Ned Kelly and the Myth of a Republic of North-Eastern Victoria
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Ned Kelly and the Myth of a Republic of North-Eastern Victoria Stuart E. Dawson Department of History, Monash University Ned Kelly and the Myth of a Republic of North-Eastern Victoria Dr. Stuart E. Dawson Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Published by Dr. Stuart E. Dawson, Adjunct Research Fellow, Department of History, School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, 3800. Published June 2018. ISBN registered to Primedia E-launch LLC, Dallas TX, USA. Copyright © Stuart Dawson 2018. The moral right of the author has been asserted. Author contact: [email protected] ISBN: 978-1-64316-500-4 Keywords: Australian History Kelly, Ned, 1855-1880 Kelly Gang Republic of North-Eastern Victoria Bushrangers - Australia This book is an open peer-reviewed publication. Reviewers are acknowledged in the Preface. Inaugural document download host: www.ironicon.com.au Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs This book is a free, open-access publication, and is published under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence. Users including libraries and schools may make the work available for free distribution, circulation and copying, including re-sharing, without restriction, but the work cannot be changed in any way or resold commercially. All users may share the work by printed copies and/or directly by email, and/or hosting it on a website, server or other system, provided no cost whatsoever is charged. Just print and bind your PDF copy at a local print shop! (Spiral-bound copies with clear covers are available in Australia only by print-on-demand for $199.00 per copy, including registered post. Payment is strictly by bank deposit in advance. Email the author for details and order information including pro-forma invoice.) Donate! Adjuncts are unpaid researchers. This book has cost around $2400 in books and resources, travel, photocopying, phone calls, and numerous draft printings over several years. Anyone wishing to support the author’s research in 2018-19 may gift a non-refundable direct deposit to BSB 013355, Acc. 507593247. Donations will be used to support ongoing research into Kelly history as above and are not tax-deductable. Disclaimer: URL references to third party websites are provided in good faith and for information purposes only. No responsibility can be accepted for the content of any third party website referenced in this work. Cover illustration: “A SEARCH PARTY IN THE WOMBAT RANGES”. Engraving by Samuel Calvert, from The Illustrated Australian News (Melbourne: David Syme & Co.), 21 February 1879. Source: State Library Victoria. The design layout of this book is intended to facilitate comb or spiral binding of PDF copies. iv Contents Preface vii Introduction: Ned Kelly and the myth of a Republic of North-Eastern Victoria . 1 The legend of a declaration document . 2 Kelly’s letters during his outlawry . 6 The “Euroa letter” to Donald Cameron, December 1878 . 6 Kelly’s letter to the Acting Chief Secretary, January 1879 . 7 The “Jerilderie letter”, February 1879 . 7 Kelly’s letter to NSW Premier Parkes, March 1879 . 10 The lost letter to the Herald of July 1879 . 10 Kelly’s reported statements . 11 The theory of disaffected selectors and social unrest . 12 The theory of Irish rebels . 14 Misrepresentations of Kelly’s sympathisers and the police . 17 The myth of “Kelly country” . 18 The Kelly gang’s intimidation of the North-Eastern District . 19 The arrest and remand of Kelly sympathisers . 20 The theory of blacklisted selector rebels . 22 Oral tradition and the “Kelly republic” . 24 Kelly ballads and folk songs . 26 Claims of secret republican meetings . 26 Legal colonial regional separation movements . 29 The showdown at Glenrowan . 29 Kelly’s alleged meeting with a sympathiser army . 31 The problematic Glenrowan siege timeline . 31 The timeline after Kelly’s escape from the Inn . 34 Did Kelly return to the Inn during the siege? . 35 The claim of a phantom army . 38 Could the Kelly gang have equipped a rebel army? . 42 Sympathisers inside the Glenrowan Inn . 43 The end of the Glenrowan siege . 44 Reality check . 46 The historical causes of sympathiser unrest . 47 Kelly’s interviews, statements and letters after capture . 50 The manufactured “interview” with Kelly in the Beechworth gaol . 51 Kelly’s courtroom defence and post-sentencing dialogue . 51 Kelly’s Condemned Cell letters . 52 Why did the republic theory gain credence? . 54 The mythologising of Edward “Ned” Kelly . 55 Conclusion: The fall of the Kelly republic . 57 Bibliography . 60 Appendix to pp. 32-34: Approximate Glenrowan siege timeline to finding Kelly’s rifle and cap 64 Index and Addendum: a visual colour comparison of the Euroa and Jerilderie letters . 65 v Preface This is not another retelling of the Kelly gang story. It is a close examination of a longstanding claim, first made and promoted by influential Kelly historian Ian Jones from 1967 onwards, and furthered by many since, that Ned Kelly and his gang had planned to establish a republic in north-eastern Victoria, with the active support of a large number of selector farmers. Although the claim has permeated much popular and academic work on Kelly since the 1980s, it has no historical evidence to support it, and much to contradict it. It has nevertheless managed to find its way into a significant number of Australian historical works virtually unchallenged, and to worm its way into material supporting Australian history curricula. This investigation set out to comprehensively review the claim, which it definitively rejects. It traces and reveals the origin and construction of the Kelly republic myth. The claim is exposed as a complex historical fiction. The story provides a fascinating insight into how large numbers of people are willing to accept uncritically what they think (or wish) might have been true, or to accept dubious propositions, with no evidence, about what was “undoubtedly” the case, in a similar way to that in which we willingly lose ourselves in a good fiction story, based on the seeming plausibility of its narrative. The context of the Republic myth The Kelly outbreak was triggered in April 1878 by the attempt of Constable Fitzpatrick to arrest Ned Kelly’s brother Dan at their mother’s house for horse stealing. Fitzpatrick was wounded in the subsequent affray, and warrants were urgently sworn against Ned, for attempted murder, and against Dan, Mrs Kelly, and two associates, Bill Skillion and “Bricky” Williamson, for abetting. Ned and Dan fled for the bush the same night. The others were arrested over the following night and remanded for trial. On 9 October 1878 they were sentenced and gaoled. On 26 October Ned and Dan with two others, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart – the “Kelly gang” – ambushed a police search party at Stringybark Creek, killing three troopers – Michael Kennedy, Thomas Lonigan, and Michael Scanlan – while a fourth, Thomas McIntyre, escaped to tell the tale. Wanted for murder and outlawed, in December 1878 the gang held up the National Bank in Euroa, and, in February 1879, the Bank of NSW in Jerilderie. In both cases the gang rounded up numerous locals and held them prisoner during the raids, threatening them with dire retribution should they assist the police in their enquiries. On both occasions Kelly wrote letters – now infamous – protesting his and other’s past innocence, and demanding the release of his mother and friends. Hard to catch in the vast, sparsely populated ranges, the gang were assisted with supplies and information by a considerable number of “sympathiser” families, mostly related by marriage and often at odds with the law. In early January 1879 the police arrested and held 23 men thought to be actively aiding the outlaws, nine of whom were held for nearly three months, until increasing protests that their ongoing remand violated the principle of Habeas Corpus caused their release. The police also implemented a policy of blacklisting known sympathisers from acquiring land principally in parts of the north-east likely to facilitate cross-border horse theft, a policy that was well received by the majority of law-abiding selectors. Kelly enthusiasts have argued to the contrary, that the remanding and blacklisting swung a large body of north-east selectors to side with and support the outlaws against the authorities. As many were of Irish extraction, it has been held that Kelly himself had a republican heart, and planned to lead a republican selector rebellion triggered by the wrecking of a police train at Glenrowan in June 1880 and the massacre of any survivors. Then he and his followers would live fearless, free and bold in their Republic of vii North-Eastern Victoria; as Jones put it, “proclaiming that the law of Queen Victoria no longer held sway in the north-east”.1 As will be seen, many have fallen down the same rabbit hole. Historical myths are remarkably common, and die hard. Think of the legend of the mahogany ship, for example.2 I hope you enjoy the journey of historical myth-busting to which the Kelly republic theory is subject here. I have addressed some other widespread Kelly myths elsewhere, in academic papers on the Fitzpatrick incident, Ned Kelly’s last words, and Kelly’s accidental shooting of a labourer before the Glenrowan siege. These articles are listed in the bibliography, and are available free from the internet. Readers interested in Kelly history may also enjoy a free PDF transcription of the text of G.W. Hall’s rare 1879 book, The Kelly Gang, or The Outlaws of the Wombat Ranges, with original pagination, available online from www.ironicon.com.au Free, open access to research output is still limited, but has rich potential. Most commercially published books, including academic books, end up remaindered or pulped within a year, their content rarely seen outside the limited confines of a few university libraries.