In Discussion

  What people believe about what happened at Stringybark Creek can be predicted by what they think of Ned Kelly. If they think he was a wrongly accused and persecuted selector they think killing three Policemen at SBC was self defence and they got what they deserved. Everyone else thinks differently. But when it comes […]

Just so that everyone understands why I keep calling the CSI Report Pseudoscience, I will illustrate the weakness of their argument where it relates to this Photograph, one of the two famous photographs of the actual place where Lonigan and Scanlan were killed, at the site of the Police encampment at Stringybark Creek. This extraordinary […]

The news article that Sharon drew to our attention the other day, about a plan to ‘upgrade’  the Police Killing Ground at Stringybark Creek, says that ‘the Police and other stakeholders’ were consulted, and as a result a plan for a new walkway and new ‘signage’ was developed for activation later this year. ‘‘The project includes the construction […]

Ellen Kellys life was different from the thousands of other Irish immigrant women who settled in Victoria in the 19thcentury because of one thing : she gave birth to Ned Kelly, an Australian with a combination of social and character traits that resulted in him becoming a notorious outlaw. If it hadn’t been for Ned […]

Ten days before he was hanged Ned Kelly claimed that ill treatment and persecution of his family by Police were what drove him to behave as he did. He wrote :  “If my lips teach the public that men are made mad by bad treatment, and if the Police are taught that they may exasperate […]

Beechworth Street and Gaol, 19th century According to the innumerable descendants of the Kelly family and the Kelly gang members, their supporters and most of the authors of books, songs plays and films about Ned Kelly, he was a ‘Police made’ criminal. By this it is meant that Ned Kelly was an honest man who […]

If the defenders of Ned Kelly ever point to what they think is actual evidence of Police corruption and the unfair persecution of Ned, the incident they are most likely to refer to is the one where they say, for being caught riding a horse someone else had stolen, Ned got double the sentence that […]

Ned Kelly often robbed people at gunpoint : its a terrifying experience for the victim.  I ended the last Post with these words “What has to be accepted, because that is what all the evidence shows, is that at least while Red Kelly was alive, his family were not the victims of Police persecution, or […]

I recently watched on DVD a debate that took place as part of the Ned Kelly Weekend in August, 2006. The subject for debate was “That Ned Kelly is an inappropriate hero for Australia” and the voice over on the DVD said there was a capacity crowd of more than 400 in attendance crammed into […]

The headline in the Australian of last weekend, January 14th 2017 said it all : “Kelly Gang descendants at war over bushranger lore and legacy” This article referred to the fact that since the Weekend Australian had published ‘that photo’ and an article about it a month before, “the letters page of The Ovens and […]