Ned Kelly tells his own version of what happened at Glenrowan in a letter from the condemned cell at Melbourne Gaol.
Tag: Glenrowan
An account of Glenrowan from the Glenrowan stationmaster, John Stanistreet.
A private quarrel occurred between Mr. Hare and myself altogether unconnected with official business, in which Captain Standish, who was not in any way concerned, took part against me, and carried it into official matters. He made a series of communications to the Queensland Government, tending to depreciate me, and to remove the men from my control and supervision. This was done without my knowledge, and, consequently, I had no opportunity of explanation to my commissioner. My Government ultimately acceded to the request of Captain Standish, and informed him that he was at liberty to have one of my men for permanent service in Victoria. Upon this Captain Standish had the man taken out of my party and attached to his police, although he (Captain Standish) still required our services.
Her residence, a four-roomed slab hut, with a bark roof, stands in the middle of a paddock comprising about 40 acres. It is within a short distance from a mountain called Quarry Hill, whence a good view of the surrounding country can be obtained. Within the paddock there were two or three horses and as many cows, and there were a few fowls and a tame kangaroo about the house. But the place presented a gloomy, desolate appearance. There was a very small kitchen garden, but there was no other land under cultivation. Some of the panes of glass in the windows were broken, and, excepting that some creepers had very recently been planted at the foot of the verandah posts, no attempt had been made to beautify the house, or make this home look homely.
In his home at Glenhuntley he still treasures the relics of that memorable morning when the reign of terror of the Kelly gang came to an end. In a green baize he keeps the revolver which he took from Ned. It is the weapon that Kelly took from the police sergeant at Jerilderie when the gang held up the town and robbed the bank. A chip from the handle shows where one of the police bullets caught Ned. Kelly’s thumb at Glenrowan. Another interesting relic in Mr Dowsett’s possession is the long boot worn by Kelly in the final fight. It was used as evidence at the trial and shows the hole made by one of Sergeant Steele’s bullets. The mustard tin in which Kelly kept his ammunition shows two holes made by the bullets fired at him by Dowsett. One of the bullets was found inside the tin, and is shown by Mr Dowsett as evidence of his good aim.
To date the most accurate dramatic on-screen depiction of the Kelly story is the 1980 television mini-series The Last Outlaw. Though far from perfect, it comes very close at times to being spot on. The series was originally imagined as a sprawling epic over around a dozen movie-length episodes like the previous production by the […]
Previously I posted about my first trip to Kelly Country since the lockdowns but was in the middle of the trip when I wrote it. Evidently the rest of the trip was too busy for me to finish writing up about what else happened at the time, so here we go with a quick recap […]
With the “ring of steel” between Melbourne Metro and the rest of Victoria now dissolved movement is freer than it has been in months. It also means that I can finally visit the places that feature so prominently in my book. To say that the inability to bring Glenrowan to the places where everything happened […]
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In the news, November 11 2020
Earlier this week was the commemoration of Ned Kelly’s execution and in relation to that Glenrowan was the feature of an article in the Border Mail by journalist Anthony Bunn. The story was mirrored on other news sites as well, some of which are behind pay-walls and some of which aren’t. Below is a transcript […]
An excerpt from chapter one: Loyalty concerning the outlaw Kelly brothers and their siblings.
Glenrowan 