If you are serious about visiting Kelly Country you’ll want to explore this amazing region for more than just a day. While Ned’s place in Australian history is assured, few plaques or icons mark the significant sites involved in the making of the legend. But that is not to say they do not exist. From Beveridge to Jerilderie, the numerous locations in between contain a wealth of attractions along with wineries, fine dining, hotels, motels, and bed & breakfasts.
Attractions
This section lists permanent and semi-permanent displays, art installations, museum pieces, library collections, and relevant Kelly artefacts available for viewing to the general public.
EAT AND DRINK
At the heart (well, stomach) of modern-day Kelly Country beats a thriving food and beverage industry. Here you will find some of Victoria’s most successful wineries, breweries, and dining experiences.
Accommodation
There are plenty of places to rest your head in Kelly Country. B&Bs, motels, hostels, inns, hotels, holiday stays, rentals, and cottages are all available for quality relaxation.
Beechworth
Half an hour northeast of Glenrowan, you will discover Beechworth, a town steeped in Kelly Gang history. Beechworth is a town of attractive granite buildings, wide tree-lined streets and many beautiful buildings on the National Trust register. Until gold was found in 1852, Beechworth was a grazing town; people arrived in droves, hoping to strike it rich. Town administrators knew the gold would not last forever and had the foresight to build a gaol, asylum, general hospital and a hospice for the aged. These maintained the economic strength of Beechworth. Little has changed along Ford Street since Ned Kelly rode from his home in Greta. Many people believe Ned would still recognise the streetscape and places he visited to shop for the family’s supplies. Beechworth was practically the Kelly’s hometown. Ned visited his friends; Joe Byrne, Aaron Sherritt, Isaiah ‘Wild’ Wright and many others. He drank at the local hotels – The Hibernian, Tanswell’s Commercial Hotel, the Empire Hotel, and the Nicholas Hotel- all still operating as they did during the era of the Kelly Gang. The Beechworth Historic Courthouse and the Beechworth Gaol were buildings the Kellys knew quite well. Today, Beechworth has many accommodation options, from caravan parks and motels to cottages and classy guest houses. Beechworth also boasts refined nature walks amongst its forests and trees, with many would-be adventurers able to fossick for precious stones or gold dust. The more seasoned traveller may choose the less strenuous option of exploring Beechworth’s numerous vineyards for a tasting treat and good conversation with the winemakers. Food-wise, Beechworth offers a range of great experiences and choices — you can enjoy a picnic in the gardens or by the lake, visit a café or hotel or indulge in an award-winning restaurant.
Glenrowan
Along the Hume Highway, forty-five kilometres from Benalla, is the site of the Kelly Gang’s last stand, Glenrowan. Named after pioneer pastoralists James and George Rowan, who occupied pastoral stations between 1846 and 1858 in the area between Winton and Glenrowan, north of the township are the Warby Ranges, which provide run–off for some agricultural pursuits and the filling of Lake Mokoan, east of Glenrowan. Formerly a swamp, the lake was artificially formed in 1970. The railway line through Glenrowan was opened in 1873, two years before town allotments were put up for sale and three years before the primary school was opened. In 1880, Glenrowan was the site of the siege of the Kelly Gang at Jones Hotel. The gang\’s leader, Ned Kelly, had calculated that police would be sent to the area by train because of the recent murder of Aaron Sherritt. Still, school teacher Thomas Curnow escaped from Jones Hotel and signalled the train to stop before it came to the part of the railway line that had been torn up to wreck the train. In the siege that followed, three of the four gang members were killed, and Ned Kelly was captured and brought to trial. Glenrowan thus acquired the reputation of being part of Kelly Country and has since opened two museums devoted to that subject, along with a tourist centre. While the Hume Freeway bypassed Glenrowan in 1988, motorists on the old Hume Highway and train travellers still pass through the township. Here, at the corner of Beaconsfield Parade and Siege Street, you’ll find the vacant block where the Ann Jones Inn once stood. Glenrowan retains none of the buildings that Ned Kelly would have known in his lifetime. However, the community have recently constructed a replica of the original railway station around the old railway platform. There is also a replica of the Kelly homestead behind Kate’s Cottage and a range of artefacts in the town’s various ‘museums’ or, more precisely, gift shops. Plaques around town denote where some of the events surrounding the siege transpired. While the siege site has little to offer the busy traveller, Kelly enthusiasts with active imaginations should find the area fascinating.
Euroa
On 10th December 1878, Ned Kelly, his brother Dan, and his mate Steve Hart held up the National Bank in Euroa, a brick building that was being rented from the local blacksmith. After first creating a base for the robbery three kilometres away at the Faithfull’s Creek homestead, the boys rode into town to collect 2260 pounds in notes and gold from the Bank’s safe after first cutting the telegraph lines from Melbourne to Benalla to prevent anyone alerting the authorities. Euroa then had a population of no more than 300, with an unpretentious National Bank building on the main street. Ned, Dan and Steve returned to Faithfull’s Creek to meet up with Joe Byrne, who had stayed behind to oversee the twenty-two ‘hostages’. Collecting Joe at the station homestead, they rode off again on fresh horses after entertaining the prisoners with an impromptu trick riding exhibition. A palm from that period remains while the original homestead is long gone. The Gang had just carried off, as their first exploit, the most perfectly planned and executed bank robbery in Australian bushranging history — without violence and leaving no enemies behind them. The Gang brought the bank staff to Faithfull’s Creek homestead, including the manager, his wife and seven children, mother-in-law, maid and nanny. Most were charmed by the polite, stylishly dressed outlaws. A hostile press was forced to hail the raid as a triumph while the police careered around in futile pursuit. The ‘Melbourne Herald’ noted that Sydney considered the affair ‘an awful disgrace to the Victorian police system’. At the same time, the ‘Melbourne Age’ described the operation as ‘daring and skillfully planned’. An artilleryman who was stationed in the town soon afterwards reported, ‘The people in the bank told me that except the robbers taking the money, they never offered the slightest insult to anyone. I also visited the Younghusband’s Station where Joe Byrne was sentry to over thirty persons while the others were in the bank and were told everywhere that the outlaws were undoubtedly police-made criminals.’ While the old bank building was demolished in the 1970s, Euroa still offers a good stopover, regaining some of its charm since the Highway bypassed the township. On display at the Farmers Arms Hotel Museum on Kirkland Avenue is Kelly Corner, open to the public on Wednesday and Sunday from 1 pm to 4 pm or by appointment.
Avenel
While Avenel was established along the old Hume Highway, the updated highway route now bypasses the outskirts of the town. Avenel is frequently stated as having been named for a village in Gloucestershire, England, by Henry Kent Hughes, who settled in the region in 1838, laid out the future town, and called the Hughes Creek, which flows through it. This same creek was where a young Ned Kelly saved a boy from drowning one morning on his way to school. Avenel was the hometown of Ned in his younger years, and his father, John ‘Red’ Kelly, is buried in the Avenel cemetery (under the road adjacent to his tome stone). Today, the town is home to many organisations, including several sporting clubs, while V/Line services between Melbourne and Albury maintain the railway station.
Beveridge
Beveridge was named after Scottish sheep farmer Andrew Beveridge who built the Hunters’ Tryste Inn in 1845. The Inn still serves as a hotel, post office and general store. Near Beveridge is Mount Fraser, an eroded extinct volcanic cone. It is a large scoria volcano with two craters, which last erupted about one million years ago. From this location, the explorers Hume and Hovell first saw Port Phillip in December 1824. A copy of the original Eureka flag flies atop this hill every year to commemorate Ned Kelly, as the town is principally known as the birthplace of Ned Kelly and his home for the first nine years of his life. As Ned’s birth was not officially recorded, it is possible he was born nearly in Wallan. Ned’s father, John ‘Red’ Kelly, owned a forty-one-acre farm near the Big Hill (now known as Mount Fraser). He sold his farm for eighty pounds and headed further north up the Old Sydney Road to Avenel in 1863. It is said that on the train heading south to Melbourne after his capture at Glenrowan in 1880, as he approached Beveridge Station, he pointed to the left and said, ‘See that little hill over there? That’s where I drew my first breath’ (‘The Age’, June 1880). The cottage where the Kelly family lived is still standing today on Kelly Street. John built this house in 1859 when Ned was about five years old. His brother Dan was born in the house. The house was added to the Victorian Register of Historic Buildings in September 1992. Its design is unusual in Victoria and shows the Irish heritage of its builder. The Primary School is a bluestone building where the Kelly family once went to church, and Ned went to school. Located on a hillside, this Gothic-style building was built between 1857 and 1862 as a Catholic church and a school.
Melbourne
The spirit of Ned Kelly is alive and well in and around Melbourne. With a range of permanent displays, exhibitions, and landmarks, evidence on the life of the Kellys can be found at St Francis Church, where Ned’s parents married; the State Library of Victoria, which holds his armour and the Jerilderie Letter; the Old Melbourne Gaol where Ned was hanged; and the Victorian Police Museum with their confiscated Steve Hart and Dan Kelly suits of armour which are on display like war trophies. Ned\’s influence is also felt in Melbourne’s inner suburbs, including Parkville’s Melbourne Cemetery, where characters like Judge Redmond Barry are dead and buried; Coburg’s Pentridge Prison, which until recently housed Ned’s bodily remains; and Williamstown, where Ned served time on the prison hulk ‘Success’.