly Gang on the run, possibly in the Strathbogie Ranges early in 1879.

The haste of the photographer is obvious – he has left a tripod and negative case in the left of the shot. The image was marketed in the 1880s as a postcard entitled ‘The Kelly Gang – from an original photograph’.

Only three of these postcards are known to exist.

Remains of the Kelly Homestead at Greta

Greta HomesteadThe Kellys moved to Greta around 1867, later taking up a selection on the road from Benalla to the Ovens goldfields. Block 57A was selected by Ellen Kelly.

In 1875-76, Ned Kelly and his mates built a new homestead. This was the homestead that was visited by Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick on April 15 1878.

From the Kelly homestead are the following artefacts:

• Original section of wall from the Kelly homestead. Ned cut it from local ironbark, and adzed its ends for use in horizontal construction.
• Part of the door latch from the Kelly homestead
• A horse’s bit and other sundry items found at the Kelly homestead
• The original bellows from the Kelly smithy at Greta (and photos showing the bellows inside the ruins of the smithy)
• A collection of photographs showing the additions and gradual decay of the homestead from 1880 - 1965