Opinion remains divided on whether Ned Kelly (1854-1880) and his gang – brother Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne – were villains or saints, criminals or folk heroes. Certainly in the brief 2 year period of being outlawed they had both detractors and sympathisers (a great many, much of it from hostility to the police). They killed 3 police officers, planned to derail a train and to ambush the police aboard. They also killed a police informant and had records for stock theft and violence. Yet the phrase “As game as Ned Kelly” remains part of the Australian vernacular. His final battle with the police, emerging from the bush in the early morning mist wearing the armour he and the others had fashioned for themselves out of ploughs, is an image that even Hollywood would have been hard put to create.
Ned Kelly, on 10 November 1880, aged 25, the day before his execution.
Dan Kelly
Steve Hart
Joe Byrne
Kelly’s last stand.
According to journalist and sketch artist Tom Carrington, who was an eye witness:
With the steam rising from the ground, it looked for all the world like the ghost of Hamlet's father with no head, only a very long thick neck ... It was the most extraordinary sight I ever saw or read of in my life, and I felt fairly spellbound with wonder, and I could not stir or speak.
The following 2 items are about the Kelly Gang. . .
The Bush Rangers
Four horseman rode out from the heart of the range,
Four horseman with aspects forbidding and strange.
They were booted and spurred, they were armed to the teeth,
And they frowned as they looked at the valley beneath,
As forward they rode through the rocks and the fern -
Ned Kelly, Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne.
Ned Kelly drew rein and he shaded his eyes -
'The town's at our mercy! See yonder it lies!
To hell with the troopers!' - he shook his clenched fist -
'We will shoot them like dogs if they dare to resist!'
And all of them nodded, grim-visaged and stern -
Ned Kelly, Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne.
Through the gullies and creeks they rode silently down;
They stuck-up the station and raided the town;
They opened the safe and they looted the bank;
They laughed and were merry, they ate and they drank.
Then off to the ranges they went with their gold -
Oh! never were bandits more reckless and bold.
But time brings its punishment, time travels fast -
And the outlaws were trapped in Glenrowan at last,
Where three of them died in the smoke and the flame,
And Ned Kelly came back - to the last he was game.
But the Law shot him down (he was fated to hang),
And that was the end of the bushranging gang.
Whatever their faults and whatever their crimes,
Their deeds lend romance to those faraway times.
They have gone from the gullies they haunted of old,
And nobody knows where they buried their gold.
To the ranges they loved they will never return -
Ned Kelly, Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne.
But at times when I pass through that sleepy old town
Where the far-distant peaks of Strathbogie look down
I think of the days when those grim ranges rang
To the galloping hooves of the bushranging gang.
Though the years bring oblivion, time brings a change,
The ghosts of the Kellys still ride from the range.
Edward Harrington
The following lyrics are from the song Blame it on the Kellys, music by American poet Shel Silverstein and lyrics by another American, Waylon Jennings, who also sang it for the 1970 movie of Ned Kelly, starring Mick Jagger.
Hear it by clicking on:
Well worth a listen.
Someone stole old Banyon's pig. Blame it on the Kellys !
Pat McGavin's horse and rig. Blame it on the Kellys !
Someone robbed the Sydney mail, sacked the church and cleared the jail,
and if the ‘tater crop should fail – they'll blame it on the Kellys.
Blame it on the Kelly boys, blame it on the Kellys,
shame, shame upon the name, blame it on – the Kellys.
If anybody steals a horse, blame it on the Kellys !
Anybody breaks the law, blame it on the Kellys !
If anyone does something new, or does what you would like to do,
and if the troopers don't know who – they'll blame it on the Kellys.
Blame it on the Kelly boys, blame it on the Kellys,
shame, shame upon the name, blame it on – the Kellys.
They're posted up on every wall. Blame it on the Kellys !
There's no crime too great or small, to blame it on the Kellys !
They killed a thousand so they tell,
you know they're bound to burn in hell,
I think I'll steal a horse myself – and blame it on the Kellys.
Blame it on the Kelly boys, blame it on the Kellys,
shame, shame upon the name, blame it on – the Kellys.
Someone killed old Jim Divine. Blame it on the Kellys !
‘Twas a dark and deadly crime. Blame it on the Kellys !
Someone killed old Jim Divine, we don't know the place or time,
Poor old man was a hundred and nine –
But blame it on the Kellys !
Blame it on the Kelly boys, blame it on the Kellys,
shame, shame upon the name, blame it on – the Kellys.
Them old lazy cows gone dry. Blame it on the Kellys !
Something made the baby cry. Blame it on the Kellys !
What's that you say, what's that you say?
Someone robbed the bank today
And though they were twenty miles away,
We'll blame it on the Kellys.
Blame it on the Kelly boys, blame it on the Kellys,
shame, shame upon the name, blame it on – the Kellys.
It hasn't rained in seven months. Blame it on the Kellys !
Sister Peggy's having fun. Blame it on the Kellys !
Your sister, Peg, has had her fun, but I fear that she's been badly done.
She's bulging out a bit in front. Blame it on the Kellys,
Blame it on the Kelly boys, blame it on the Kellys,
shame, shame upon the name, blame it on – the Kellys.
Landlord he closed down the mill. Blame it on the Kellys !
And not a word to my woman's ilk. Blame it on the Kellys !
Late last night when all was still,
Who crept over the windowsill?
He left us bread and he left us milk.
Blame it on the Kellys,
Blame it on the Kelly boys, blame it on the Kellys,
shame, shame upon the name, blame it on – the Kellys.
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