Who was Ned Kelly?
Edward ‘Ned’ Kelly was Victoria’s most infamous bushranger. He led a group of outlaws known as the Kelly gang in the late 1870s. For 18 months, while on the run from police, they robbed banks, took hostages, chopped down telegraph poles and destroyed part of a railway line.
Although finally hanged for fatally shooting three policemen, Kelly’s life and actions have been the subject of debate for more than a century. At the time of his trial, one fifth of Melbourne’s population signed a petition against his execution. Following his death, he has been both reviled as a criminal who robbed and killed, and celebrated as a heroic underdog who had the courage to challenge the authorities for perceived abuses of power. Today the question of whether Kelly was a criminal or a hero is still debated.
The Library is home to a variety of objects relating to Ned Kelly, and many that his notoriety inspired. We care for the Jerilderie Letter, as well as archival materials for Australian author Peter Carey’s novel, The True History of the Kelly Gang (2000). The Jerilderie Letter, which Carey describes as a ‘howl of pain’, is full of ringing phrases but also violence. Although its full contents weren’t made public until the 1930s, Kelly’s manifesto has endured and been adopted by various interest groups who have mobilised Kelly and his story for their own ends.
The Library is also home to the iconic iron armour he wore during his final altercation with the law, and it is on display in the Redmond Barry Reading Room.