In Discussion

This is my first Blog post for 2019, and will be brief because I am on holiday and so, apart from a couple of books on my Kindle, I don’t have access to my Kelly library, the resource I often turn to when writing something more serious. Instead I’ve been thinking about what 2019 might […]

The National Trust have focused on Ned Kelly for this year’s summer school holiday program (22 December 2018 to 29 January 2019), and I went along on opening day to have a look. It was a rare opportunity to check out the Law Courts building’s main court, which is not normally open, but is open […]

My year in the Kelly scene started dramatically enough in January 2018, with a threat of blackmail by a notorious right-wing troll who declared that he would ruin my career and try to get me deported if I didn’t remove everything I have ever written on the Internet about Ned Kelly and promise never to […]

In part One of this discussion I discussed the claim made by Ned Kelly that he became a criminal because of the treatment that he and his family received at the hands of police. The problem with that claim is that when it was examined by the Royal Commission in 1881 they found no evidence […]

I was asked that question the other day, and after giving it some thought decided to make my answer into a post about Ned Kelly and the origins of his criminality. I am going to spell out my solution to the dilemma that the mythology of Ned Kelly creates, and explain why I believe the […]

Some of the pro-Kelly Facebook pages have posted a link to an online article about Harry Power. I am not sure why this article appeared – the claim it’s the anniversary of his death is not correct because according to Corfield he died on 11thOctober 1891. But whatever the reason for the article, Harry Powers […]

The latest in the endless stream of books about the Kelly story has just come to my attention. It’s a photographic travel guide, only the third that I have seen, the other two being the elegant “Photographic Journey” by Brendan Kelson and John McQuilton, and the hopeless and forgettable “Introduction to Ned Kelly” by Jack […]

When it comes to the words of Ned Kelly, why do we often read “I am a widows son, outlawed, and my orders must be obeyed” but almost never read “I will not exactly show them what cold blooded murder is but wholesale and retail slaughter, something different to shooting three troopers in self-defence and […]

On the 138thanniversary of Ned Kellys execution, it’s an appropriate time to once again discuss the mythology that is promoted about his trial. It ended on October 29th with Ned Kellys conviction for the murder of Constable Thomas Lonigan, and the sentence of Death was carried out twelve days later, on November 11th1880. Just last […]

(This is a guest post contributed by Stuart Dawson, who recently set out to investigate and tackle an unresolved question in the Ned Kelly commentary. It is posted here to encourage feedback for correction and improvement. It is intended to be part of a future, longer research article on Ned Kelly’s Last Stand.)   Did […]