Ned Kelly
The Australasian Sketcher was first published in Melbourne in 1873, continuing at first monthly and then fortnightly until 1889.
On June 28, 1880 the twenty-six year old bushranger, Ned Kelly, was finally taken after police laid siege to Kelly and his gang at the Glenrowan Hotel. On July 3, The Australasian Sketcher published as its front cover what is probably the most famous image of Kelly, as he is shown in his armour, firing at the police before his own wounding and capture (ASK0829 Ned Kelly at Bay). Inside, along with its reporting of the incident, the same edition also carried two omnibus pages showing a number of the artist’s impressions of the encounter (ASK0825, ASK0826).
The story develops over the following fortnight. The Sketcher’s cover of July 17 is entitled The Wake at Greta (ASK0824). The bodies of two of the gang killed at Glenrowan, Ned’s brother Dan and Steve Hart, were given over to friends for burial and removed to Greta. The report continues: “The remains were laid on a table in Mrs. Skillian’s hut, which was soon crowded. So great was the crush that Mrs. Skillian lost her temper, and seizing a gun hustled the crowd out, and then allowed them to view the remains in couples. Many of the male sympathisers were armed, and whilst in a drunken state professed to be anxious for a brush with the police. It is further averred that one of the relatives of the Kellys held up his hand over the remains, and swore to Kate Kelly (Ned’s sister, shown kneeling) that he would avenge the slaughter of the gang.”
The July 17 edition also contained portraits of Joe Byrne and Steve Hart above a scene of dancing, instigated by the bushrangers, at the hotel on the night before the siege (ASK0828). Some seventy people were taken hostage by the gang but were released, before the siege reached its bloody climax and the hotel was burnt down. On June 26, Byrne and Dan Kelly went to the hut of Aaron Sherritt, erstwhile friend of Byrne’s and an associate of the gang but by then a police informer. Calling Sherritt from the hut on a pretext, Byrne shot him down. Despite a police presence in the hut, Byrne and Kelly made good their escape; two days later both men were dead at Glenrowan. Sherritt’s hut is shown in two of the drawings, one a plan of the attack on Sherritt, of ASK0835. Sherritt’s portrait, not shown in the collection below, is also available from the July 17 edition (ASK0823).
By the time of the July 31 edition, more details were available. The schoolmaster at Glenrowan, Mr. Curnow, escaped from the bushrangers and during the night made his way along the railway, to warn the special train carrying reinforcements from Melbourne that it was in imminent danger of wreck, because the outlaws had taken up part of the track (ASK0837). Anticipating the manoeuvre a pilot engine was sent ahead up the line in advance of the main train. ASK0836 shows the interior of the press carriage attached to the special train. Interestingly, but for the title, the portrait of Kelly (ASK 0832), is not that of a desperado.
In custody, his three bushranging companions destroyed, Kelly was eventually removed to Melbourne to face trial. The cover of The Australasian Sketcher of August 14 shows Kelly before his accusers (ASK0827). In order to satisfy the legal requirements relating to jurisdiction, Kelly was taken back to Beechworth to be formally charged. ASK0830 shows him seated in the guard’s van of the train specially organised for that purpose.
On October 29, 1880 Kelly was found guilty of the murder of Constable Lonigon two years before in October, 1878 and sentenced to hang. His execution took place at the Melbourne Gaol on November 11, 1880, at 10.00am (ASK0831).
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