JOHN HARBER PHILLIPS 2003 KERFERD ORATION: Ned Kelly and the North-Eastern Victorian Republican movement.

A Critique of the 2003 Kerferd Oration by John Harber Phillips This lecture, delivered 21 years ago by John Phillips, former Chief Justice of Victoria, now deceased, argued that the evidence was strong that in 1880 there was a North Eastern  Victorian Republican Movement, and it was led by Ned Kelly. In 2003 there was […]

THE FINAL WORD ABOUT ROCKETS

To relieve anyone interested in the discussion about Rockets of the necessity to wade through over 200 comments about them in the Facebook thread, here is a summary and the final word.   A single person, Constable Arthur claimed two rockets “one small one large” were fired during the siege at Glenrowan, from somewhere between […]

The Problems with Rockets

The blinkered Kelly cult members on BBM are wetting the bed over David Duftys  entirely plausible suggestion that what Const. Arthur reported as rockets in the sky above Glenrowan on the night of the siege was actually an emission of sparks that spontaneously discharged themselves from the train waiting at the ready at the station. […]

Two big questions from Bill’s big book: Were there any Kelly links to political movements, and did James Wallace have a hand in writing the Jerilderie letter?

This post is Part 7 of a review of Bill Denheld’s Ned Kelly – Australian Iron Icon: A Certain Truth (2024), by Stuart Dawson. As before, bracketed numbers, e.g., (xx), refers to pages in Bill’s book. Were there any Kelly links to political movements? Bill presents a flow chart showing links between the Gorman family, […]

Sympathiser numbers: Bill says there were thousands of them! Part 6 of a review of Bill Denheld’s ‘A Certain Truth’ by Stuart Dawson

This post is Part 6 of a review of Bill Denheld’s Ned Kelly – Australian Iron Icon: A Certain Truth (2024), by Stuart Dawson. As before, bracketed numbers, e.g., (xx), refers to pages in Bill’s book. Sympathiser numbers Bill disputes two comments in my Republic Myth book: first, that I said that the Kelly gang […]

Part Four of Stuart Dawsons analysis of Bill Denhelds big new book ‘A certain Truth.’ Bill says that the Gang didn’t ambush the police at SBC…..

This post is Part 4 of a review of Bill Denheld’s Ned Kelly – Australian Iron Icon: A Certain Truth (2024), by Stuart Dawson. As before, bracketed numbers, e.g., (xx), refers to pages in Bill’s book. Bill disputes my description of Stringybark Creek as an ambush by defining ‘ambush’ as “a surprise attack by people […]