Books about Ned Kelly, his family and the Kelly Gang

There are so many books about Ned Kelly and his gang, and now also about his mother, that I thought it would be good to have them altogether here in one place.

  Mrs Kelly: the astonishing life of Ned Kelly's mother

True History of the Kelly Gang: A Novel by Peter Carey

The Jerilderie Letter: Text Classic

sNed Kelly: A short life

NED KELLY: In His Own Words

Ned Kelly's Last Days: Setting the Record Straight on the Death of an Outlaw

Ned Kelly, bushranger

Ned Kelly: The Story of Australia's Most Notorious Legend

Australian Son The Story of Ned Kelly

True History of the Kelly Gang: A Novel

Meet Ned Kelly

Ned Kelly: New Illustrated edition

Ned Kelly: The Man Behind the Mask

Dan Kelly - Outlaw

The Truth about Dan Kelly, brother of outlaw Ned Kelly: his escape from the Inferno & the hangman's Noose

Kelly Country: A Photographic Journey

Ned Kelly's Last Stand - The Life and Times Australia's Ironclad Outlaw

The Inner History of the Kelly Gang

Ned Kelly : The Authentic Illustrated Story

Ned Kelly's Jerilderie Letter.

Extract from Ned Kelly's Jerilderie Letter. 

The Jerilderie Letter was dictated by famous Australian bushranger Ned Kelly to fellow Kelly Gang member Joe Byrne in 1879. It is one of only two original Kelly documents known to have survived.

The Jerilderie Letter is a 56-page document of approximately 8,000 words. In the letter Kelly tries to justify his actions, including the killing of three policemen in October 1878. He describes cases of alleged police corruption and calls for justice for poor families. Ned Kelly is the only Australian bushranger known to have attempted to justify his actions in writing.  WIKIPEDIA

Dear SirI wish to acquaint you withsome of the occurrences of the present pastand future, In or about the Spring of1870 the ground was very soft, aHawker named M^r Gould got his waggonbogged, between Greta and my mother'splace house on the eleven mile creek,the ground was that rotten it wouldbog a duck in places so M^r Gouldhad to abandon his waggon for fearof losing his horses in the spewy groundhe was stopping at my mother's awaitingfiner ^{or dryer} weather, M^r M^cCormack and hisWife, (Hawkers' also) were camped in Gretaand the mosquitoes were very bad which theygenerally are in a wet spring and tohelp them M^r Johns had a horse calledRuita Cruta, although a gelding was asclever as old Wombat or any other Stallion      

 Transcript of page 1 of the letter from The National Museum of Australia

Mystery of Dan Kelly

Wood engraving of Dan Kelly
 published in The illustrated Australian news, November 28, 1878.

Dan Kelly, younger brother of Ned Kelly and one of the Kelly gang, is said to have died in the Glenrowan Inn fire of June 28,1880 as a 19-year-old. But when a man, who lived his life under the assumed name of James Ryan, walked into the Brisbane offices of the Sunday Truth in 1933 claiming to be the real life Dan Kelly, it unleashed questions that have remained unanswered to this day.
Read the full story at The Queensland Times.

Read the Demise of the Kelly Gang

What does a bushranger look like anyway?

Here are just some of the cads you will find on this site. They were all bushrangers.

The Term 'Bushranger' was first used in February 1805, in the Sydney Gazette which mentioned men "whose appearance sanctioned the suspicion of their being bushrangers". From this time, the term was used to describe those who attacked people on the roads or in the bush. Over 2000 bushrangers roamed the Australian countryside, from the convicts who escaped until just after the Kelly Gang's last stand.

Besides being called bushrangers (and all being dead) what else do all these men have in common? Oh yes they lived in AUSTRALIA but what else?

Well we all know Ned Kelly came from Irish stock and he had a gang and one of the gang was his brother. We also know he was tried and hung. So what about the others?

 

Henry Johnson was from Ireland, was convicted for stealing a pair of shoes and changed his name to Harry Power.

 

Thomas Rogan (middle row at left) had stolen horses before the age of 22 when he joined a gang of bushrangers, and he was later tried and hung.

Ben Hall's parent's were sent to gaol for minor stealing offences, he loved horses and died in a shootout with police. He was at one stage called 'Brave Ben Hall'.

Frederick Wordsworth Ward's father was a convict. He had worked with horses and went to prison for receiving stolen horses. There is mystery about his death with some thinking he died in a police shootout and others saying it was his relative. He was called Captain Thunderbolt.

Steve Hart was born to Irish parents, he worked as a jockey, he was in the Kelly gang. He may have died at the Glenrowan Inn shootout but some say he and Dan Kelly escaped.

 

So there seem to be some common threads such as Ireland and convicts and stealing but no one thing they all had in common. Maybe it was falling on hard luck.

What is a cad?
  Origin: 1780–90
  Meaning: bounder, rotter, rascal, rogue; heel.

The Glenrowan Inn

This photograph shows the burnt remains of the Jones's Hotel, the scene of the final confrontation between Ned Kelly and the Victorian Police.

A sign still stands: "The Glenrowan Inn, Ann Jones, best accommodation".

Source: State Library Victoria

Taken by John Bray 1880

This is where Ned Kelly, dressed in home-made plate metal armour and the infamous helmet, was captured and sent to gaol.  Dan Kelly, Joe Byrne, and Steve Hart were with him and also had suits of armour.

I do not say what brought me to Glenrowan, but it seems much. Anyhow I could have got away last night, for I got into the bush with my grey mare, and lay there all night. But I wanted to see the thing end. Part of Ned Kelly's statement to the press.

The Glenrowan Inn, owned by Ann Jones, was burned to the ground by the police after the Kelly Gang siege in June 1880.

See also: The Demise of the Kelly Gang

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

Ned Kelly's Headlines roundup

 "So while most of Kelly’s skull is still missing, the rest of him appears to have been found." — New York Times

"Scientists identify Ned Kelly's remains"  - Sydney Morning Herald

"Ned Kelly’s remains found" - The Age

"Bones of Australian bush icon Ned Kelly identified" - Reuters

"Experts confirm Ned Kelly's bones in jail" - The Border Mail

"Ned's skelly: Relatives of notorious Australian bushranger furious at plans to put his bones on public display" - Mail online

"Remains of Ned Kelly identified in Australia" - RTÉ News

"Remains of outlaw Ned Kelly identified" - The Irish Times

"Remains of Australian outlaw Ned Kelly identified ..." - Guardian

"Bushranger Ned Kelly still has a price on his head" - Daily Telegraph

"No bones about it, remains really are Ned Kelly's" - Brisbane Times 

Aboriginal guides

Portrait of 'John Piper', an Aboriginal tracker
who accompanied Major Thomas Mitchell in his expedition across the Great Dividing Range.

Aboriginal guides, or black trackers, as they became known, were used to track down bushrangers. A group assisted the Victorian Police in tracking down Ned Kelly in 1878 and 1880.

"The volunteer 'black trackers' from Fraser Island and Cape York, employees of the Queensland Native Police who tracked Ned Kelly, were lured by a promise of a cut in £8,000 reward offered for Kelly's capture. After the Glenrowan showdown with Kelly and his gang in 1880, Jack Noble (Wannamutta) and Gary Owens (Werannabe)²⁵, along with 92 others, applied for the reward. Sums were set aside for Noble and Owens and paid to the Queensland Government, but despite repeated requests the men never received their money. The men were placed in confinement camps with their families because they could not show visible means of support when they retired." From the Australian Government site. 



Ned Kelly's trial

"Ned Kelly in the Dock - A Scene from Life" Ned Kelly in the dock during his trial.

Wood engraving published in The Illustrated Australian News.

On the 28th and 29th of October, 1880 at Melbourne Kelly was tried for the murder of Constable Thomas Lonigan at Stringybark Creek. He was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging.

The one piece of evidence that may have helped Kelly, the Jerilderie letter, was made inadmissable. "It passionately articulates his pleas of innocence and desire for justice for both his family and the poor Irish selectors of Victoria's north-east." Read more at State Library of Victoria.



The trial of Ned Kelly, wood engraving, published in The Illustrated Australian news, Melbourne, David Syme and Co. November 6, 1880. Source State Library of Victoria, Illustrated newspaper file. Illustrated Australian news.

For more interesting facts about the trial go to Trial of Ned Kelly on Ned on the Net.

The case was considered unusual at the time as Kelly spoke directly to the Judge Justice Redmond Barry which was not heard of.

Kelly's speech at the trial at Kelly Gang and Friends Inc.

You may be interested in:
Demise of the Kelly Gang
Ned Kelly's trial
The infamous Ned

Reward Poster of the Kelly gang

" I am the last that carries public favour or dreads the public frown. Let the hand of the law strike me down if it will; but I ask my story be heard and considered".  Edward Kelly, November 1st, 1880 from his cell in Her Majesty's Gaol, Melbourne. (Dictated to David Gaunson)

 

MORE WRITINGS OF Ned Kelly:
Read the Jerilderie letter spoken by Ned Kelly and written down by Joe Byrne, in 1879, in which he expresses his innocence and wish for justice for his family and the poor Irish selectors of Victoria.

The infamous Ned

EDWARD KELLY

Edward "Ned" Kelly was born in Beveridge, Victoria, Australia in either 1854 or1855, the first son of John "Red" Kelly and Ellen Quinn. His father was a convict transported to Tasmania from County Tipperary in Ireland, in 1841 for stealing two pigs.

 

Ned Kelly and the Kelly Gang are considered, by many, to be folk heroes and a unique part of Australian history with many books and movies telling their story. This may be due to the fact that it was felt that the Kelly family, and the Irish in general, were persecuted by the law at the time and Neds' strong defiance of the authorities. Ned Kelly is also not considered to be a typical bushranger as he did not hold up coaches or kill people when robbing banks.

 

More information is available at Australian Dictionary of Biography, Online Edition, published by Australian National University

 

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