Demise of the Kelly Gang

Dan Kelly's and Steve Hart's armour

recovered from the hotel at Glenrowan after it was burnt.

Oswald Thomas photographer

State Library of Victoria.

The siege at Glenrowan

The Kelly gang (Ned and Dan Kelly, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart) were surrounded at the Glenrowan Inn by the police on June 27, 1880 .  The gang had suits of armour to protect themselves, made by a local man, which were made of heavy iron and weighed about 44 kilograms each.  Probably made from plough shares and forged in a low temperature bush fire, the armour was tough enough to repel bullets but the men's legs and arms were not protected.  Joe Byrne was shot in the groin and died.
Ned Kelly's refusal to surrender, and his loyalty to his mates, when he could have escaped, is part of what created the Kelly legend.

When the siege was over, the bodies of Steve Hart, 21, and Dan Kelly, 19, lay side by side, in a back room of the inn.  A priest, Father Matthew Gibney, entered the burning inn and found them together, dead, with their helmets removed.  It is believed they shot each other.

See an original photo from after the siege.

RESOURCES:
Bushrangers at State Library of Victoria
The National Museum of Australia
NSW: National Library of Australia
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation