The Australian bushranger Ned Kelly is one of the country's more colorful folk heroes -- in some ways a bit of Jesse James in the American Wild West or Robin Hood in England's Sherwood Forest.
- The term "bushranger" is defined by the Macquarie Dictionary as "a bandit or criminal in colonial times who hid in the bush and led a predatory life."
Born in 1855 and the son of a convicted thief, Ned Kelly was a bandit who started off as a cattle rustler, ranged the countryside between Beechworth and Benalla in Victoria, robbed at least two banks, held townspeople hostage and was responsible (together with his gang) for the deaths of policemen in gunbattles.
Kelly's popularity
Ned Kelly scoffed at authority and led a criminal life but it seemed he had a degree of popularity among the townsfolk, especially the poor, in the communities he robbed.
There are stories of how he and his gang displayed horseriding skills while the town's policemen were confined in their jails, and how the Kelly gang even played cricket with the locals.
It seems his status as local hero has spread throughout the country.
Suited in armor
The most enduring image of Ned Kelly is that of a man suited in rough armor -- wrought from, no doubt stolen, iron plows -- and with his gang facing the superior force of police at the Glenrowan Inn in Glenrowan in 1880.
Facing wave upon wave of policemen, Ned Kelly was finally brought down when the police realised he could be felled by shooting at his unprotected legs.
The generally accepted story is that only he, of the Kelly gang, survived the shootout at Glenrowan which lasted well into the night.
- But there are stories emanating from Queensland that perhaps Ned Kelly's younger brother Dan and another gang member, Steve Hart, not only survived but escaped to Queensland.
Caught and bundled off to trial in Beechworth, Ned Kelly was hanged on November 11, 1880, in Melbourne Gaol. He was 25.
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