Trains did not start to pass en masse until just before dawn, and I heard every one of them. We were up and on the road about 8 am, almost unheard of these days.
We turned off the Hume Freeway about ten kilometres after the Benalla exit, and on to the Midway Highway, bumping on down the sealed road through the most lovely rolling farmland, open woodland grazing beef stock and thousands of sulphur crested cockatoos. We pulled into the recreational area of Lake Nilahcootie, the dammed Broken River, the same camped beside at Casey’s Weir nearly a week ago. Unlike most of these reservoirs which have kept their drowned trees as souvenirs, still standing in the shallow water, this was clear of trees except for the southern end.
At the lake we met up with people travelling in the same direction as us, but by car on the way through to Melbourne to enjoy a week of wining and dining with friends. Chris and Yvonne have a caravan too and spend most of their caravanning time up in the Red Centre. We spent some time chatting with this lovely couple, who now live at Wangaratta, and found much in common. After exchanging email addresses and accepting a vague but future invitation to call on them when we are next passing, we each continued on our way.
Mansfield is only about sixty kilometres south of Benalla and is the gateway to the High Country around Mount Buller and Lake Eildon, with a population of about five thousand.
We made our way to this caravan park after calling in to the Information Centre. It is only ten years old, set up on seventeen acres of farmland, on the edge of town, complete with horses, cows and sheep grazing in the next paddock and ducks and swamp hens on and about the small lake. Unlike the only other park in town, this has spacious sites and more importantly, a lower tariff.
We set up camp and had an early lunch, then set out on our afternoon’s expedition, tracing further haunts of local bush rangers. The first was the Kelly Tree and Stringy Bark Creek, where Ned Kelly committed the crime for which he was eventually hanged, the murder of a policeman. In fact, he and his gang took out three policemen here, but the other murders were attributed to other members who met their demise at Glenrowan. Today, this lovely setting on the creek, thirty eight kilometres north of Mansfield in the Toombullup Range did not suggest that any historical horror had ever taken place, had it not been for the excellent descriptive panels. We had wound our way up into the mountain range, through cattle grazing country, then up a gravel road into the Toombullup Forest, a dense forest of tall stringy bark gums. As we made our way around the well-marked gravel path, some of it still wet and muddy from the recent rain, we were careful to avoid the mine shafts full to the brim with water. There were no other tourists here; we were alone except for the kookaburras.
We have traced the path of the Kelly exploits all through this area, an action that has in the process shown us the natural beauty the country. It seems that the intervening years have made Ned Kelly a hero, someone who had the guts to stand up to authority and thus became a champion or advocate for the underdog, particularly in a time when the authorities did treat a certain sector of the population so appallingly. But apart from the fact we now hand out welfare payments to these poor battlers, what really has changed over the intervening years? For myself, I see him as a ruthless criminal, an outlaw, who deserved everything he got, and have little sympathy for his background althlough I shall trouble myself here to precis these local bushranger stories:
Bushranger Lesson I:
1850 John “Red” Kelly, a twenty nine year old ex-convict from Ireland, married eighteen year old Irish born Ellen Quinn (six months pregnant) in Melbourne. They settled as dairy farmers at Wallan.
1854 The Kellys buy a small farm at Beveridge (south of Wallan). Edward “Ned” Kelly is born, the third of eight children, and the elder son.
1864 The Kelly move to a rented 40 acre dairy farm near Avenel.
1865 “Red” Kelly is found guilty of “having illegally in his possession one cow hide”, he begins six months hard labour in the Avenel lock up. Eleven year old Ned rescues a seven year old from the rain flooded Hughes Creek near Avenel. He is rewarded with a green-silk sash (that Ned later wears at his last stand). The sash is now displayed at the Benalla Museum.
1866 In December forty five year old “Red” Kelly dies from dropsy. Twelve year old Ned assumes responsibility for the large Kelly clan.
1867 The Kelly’s move to Eleven Mile Creek, near Great, to be closer to Ellen’s family, the Quinns.
1869 At fourteen, Ned is arrested for the first time for “assault and robbery”, with his charges later dismissed. By May, Ned is apprenticed to the popular bushranger Harry Power. Ned learns highway robbery and bushranging.
1870 Ned’s alliance with Power leads to his second arrest, this time for highway robbery, and for being Power’s accomplice. At Kyneton, Ned’s charges are dismissed, he is later (unfairly) blamed for Power’s capture (and fifteen year gaol sentence).
1871 Sergeant Constable Hall gives Ned a brutal pistol whipping while arresting him at Greta for riding a horse stolen from Mansfield. The actual thief, receives eighteen months gaol for “illegal use”, Ned gets three years hard labour (Beechworth Gaol, Williamstown and Pentridge)
1874 The now bearded 19 year old Ned returns to Greta to find his mother married to American George King, and his brother Jim, serving five years for “horse stealing”, sister Maggie married to family friend, William Skilling and older sister Annie dead after giving birth to an illegitimate daughter, possibly fathered by Greta Police Constable Flood. Ned settles down and finds work at a sawmill, near Moyhu.
1877 Ned and step-father George run a stock stealing outfit, aided by Joe Byrne, Aaron Skillett, Wright and “Brickey”Williamson. Police issue arrest warrants for Ned, his younger brother Dan and cousin John Lloyd Jnr, all for horse theft.
1878 On 15 April, new Greta constable Alexander Fitzpatrick, a man later described as “a liar and a larrikin”, rides to the Kelly homestead to arrest Dan for “horse theft” (without a warrant). A confusing brawl erupts, (later a drunken Fitzpatrick testifies Mrs Kelly assaulted him, and that Ned shot him in the foot. Fitzpatrick escapes to Benalla, Ned and Dan flee the scene. Next day, the Police return to arrest Mrs Kelly, her son-in-law Skilling and neighbour Brickey Williamson. On 9 October Mrs Kelly, Williamson and Skilling stand trial at Beechworth Courthouse for “attempted murder”. Mrs Kelly gets three years hard labour, Skilling and Williamson each receive six years. Ned and Dan offer to surrender if the police release their mother, the offer is refused and a police search gets underway. By sheer luck, on October 25 four police officers sent from Mansfield (Sergeant Kennedy and Constables Lonigan, Scanlon and McIntyre) camp at Stringy Bark Creek less than two kilometres from Ned’s and Dan’s hideout at Bullock Creek. Next day, the Kellys, joined by Joseph Byrne and Steve Hart, attempt to disarm the police and take their horses. Kennedy, Scanlon and Lonigan are killed. The Victorian Government posts a 2,000 pounds reward. On 9 December 1878 the Kelly Gang occupies Faithful’s Creek homestead, near Euroa. Next day, as Joe Byrne guards their prisoners, the Kellys and Steve Hart steal 2,000 pounds from the National Bank at Euroa, then escape as the police search.
1879 On 10 February the Gang steals 2,000 pounds from the Bank of New South Wales in the small isolated Riverina town of Jiriderie. Before fleeing, Ned leaves his now-famous 7,500 word “Jerilderie Letter” with the bank’s accountant, who promises to have it published. (The letter is not published until 1930) The Victorian and New South Wales Governments, and certain NSW banks, increase the gang’s reward to 8,000 pounds. Meanwhile, police informers, including Aaron Sherritt, camp in the Police Caves in the bush near Beechworth, to spy on the homes of Joe Byrne and other Kelly sympathisers.
1880 The Kelly Gang “disappears’ for seventeen months. Frustrated police lock up Kelly friends and relatives for months without trial, and draw up black lists of sympathisers to be barred from selecting land in NE Victoria, this fuels more local sympathy for the gang. Early in 1880, Ned decides his gang should wear protective armour. They forge four sets of crude armour, complete with helmets from plough boards. Police setup their informer Aaron Sherritt as a Kelly trainee, despite Sherritt being a friend of Joe Byrne and a Kelly gang sympathiser. The police hope the gang will break from hiding to kill Sherritt, giving them a chance to capture the outlaws. On 26 June Dan and Joe Byrne ride to Woolshed valley, near Beechworth, where Byrne shoots Sherritt dead. Meanwhile Ned and Steve Hart ride to Glenrowan, here they break up the railway line on a dangerous bend, then round up the townsfolk into Ann Jones’ Glenrowan Inn to wait the special police train (en route to avenge Sherritt’s murder). The police train approaches Glenrowan in the early hours of Monday 28 June. Glenrowan teacher, Thomas Curnow, earlier released by the gang, uses a candle and red scarf to warn the train driver of Ned’s ambush ahead. As the police lay siege to the Glenrowan Inn, the Ned Kelly dons its armour and opens fire. Within minutes Ned is badly wounded, he leaves to warn his supporters (wrongly summoned by a misfired signal rocket) of the police siege. Ned returns at dawn to rescue his gang, still trapped inside the Glenrowan Inn. After a remarkable half hour gunfight, police finally bring Ned down. Despite his armour, Kelly is riddled with twenty eight bullet wounds and near death, his gang dead. Police raze the Glenrowan Inn, then load Ned and Joe Byrne’s corpse onto a train for Benalla. Next morning, Kelly travels to Melbourne and is locked up in the Melbourne Gaol. Ned’s committal hearing is held in Beechworth on 2 August. Here he is formally charged with the murder of Lonnigan and Scanlon. Fearing growing public unrest, authorities relocate Kelly’s trial to Melbourne, to be heard on October 28 & 29. The jury returns a verdict of guilty for the murder of Constable Lonigan, Scanlon’s murder is never heard. A public campaign to save Ned gathers over 32,000 signatures on a petition for his reprieve. On 11 November 180, Ned Kelly dies on the gallows.
We returned to the Mansfield – Whitfield Road, and travelled on along the top of the range until we came to the turnoff for Powers Lookout, a reserve since 1886 covering 1,100 hectares. From this lookout perched up on a rocky outcrop, we had the most wonderful view up the King Valley, known for its wines and gourmet produce. It was here that a bush ranger by the name of Power kept watch for the law, and here we learned much more about this lesser known bad egg.
Bushrangers Lesson II:
Harry Power was one of Victoria’s most notorious bushrangers, committing over thirty crimes. History books are full of the exploits of the Kelly gang, but few know of the bushranger who taught the young Ned. The teenage Ned Kelly partnered Power on several hold-ups, and as his apprentice learnt how to escape the police and survive in the bush.
Harry Power, an excellent bushman and horseman, often eluded capture by disappearing into rugged terrain. He had several well-hidden camps scattered around the wild hill country that was his domain, including one near this lookout.
A fifty pound reward led Harry’s capture here on a dark and stormy night in 1870s.
Harry Power (also known as Henry Johnstone) spent thirty of his seventy two years in gaol. Born in Ireland in 1819, he was sentenced to seven years for stealing a pair of shoes and transported to Tasmania in 1840, aged twenty one.
Some time after his release he ventured to Victoria. In 1855 he was sentenced to eight years for horse theft and wounding a policeman with intent to do grievous bodily harm. Within a year of his release he was caught for horse stealing and sentenced to seven years on a road-gang.
In 1869, just a few months before his official release, Harry Power escaped. He remained at large for sixteen months as a bushranger. On his recapture, he was sentenced to fifteen years hard labour. He was released in 1885, aged sixty six years, having spent most of his adult life in gaol.
While in Pentridge gaol, Harry met Ned Kelly’s uncles, Thomas and John “Jack” Lloyd. The brothers were serving five years for cattle stealing. Soon after Harry escaped the road gang he visited the Lloyds who lived in the King Valley. The Lloyds introduced Harry to their brothers-in-law, John and James Quinn, criminals in their right.
The Quinn family homestead, Glenmore Station, the home of Ned Kelly’s grandparents, was located in the King valley below this lookout. Harry set up a permanent camp on this rocky outcrop with its natural vantage point and used some of his bushranger’s bounty to reward the Quinns (and others) for harbouring him.
Power conducted many robberies but a cash bounty was always small, often a few pounds or even shillings. Sometimes he took nothing if he thought the people could not afford it. Harry Power never killed anyone and it has been reported that he was always courteous to the women he held up.
But Power frequently took his victim’s horse – the transport of the day. This gave him a fresh mount and more time to get away before his victim could notify the nearest local constable or trooper.
After his release in 1885, Power worked for over five years as a tour guide on a ship that had once been his prison quarters. The prison hulk “Success”, moored in Port Philip Bay, was converted to a floating museum where people came to see what was described as a “living hell” for prisoners. Power, the infamous bushranger and former inmate, was its star attraction. Old Harry returned to north-east Victoria in 1891 when the “Success” was towed to Sydney.
Death came by drowning, in October 1891. A passing steamboat uncovered a body that turned out to be Harry Power. He apparently fell into the Murray River while drinking.
After having saturated ourselves with regard to bushranger folklore and history, we turned and retraced our route back to Mansfield.
No comments:
Post a Comment