The Kelly Gang.- Our Artist’s Smal…

Rare c.19th engraving depicting sketches at Glenrown.

Tensions had simmered for years in the rural districts around Greta and Beechworth, where selectors of Irish background, including the Kellys, frequently clashed with police over stock theft and alleged harassment. The crisis intensified in April 1878 when a police party went to the Kelly home at Stringybark Creek to arrest Dan Kelly on a horse-stealing charge. A confrontation followed in the Wombat Ranges during which three policemen were shot dead. Ned Kelly, his brother Dan, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart were declared outlaws, and a large-scale manhunt began.

Over the next two years the gang carried out a series of armed robberies, most notably at Euroa and Jerilderie, presenting themselves as political rebels protesting police corruption and class injustice. Byrne, the most educated member of the group, assisted Ned Kelly in drafting the Jerilderie Letter, a lengthy manifesto defending their actions and denouncing the authorities.

By mid-1880 the gang devised an ambitious plan to derail a special police train at Glenrowan, intending to capture hostages and perhaps spark a wider uprising. On 27 June 1880 they seized the Glenrowan Inn, owned by Anne Jones, and held residents captive while forcing local railway workers to tamper with the track. A schoolteacher, Thomas Curnow, escaped and warned the approaching train, preventing disaster.

Police surrounded the hotel before dawn on 28 June. During the prolonged siege heavy gunfire was exchanged. Joe Byrne, who had been drinking and was moving within the hotel, was shot in the groin by police fire through a gap in the building’s structure. He bled to death inside the inn during the night.