Jerilderie hopes Ned Kelly link will help it get out of jail
Denis Gregory
19 January 2003
The Sun-Herald
source smh.com.au

A town once held hostage by Ned Kelly has asked the State and Federal governments for more than $1.6 million to promote the legendary bushranger in a bid to revive its fortunes.

Jerilderie, population 870, is concerned about its future and believes Ned Kelly is the best person to generate economic benefits from tourism.

Jerilderie Shire general manager Charles Gentner said marketing research showed Don Bradman was number one in the national icon stakes, with Ned Kelly second and Phar Lap third.

Mr Gentner said: "We want to stop between 10 and 20percent of travellers through here to get them to spend money in the town and we want to attract overseas visitors as well, so we've chosen Ned to lead a tourism-driven economic recovery.

"It's also an opportunity for drought-stricken farmers to look at other ways to make some money. We believe the extensive research we've done justifies going down this track, even though Ned Kelly was not everyone's favourite."

In February 1879, Kelly and his gang, brother Dan and friends Joseph Byrne and Stephen Hart, rode into Jerilderie at night, locked the police officers in their own cells, took their uniforms, rounded up every person in town and held them prisoner.

They robbed the bank before galloping away singing. Four months earlier, Kelly had shot three of four police officers sent to track him down.

In June 1880, after unsuccessfully trying to derail a train, he and his gang holed up in the Glenrowan Inn where again they had taken some of the town's residents prisoner.

After a 12-hour gun battle ending with police setting fire to the building, Ned Kelly was wounded and captured and the other three shot dead. Ned was hanged in Old Melbourne Gaol on November 11, 1880.

Jerilderie, which boasts that it's the only town in the world that's been totally held up by outlaws, has 16 different sites with connections to Ned Kelly, including police horse stables, the courthouse, the Royal Hotel and a printing shop where he tried to get his manifesto, known now as the Jerilderie Letter , published.

Mr Gentner said Jerilderie wanted to employ two economic development officers to implement the plan and to sell a Ned Kelly trail, produce plaques and brochures and look at other products like effigies of Ned that would bring money to the town.

"We don't want to set up a Disneyland," he said. "We just want to ensure the original buildings that were here in Ned's time are maintained and can be opened to the public to see, because they're a part of history which is significant in Australia."