View Sharon's Bio.

Welcome to my view from abroad page. On his bio page
here at Glenrowan1880, Dave refers to me as: "an American who has fallen
in love with the Kelly story." That is surely the understatement of the
century! :) From time to time I will be putting bits here or linking to
things I have written about the Kelly Gang from my different cultural
perspective. As usual, any opinions I have are mine, and mine alone, and
do not necessarily reflect those of the "management"!

NED WAS FOREVER IN HIS THOUGHTS: SUPERINTENDENT FRANCIS HARE FROM
GLENROWAN TO RUPERTSWOOD (1880-1892)

AUGUST 28, 2009

This article tells what happened to Victorian Police Superintendent
Francis Augustus Hare from the time he left the Siege of Glenrowan
(due to being shot in the wrist) to the end of his life at William
Clarke's Rupertswood estate. In the years between he led a very busy
professional and personal life and even found time to write a book
about his early days in the colony and on up through his part in the
Kelly hunt and capture.

July 11, 2009

SYMPATHY FOR THE KELLYS: A FAMILY AFFAIR

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. In this article I tell their stories.

SEPTEMBER 29, 2008

DID THEY REALLY FIRE 15,000 ROUNDS AT THE SIEGE OF GLENROWAN?

This is a link to an article answering that very question. In a May
2008 newspaper article it was emphatically stated that 15,000 rounds
were fired at the siege. I set out to prove that that was not possible
due to a variety of reasons, all of which I lay out.

JUNE 13, 2008

MEN OF IRON, MEN OF WAX

This is a link to an article I wrote about the various waxworks
exhibitions in Australia and New Zealand featuring wax likenesses of the
Kelly Gang. They proved to be very popular subjects and were frequently
the star attractions.
 

November 30, 2006

REPORTS OF THE KELLY GANG IN LATE 19TH & EARLY 20TH CENTURY
NORTH AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS

This is a link to an article I have written about some very interesting
reports about the Gang found in some American newspapers between 1880
and 1912 and in a Canadian one from 1946. I have to wonder about where
they got some of the information they cited, though! Things they
reported on include an "odd court incident" involving a knife from the
gallery falling at Ned's feet while in the dock(!), as well as info
about Kate Kelly's stage appearances, an exploding gum tree caused by
the Gang's gunpowder cache, and a report of Jim Kelly's death and lots
more.

April 19, 2005

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: W.H. FITCHETT

This is a link to my article about the Rev. Mr. W. H. Fitchett who was a
prolific writer and historian. He had written about the Kellys in Life
Magazine where he served as Editor, and those articles were later
included as chapters in various books he authored. A couple of the Life
articles were first-person narratives from two Glenrowan witnesses,
Sergeant Steele and Constable O'Dwyer and they detailed the capture of
Ned Kelly. One of these, the Steele narrative from the February 1910
edition of Life, is offered in full and is linked into the Author
Spotlight article.

March 24, 2005

THE CONVICT HULK "SUCCESS" AND HER KELLY GANG CONNECTIONS

This is a link to an article I wrote about the convict hulk "Success."
The "Success" had been a trade ship, an emigrant ship, a convict hulk
and ultimately a floating "convict ship" museum. I detail both the
history and the controversy and give a few Kelly Gang connections along
the way.

February 18, 2005

THE NED KELLY CENTENARY FESTIVAL

This is a link to an article I wrote about the Ned Kelly Centenary
Festival. Seems there had been some doubt and some conflicting reports
as to if this event actually went on as planned back in 1980. I managed
to track down the festival director, Peter Galvin and got the scoop!

October 12, 2004

STEEDS OF GLENROWAN

This link is to an article detailing, to the best of my available
resources, what has been chronicled about the horses of the gang, the
traps and the prisoners of the Inn during the Siege of Glenrowan. Some
of the "facts" are quite contradictory, since we are talking about the
Kelly Gang that should come as no surprise!

September 27, 2004

NED KELLY'S HELMET

This is a link to an interview with Paul Stafford, author of "Ned
Kelly's Helmet," a children's novel that is a delightful read even for
adults. Paul is involved with creative writing workshops for students
and encouraging youngsters to enjoy reading. He is a very gifted and
witty man who really likes what he does and it shows!

May 23, 2004

COOKSON ENIGMA

This is a link to an article entitled THE COOKSON ENIGMA in which I give
some background info on B.W. Cookson and on the "Kelly Gang From Within"
newspaper series which he authored. For so long, everyone always had the
name of B.W. Cookson on their lips, as they sought the "elusive" Cookson
articles. Being as curious as a cat, I finally decided I wanted to know
just who was B.W. Cookson? To me, when I find out things about an
author, it gives me better understanding and enjoyment of his writings.
I set out to find out more and I did, thanks to the kind help of Roselyn
and her cousin Celia in England, both Cookson descendents. I was
supplied with everything I needed to pull this article together and the
ladies also graciously granted this website exclusive rights to display
photographs of Brian William Cookson.

May 6, 2004

MR. NOLAN

This is a link to an article entitled MR. NOLAN GOES TO GLENROWAN about
the artist Sidney Nolan and his unpropitious 1945 visit to Glenrowan. An
interesting juxtaposition of the Glenrowan of then and now. Tourists
were far from welcomed back then as Nolan was not long in finding out!

March 28, 2004
HARVEST MOON
 
This is a link to an article I wrote called SHINE ON HARVEST
MOON...OR DID IT? disproving the notion that the moon was full just
before or during the siege of Glenrowan

SHARON'S BIO.

SHARON HOLLINGSWORTH.

I am an American and I have fallen head over heels in love with the Kelly gang
and their saga. Nothing much more to say in a bio since that pretty well
sums me up quite nicely and defines my life right now! Yet I guess I
will have to try to give a little of my background and how I arrived at
being U.S. Kelly Girl #1 (an in joke!) and working as an assistant at
this website. I am from the United States and live on the outskirts of a
small town in North Carolina and I am married (no children, but I have
over a dozen cats!). I never went to university, having misspent most of
my youth following rock bands around, which, believe me, is quite an
education in and of itself! The bulk of my knowledge has come from
personal study and reading, most of it is down to having a natural
curiosity and thirst for learning and a great deal of innate
perceptiveness. So how did I wind up at this particular juncture in time
as a researcher, writer and editor for a website about a 19th century
outlaw who is as alive to me today as he was back in the late 1870s? To
begin at the beginning (always a good place!), I had heard about Ned
Kelly before in the early 1970s and that was only because of the Mick
Jagger movie, which, incidentally, I only saw for the first time a few
months ago. I never knew anything else beyond the fact that Ned Kelly
wore some sort of armour and was active in the late 1800s. That was it.
Never gave him a second thought at all (and look at me now decades
later, Ned and the gang are nearly all I can think of!). Not like one
would hear the name of Ned Kelly being tossed about in the U.S. in the
70s, 80s, or 90s at least where I lived! You would hear about Jesse
James and Billy the Kid, and a host of other western badmen but never
Ned Kelly! But in late 2002 I began to get curious about Ned Kelly after
it was announced that Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom were making the
film about the gang. The only thing I could find in my library was the
True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey. I now know it was, as
everyone likes to jest, neither true nor history, but I was enthralled
and genuinely moved by the book and fell hook, line and sinker for Ned
then and there. I suppose if I had of grown up hearing all about Ned and
his exploits I would have disliked the book like others did who felt
cheated by Carey's fictionalized distortion of the events. But I
approached it from a different cultural angle, and while realizing it
was a novel, I was able to get into it and enjoy it without prior
prejudice to cloud the experience. To put in perspective of how much
this book affected me, after reading it I went out and paid FULL PRICE
at the bookshop for a copy of my own. Out of around 4,000 books I have,
most coming from op shops, used book stores and yard sales, for me to
pay $14.00 US for a book is saying a whole heck of a lot! That would buy
me nearly 28 paperbacks at the Goodwill store! But would any of those 28
books have changed my life the way this one did? :) Of course, I
wound up having to unlearn a few things, but that did not take long as I
discovered Ironoutlaw.com and through that site (and a strange quirk of
fate) Dave White became my mentor and friend. Dave is the busiest man I
have ever met (I like to joke that he is busier than a one-armed apple
picker at harvest time with the sun going down) with a demanding job and
large family, but he very astutely recognised my potential and quickly
recruited and tutored me in all things Kelly and has turned me loose on
an unsuspecting world via his latest and greatest endeavour (thus far to
date), Glenrowan1880.com.

Sharon Hollingsworth.

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