Media Release

Ned Kelly is Reconstructed at the State Library!

Media are invited next Monday 15 November 2004 to the installation of Ned Kelly’s armour in a new permanent exhibition at the State Library. The free exhibition, The changing face of Victoria will open at the State Library of Victoria’s Dome Gallery on Friday 26 November.

The armour worn by Ned Kelly at the siege of Glenrowan on 28 June 1880, will be assembled by Library conservation staff on a support stand and then placed in a showcase.

After Kelly’s execution, senior police officials feared another confrontation with his numerous sympathisers, and some wanted the armour destroyed. Others argued it would be a perfect exhibit for a police museum. This suit of armour is an important feature in the Library’s collections and is in its most complete state since the siege. The new exhibition will for the first time enable the Library to permanently display this popular historical icon.

When the exhibition opens the pistol of Kelly’s mentor, fellow bushranger Harry Power will be on display along with Kelly’s death mask, a range of Kelly culture items and original photographs of the siege.

The changing face of Victoria exhibition looks at some of the people, places and events that have shaped life in Victoria during the past 200 years. The State Library of Victoria’s unique collections reveal these stories through treasures such as the Batman Deeds, the last notes of Burke and Wills, the art of Aboriginal elder Barak and some of the earliest photographs of Melbourne.

The exhibition opens in two stages:

Stage One opens 26 November 2004 (including Early Years, Rural Victoria and Ned Kelly)

Stage Two opens March 2005 (including Marvellous Melbourne, Victorians at War and 20th Century Collections and Stories).