It
was a cold winter evening as two ladies awaited a special train at Essendon
station. The wind rustled the silk evening dresses they put on just a few hours
earlier. The dinner for which they were dressed had been uneventful, with the
usual people and the usual conversation, until the unexpected arrival of a
message for Sub-inspector Stanhope O’Connor. It stated that the Kelly gang had
shown themselves, murdering their friend-turned-betrayer, Aaron Sherritt, the
evening before - Saturday, June 26th, 1880. Word of the murder had
travelled slowly from the scene, where the police guards assigned to Sherritt
feared leaving his hut, to Beechworth, Benalla and Melbourne. But now,
twenty-seven hours later, the train was bringing O’Connor and his black
trackers back into Kelly country.
Mrs. O’Connor was an adventurous
spirit, happy to escape ordinary life. She had travelled from Flemington to
Benalla with her brother-in-law, Superintendent Nicholson, when he was stationed
there to search for the Kelly Gang. At that post, just over a year ago, she had
met O’Connor, swiftly and secretly marrying him. So she was delighted when she
read the message, and not only because it meant that the police were near
catching the villains. It presented her and her sister, Miss. Smith, with a
chance to travel to lovely Beechworth, before she caught the steamer to her new
home of unknown Queensland. O’Connor was unable to resist his pretty wife’s
request, and so they boarded at quarter-past ten, along with several
journalists. By daybreak they would be witness to one of the most famous events
in Australian history.
***
**** ***
They were blissfully unaware of the events occurring in Glenrowan, a small town they were set to pass through. The Kellys were waiting there, after forcing railway workers to rip up the line on a dangerous embankment corner past the town. They had anticipated that a special train of police would be sent, timing the attack over the weekend so no regular trains would be damaged. But this train was taking longer than expected, so they bailed up Mrs. Jones’s Glenrowan Inn which lay about a hundred feet from the station. Sunday was spent singing and dancing with the sixty-two prisoners they had arrested, and boasting of their plan to destroy the train and all aboard. Late that night they let some prisoners go, including the school teacher, Thomas Curnow, perplexed by the apparent lack of police response.
*** **** ***
And so the train continued on, ominous
dark shapes of the bush looming out at Mrs. O’Connor and Miss. Smith as they
travelled deeper into the country. They arrived at Benalla around one-thirty,
delayed by a small accident that caused the engine brake to be torn away and
startling all on board. Though Superintendent Hare was waiting for them with his
eight troopers and seventeen horses, their departure had to be delayed for about
thirty minutes while the damaged engine was replaced. As they waited a rumour
flew about that the line ahead was torn up or obstructed. Knowing the potential
catastrophe this could cause, an unfortunate constable was tied to the engine as
a lookout. Mercifully for him, it was decided instead that the original engine
would go first as a pilot and he was released.
A jittery panic had developed on the
train, though they appeared composed, dismissing the unreliability of rumours.
This pretence of calm disappeared when the pilot’s whistle blew and the train
slowed. The news quickly reached the carriage that it had been flagged down by
the Glenrowan schoolteacher, confirming the Kellys had destroyed the line. As
the lights of the train were extinguished the ladies’ fear increased,
realising the danger they had placed themselves in.
Only the eerie glow of the half-moon lit
the Glenrowan Inn and station. These stood away from the town proper, enclosed
by the dense bush. The two ladies made their way onto the platform amidst the
noise and bustle of police and their horses being unloaded, preparing to search
for the broken line. Their thin evening dresses and wraps offered little
protection against the near freezing country air, not having time to change in
the rush to leave. Looking toward the inn, they saw Constable Bracken arriving
at a frantic pace. Mrs. O’Connor moved closer to her husband to hear his
breathless advice: ‘Over there – the Kellys – not five minutes ago –
stuck us all up – the four of them – quick, quick!’ And so Superintendent
Hare led his men on.
Watching them go, Mrs. O’Connor and **Miss. Smith could make out the four figures encased in armour at the inn. They held their position defiantly, their crusade against the injustice dealt to their Irish brethren having brought them to this final standoff. ‘Fire Away, you beggars, you can do us no harm!’ they cried. In the first exchange of fire Hare was wounded on the wrist, and within a minute about sixty police bullets had hit the small wooden building. Hare retired to the station and though his injury was attended to, he could not return to the siege.
Meanwhile the Kellys’ armour proved effective against most shots aimed
at them, but didn’t protect them completely. In the first round Ned sustained
a flesh wound through his arm and a bad injury to his foot, Joe Byrne a leg
wound that he disregarded. The two ladies could observe that the police fire
came in volleys, at intervals of ten to fifteen minutes. On the other hand, with
the smoke from rifle fire mingling with the early morning fog, they could not
see the Kellys taking advantage of a break in fire to confer at the back of the
Inn.
Standing bravely at the station, Mrs. O’Connor and **Miss. Smith could hear cries of the women trapped inside the inn. A call from inside to cease-fire so that the prisoners could escape was only partially obeyed. Nowhere was totally safe from the bullets that hailed over the scene; even their refuge of the station was hit. O’Connor allowed the police free range to fire on the front rooms – information on the location of the prisoners being incorrectly relayed in the storm of battle. They observed with horror how some police aimed at women such as Mrs. Reardon, escaping the target of fire with a baby in her arms. At the station they tried to comfort and assist those who had fled the hellhole that was the Glenrowan Inn, guarded by the journalists who had travelled with them. They didn’t know it, but around five-thirty one bullet struck home, Joe Byrne being fatally shot as he made his final toast to the Kelly Gang.
As the sunlight began to creep through
the gumtrees, the sight of a man being carried toward them further shocked Mrs.
O’Connor and **Miss. Smith. His chest was covered in iron, his coat covered in
blood; the illustrious leader of the rebels was captured at last.
***
**** ***
A
half-hour earlier, around seven o’clock, Ned Kelly emerged from the protective
trees, shrouded in the soupy mix of fog and gun-smoke, beating his iron chest.
Several police concentrated their fire on him, only to see their bullets bounce
off. He approached, his wild firing caused by an injured hand. There was a call
to surrender, to which he declared ‘never while I have a shot left!’ Sergent
Steele arrived at the scene and promptly fired shots into his unprotected thigh.
This, combined with the massive weight of his armour and the vast amount of
blood lost, dropped him to the ground. His opponents rushed to remove his
helmet, identifying him. It took the threat of a bullet by Constable Bracken to
prevent Sergent Steele from killing Kelly immediately.
***
*** ***
After
he had been brought to the station Kelly confirmed that there were still many
prisoners left in the inn. It was ten o’clock when Mrs. O’Connor and **Miss.
Smith watched them stream out. The police called that they would cease-fire for
ten minutes, and inside the hotel Dan Kelly and Steve Hart also held their fire,
allowing the escape they themselves could not have.
Shortly before three o’clock the siege was at a standstill. Firing from the hotel had stopped, but Superintendent Sadleir
was suspicious of why. Not willing to risk his men’s lives to investigate, he
decided to burn the inn. A visiting priest ran into the burning building, and
returned saying that Joe Byrne, Dan Kelly and Steve Hart were all dead, and
there was a prisoner, Martin Cherry, alive but badly injured. Police and former
prisoners rushed forth and rescued Byrne’s body and Cherry but couldn’t
reach the others. The funeral pyre of the Kelly gang burned fiercely, and the
charred remains of Kelly and Hart were later retrieved from the ashes. Cherry
died soon after, with Jack Jones, aged thirteen, and George Metcalf other
civilian fatalities.
By the end a massive crowd had formed at
the station, watching the soon to be famous event. However Mrs. O’Connor and
**Miss. Smith, the original observers, did not stay to see the spectacular
conclusion. Instead they chose the safety of a train back to Benalla, leaving
Beechworth for another day.
Sources:
The main secondary sources used for this piece were Ian Jones’ ‘Ned Kelly: A Short Life’, William Joy and Tom Prior’s ‘The Bushrangers’, Keith Dunstan’s ‘Saint Ned: The Story of the Near Sanctification of an Australian Outlaw’’, Frank Clune’s ‘The Kelly Hunters’ and ‘J.J. Kenneally’s ‘The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers’. Brendan Kelson and John McQuilton’s ‘Kelly Country: a Photographic Journey’ was especially helpful with its images of the area today. In addition to this secondary material was John Sadleir’s ‘Recollections of a Victorian Police Officer’, Francis Hare’s ‘The Last of the Bushrangers: An Account of the capture of the Kelly Gang’ and articles from The Argus on the 28th and 29th of June, 1880. Finally, I also found the website http://www.glenrowan1880.com useful, particularly the two primary accounts on there, and a discussion on what phase the moon was in on that night.
Thank
you Emily for allowing me to upload this
terrific narrative for everyone
to
read. I can see why you received an 'A', well done.
Emily completed this for 'Reading and writing Australian History' at Monash
University.
It was good to know that this site was able to assist her in this project.
**The name 'Miss Smith' appears in this narrative as Emily had to hand in this
assignment before I was able to confirm with her that Miss Smith was really Mrs.
Webb.