Sympathy

SYMPATHY FOR THE KELLYS: A FAMILY AFFAIR

BY SHARON HOLLINGSWORTH

The Nolan family have always been in sympathy with the Kellys. From
Mick Nolan in the era when Ned walked the earth down to Mick's
great-grandson and namesake, (who at one even time portrayed Ned at
the Kellyland Animated Theatre in Glenrowan), the gang have always
held their allegiance.

The Kelly Gang had many trusted sympathizers, they would not have been
able to have been so free for so long without the aid of family
(including sisters Maggie and Kate, and cousin Tom Lloyd Jr, the
Providor) and close friends. Amongst those friends were the
aforementioned Nolans. The father, John Nolan was a prosperous and
successful farmer who had selected 320 acres of land adjoining Greta
Swamp at Laceby. Of his many children, three of them, John (Jack),
Michael (Mick) and Daniel (Dan) were quite active in the Kelly cause,
having gone to school with the Kelly boys and later joining the Greta
Mob. The trio were called "well known friends of the outlaws" by
Superintendent Nicolson in a confidential memo to Commissioner
Standish. One of them was even called the gang's "greatest
sympathizer" and "one of their principal spies" by Superintendent
Hare.

Mick Nolan is probably the member of the family that most of us are
familiar with as he was allegedly the one who accompanied Maggie
Skillian and Tom Lloyd Jr. to Melbourne in June of 1879 to buy
ammunition for the gang from Rosier's gun shop. In a police telegram
it states:

"Mick Nolan of Greta answers description of man who purchased
ammunition. He went down from Glenrowan same train with Lloyd. Do not
cancel warrant for him.."

[Telegram..Courtesy of PROV]

John Molony goes into depth with this account of the proceedings:

"In June Maggie, Tom Lloyd and Mick Nolan went to Melbourne where they
stopped at the Robert Burns Hotel in Lonsdale Street. The three
visited Sandridge on two occasions, which was an innocuous enough
pastime, but the detectives detailed to keep surveillance over them
had one ominous report. Mick Nolan went to Rosiers, the gunsmith in
Elizabeth Street, and there he bought 200 Martini-Henry rifle
cartridges, 200 Webley revolver cartridges and ordered a further 200
Spencer revolver cartridges. His explanation for the acquisition of
such an impressive amount of ammunition was that he was leaving for
New Zealand, where he had a brother, but to what purpose he proposed
to address his purchases was never stated. The evening Herald of 14
June gave due prominence to the arrival in the city of the trio, so
they quickly disappeared with warrants being sworn for Tom and Mick's
arrest. Two detectives boarded the train taking Maggie and Tom back
home, but found no trace of the bullets and Mick was nowhere, although
it could safely be assumed that his cargo never reached New Zealand
but that it found its way to the northeast. That at any rate was the
considered deduction of Standish."

Other accounts have it as Tom and Mick going to the shop and yet
others have it as all 3 of them going and saying that "they were going
on a shooting trip on the Phillip and French Islands in Western Port."
Still all the accounts agree that by the time the police searched the
train that the friend of Maggie and Tom's had already gotten the ammo
safely back to Kelly country.

[Rosier's advert..Courtesy of Greg Young]

Another adventure involving one of the Nolans in which the "greatest
sympathizer" tag was given was talked about in the Royal Commission by
Superintendent Hare. Hare related about a search party he was leading
that was sent out to investigate the sighting of four horsemen,
presumably the Kellys, seen travelling near a certain area. This is
part of what he had to say:

"We started away about seven o'clock from Benalla, and instead of
going in the direction of the place we were going to, we took the
opposite direction, following the advice of my informant, as given in
that memo. I have read. The direct course would have been through
Greta and straight to the house, instead of that I went in another
direction, as if going over the Warby Ranges . When I got on the road
that runs at right angles to the road we were going, that is from
Glenrowan to the station owned by Mr. Newcomen, some of my men saw a
man they recognized as one of the greatest sympathizers of the Kellys,
a man named Nolan. I was at the head of the party. We were going
through settled country between fences; we had not gone into the
mountains. One of the men cautered [sic] on to where I was riding and
said, 'Mr. Hare, we have just passed that fellow Nolan.' I said, 'All
right.' This was on the Sunday. I said, 'That is all right, he cannot
do us any harm, because we are going in the opposite direction we
intend to go to search to morrow.'

Later in the text when they arrive at the location and he questions
the homeowner:

"Have you any strangers in the house?'' He hesitated a moment, and
said 'Yes.' I said, 'Who are they?' very quickly, and he said, after
hesitating for a moment, 'A man by the name of Nolan.' I rushed into
the house and called to the men at the back to come up, and we
searched the house thoroughly. We searched the place. I saw Nolan, and
said, 'Hullo, Nolan, what brought you here?' I knew him. I had bought
a horse a few days before from him for the Government. He said he
thought the outlaws were going to steal it, so he sold it. I said,
'Why did you come?' And he said, 'I came to warn the people of the
district about a funeral that was going to take place.' I said, 'Where
is the funeral?' He said, 'Out in that direction; the other side of
Glenrowan.' I then made a thorough search of the whole premises. I got
the boy Moses, to take a circuit round, and see if he could find any
tracks, and we remained and searched the straw-shed and every place
where there was a cellar or anything of the kind, and we could find no
traces whatever of the outlaws. We were all on such friendly terms,
Cleary never asked what we were looking for, and Nolan said, 'What
brought you here? I suppose this blackfellow tracked me here, and you
have come up on my tracks.' One of my men answered, 'Yes, they are
wonders these Queensland blacks.' He said, 'Do you mean to say that
they can track in the dark?' And he said, 'Oh, it matters not what
tracking they do, they can track you wherever they like,' and then
related some anecdote about their wonderful skill. Then we searched
all round the premises to see if there were any tracks. There had been
very heavy rains three days previously, and any tracks at all would be
noticed as plainly as possible. We took a circuit round Cleary's
place, and then returned to camp where we had stayed that day. We
stayed there all that day and night; next day we went into Benalla.
Those are exactly the facts with reference to this matter."

We can only guess which Nolan it was. Was it the father or one of the
boys? Also, imagine a sympathizer saying that he was worried that the
gang would steal his horse so he sold it!

In Hare's "Last of the Bushrangers" he had this to say about the event
and the same man, who was not named in the book..

"About four o'clock in the afternoon we passed a hut. Of course every
one, knowing we were in search of the Kellys, came out to see us. One
of my men drew my attention to a man standing watching us, and told me
he was one of the principal spies of the Kellys. I replied, 'Well, he
can never guess where we are going, for we have the Warby Ranges
between us and the spot we are making for.' We passed on and thought
nothing more of him."

Later in the text after the travel to their destination (and as in the
RC text) he asked the occupant if he had any strangers in his house
and he said "I have."

"I said to the farmer, 'Let me see the strangers,' and out came the
individual whom we had passed the previous evening, the greatest
sympathizer Kelly had. I asked him what brought him there. He said he
came over to see his friend and spend the night with him. We saw at
once our chance was gone. I never could learn whether this man, upon
seeing us pass the previous evening, had gone over to warn the Kellys
to be on the look-out."

Another event detailed in the Royal Commission involving the three
Nolan boys was when they went along with Tom Lloyd Jr. and others
heading north, allegedly to go shearing, dressed very flash to draw
attention. Some broke off from the group, perhaps to meet up with the
gang at a secret location.

In the appendix to the Royal Commission about reported appearances of
the Kelly outlaws there was this for May 15, 1880:

"A party of horsemen passed through Glenrowan, going north. Two
returned, one missing. The rest overhauled at Yarrawonga by police.
Proved to be John, Dan, and Mick Nolan. Renwick, watching Ryan's, Lake
Rowan, discovering that someone was hiding in a hut, Senior-Constable
Kelly and Lake Rowan police searched the hut, and found young Tom
Lloyd to be the occupant and the missing man of the band of
sympathizers above referred to."

We can bet that the Nolans were involved in other incidents involving
the Kellys that were not recorded, and though they were not named as
being at the siege, you know that they were somewhere in the
background lurking in the shadows.

After Ned's execution there was a worry among the police that a new
gang would be formed. In a report by Constable Robert Graham dated
April 26, 1881 he had this to say:

"Report...relative to sympathizers of late Kelly gang. —I beg to
report for the information of the superintendent that a number of them
were here yesterday, drinking, viz.: —Jack Quinn, Tom Lloyd, jun.,
Paddy McAuliffe, Tom McAuliffe, John McMonigal, and Jack Nolan; and
from their manner I am led to believe that another outbreak among them
is imminent. Jack Quinn is very anxious to find out who it was that
got the sympathizers arrested in 1879. They all appear to have a great
dislike to Pat Quinn, and speak of him as the black tracker. — ROBERT
GRAHAM, Mtd. Const., 2312. The Supt. of Police, Benalla.”

As we know, a second outbreak did not happen and everyone settled down
to lead quieter lives than they had before (but what a sowing of wild
oats they had! What salad days!). Jack Nolan became a "very highly
respected resident" of Myrrhee and had several children, two of them
growing up to be constables. He died in 1930 and was buried at Greta
Cemetery. At that time, Mick was living in Wangaratta and Dan was
living in N.S.W. Mick died in 1943 aged 82 and is buried in Wangaratta
Cemetery.

[Grave photo...Courtesy of Bruce Johnson]

I met the modern day Mick Nolan when I answered a question he had
posed at another Kelly site in 2005. He emailed me and graciously said
thank you and we started corresponding back and forth and became fast
friends. He told me about how proud he was of his great-grandfather
Mick Nolan and about his job as Ned Kelly at the Kellyland Theatre
back in the 1990s and I asked him for a photo of him dressed as Ned
and if he could give a brief write up of his experience there.

[Mick as Ned Kelly..Courtesy of Mick Nolan]

Here is what he wrote:

"The year that I worked there was 1994 for about 8 months, when I had
nothing to do during a boring day.
Working there was a bit of a thrill, seeing the looks on people's
faces with a hint of surprise while dressed up as Ned.
I was popular with kids having their photos taken (bus groups).

A lot of people that had no idea of what to expect in the show were
amazed by about 6 different things going on and some had come back at
later dates with family or friends knowing what to expect.........a
change of shorts was needed for some!

Long live the memory of the saga at Glenrowan!

Ned made and changed history for the oppressed!"

[A recent photo of Mick with Bob Hempel : A recent
reunion between Mick Nolan (left) and Bob Hempel (right) owner of
Kellyland Animated Theatre. Courtesy of Mick Nolan]

In all of his travels Mick is like a roving ambassador for the Kellys,
always striking up conversations about Ned and sometimes meeting
descendants of other sympathizers and even of traps, along with other
Kelly admirers, in the strangest of places! On a recent trip to
Vanuatu he met other Victorians who had visited the Kellyland Theatre
and even found a pub with Kelly armour out the front and other Kelly
artefacts inside. The owner was from Glenrowan of all places! It is a
small world, especially when dealing with the Kellys.

[Mick Nolan on Vanuatu. Courtesy of Mick Nolan]

To view more of the Vanuatu photos featuring Ned Kelly artefacts,
click here.

I have no doubt that if Mick had been back in the Kelly era that he
too would have been among the greatest of the sympathizers!

SOURCES:

Public Records Office of Victoria (PROV)

Minutes of Evidence taken before Royal Commission on the Police Force
of Victoria (RC)

Ned Kelly by John Molony

Last of the Bushrangers by Francis Hare

The Inner History of the Kelly Gang by J.J. Kenneally

Selectors, Squatters and Stock Thieves: A Social History of Kelly
Country by D. Morrissey

The Wangaratta Chronicle.