What others said
Like our document section, it would be impossible to catalogue every writer or historian’s view on the Kelly uprising. However, a few stand out from the overwhelming crowd. In this section, you’ll find some thoughtful insights on Ned and his Gang by Manning Clark, as well as interesting anecdotes and praise from scholars, intellectuals, and laypeople.
Major General Sir John Monash
W.W.1 A.I.F Commander
It was 1879, and the scene was the Jerilderie Bank robbery in New South Wales. Unnoticed that Monday was a Jerilderie storekeeper’s son on the last day of Christmas holidays from Scotch College, Melbourne. The storekeeper was Mr. Louis Monash, and his son was John Monash. In the coming century, John was to become one of Australia’s greatest statesmen and most eminent generals.
Looking back over fifty remarkable years, Sir John Monash told a journalist that, as a small boy of thirteen, he sat on his father’s verandah while the outlaws gathered their prisoners. Sir John says he has never been so overwhelmed in his life as when the formidable bushranger spoke a few words to him, and for many months he was the envy of his school as ‘the boy who talked to Ned Kelly’.
Professor Manning Clark
from A History of Australia
Ned Kelly had a remarkable influence on Australian history. During his lifetime, he left a lasting impression on people like John Monash, a bush lad from Jerilderie who became the Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Imperial Force during the First World War; J.B. Gribble, the missionary known as ‘the blackfellow’s friend’; Dr. Walter Richardson, father of novelist Henry Handel Richardson; and Isaac Isaacs, another bush boy who rose to serve as a High Court Judge and Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia.
Ned Kelly was a wild ass of a man, snarling, roaring and frothing like a ferocious beast when the tamer entered the cage. Mad Ireland had fashioned a man who consumed his vast gifts in an insensate war on property and on all the props of bourgeois civilisation – the police, the bankers, the squatters, the teachers, the preachers, the railway and the electric telegraph.
Ned Kelly became a legend during his own life and a key figure in the mythology of the bush – the bush as a place of mateship, equality, and the masculine virtues of strength. It was seen as the birthplace of traits that set Australians apart from other lands, a symbol of the fearless, free, and bold way of life that many aspired to.
Because he was elevated by bush folk and cultural nationalists to such grand heights — yet, paradoxically, he was a man who had murdered three policemen – historians, biographers, poets, playwrights, and film writers have struggled to separate fact from legend. They’ve also found it hard not to take sides – some portraying Ned Kelly as a mad dog bushranger, while others view him with pity, as a victim of his harsh environment.
Charles White
Author History of Australian Bushranging
Charles White spent his life collecting historical materials and writing a four-part history of early Australia for the readers of his newspaper, the Bathurst Free Press. He was born in Adelaide, South Australia, in 1848, into a religious family. His father was a lay preacher and newspaper proprietor. He moved with his family to Bathurst, where his father took over the Bathurst Free Press.
In time, Charles used the paper to publish his history of Early Australia as a serialisation. In 1890, he produced the eighteen-part historical account of the Kelly Gang titled The History of Australian Bushranging. While White’s writing is self-assured and arrogant, his account was one of the first to acknowledge the vital role played by the native troopers from the Queensland Police Force. Charles White died in Randwick, Sydney, in 1922.
Keep Ya Powder Dry
Alan Crichton likes to write, just take a look at our feedback and book sections. So seeing Alan’s got so much to say we at IronOutlaw.com decided to give him his own section. While I’m sure he’ll continue to fill up our feedback pages he’s now got somewhere else to bluff and bluster, namely right here at ‘Keep Ya Powder Dry’…
InterNed
InterNED featured regular instalments relating to people still involved in the Kelly story. Here you will read about experts, historians, authors, descendants, and others with interesting tales to tell about their connection with Ned. Compiled by Ben Collins, InterNED gave you an insight into the lives of people who were helping to keep the legend alive…
Captain Jack Hoyle
Captain Jack Hoyle (retired) appeared out of no where, caused a giant upheaval in the Kelly world and, just as quickly, disappeared back into the bush, never to be heard from again. But what Jack left behind were golden nuggets of wisdom and deep wells of thought – all aimed out our beloved Ned and the goings on back then and closer to now…