Much has been written about the rise and fall of Ned Kelly and his ban comprising. On this page, some articles are reported which show direct links between the Kelly gang and the Telegraph lines and the Telegraph Offices. The information here is in addition to that provided in other sections
All selections refer to some aspect of the people who were employed in telegraphic work or to the lines.
| Euroa | Jerilderie. | Stanley |
The Australasian 3 July 1880:
KELLY: THE MURDERER OF CHERRY.
Further particulars of an interesting character relating to the tragedy at Glenrowan have transpired. The most startling item is that Cherry, the platelayer, was not accidentally killed but was deliberately shot by Ned Kelly at the beginning of the fray because he refused to hold back a window curtain in the hotel while Kelly fired at the police.
As to the survivor of the gang, he was visited on Thursday by Dr. Shields, who reports favourably of his condition and his speedy recovery is confidently expected. No one else was allowed to see him, Mr. Castieau having received instructions from the Chief Secretary to admit no one without a special order. Mr. Hare's wound has not proved quite so serious as was anticipated and there is every prospect of his shortly recovering the use of his arm. He is staying at Sunbury now as a guest of the Hon. W. J. Clarke.
A report was circulated in town on Thursday that a fresh outbreak of bushrangers had taken place at Stanley near Beechworth. On inquiries being made, it was ascertained that the police authorities had received no communication on the subject and that the report was without foundation. Since the tragedy, Glenrowan has been visited by crowds of people who have inspected the ground in the vicinity of the house in which the outlaws took refuge with eager curiosity but there is a sufficient force of police on the spot to keep order. Superintendent Sadlier is still at Benalla and reports that everything is quiet there.
Among those who contributed a share towards the destruction of the Kelly gang, Mr. H. E. Cheshire, acting postmaster at Beechworth, deserves to be mentioned. There is no telegraph office at Glenrowan and Mr. Cheshire therefore, on hearing that the Kelly gang had broken out there, proceeded with the Beechworth detachment of police by train on Monday morning and, on arrival, had the wires cut and connected with a small pocket telegraph instrument - thereby placing Glenrowan in telegraphic communication with the city. He did all the telegraphing himself, on his own acconnt and it must be admitted that he rendered a very important service in the interests of justice and humanity.
The engine-driver and fireman of the special train which was despatched on Sunday night also deserve some recognition for the readiness they displayed in placing themselves in a position of danger. It appears that in running through the Craigieburn gates, damage was done to the gear of the brake, rendering it entirely useless. The pilot engine being provided with a brake, the driver of the special train, H. Alder, suggested that this engine should take the train, at the same time volunteering his services as driver of the pilot engine. The fireman of the special train, H. Burch, also volunteered his services for the pilot engine. After running at a fair speed for some time in front of the train containing the police party, speed was slackened on account of the curves and in order to keep the train that was following in sight. When a strange signal was observed, the pilot engine approached cautiously and, on the nature of the signal being ascertained, a stop was made and the driver then went cautiously back and related to Mr. Hare what he had been told by Mr. Curnow.
The Australasian 3 July 1880:
BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
Benalla,
Death of a linesman.
The bodies of Dan Kelly and Hart were interred by their friends on Wednesday in the Greta Cemetery. About a hundred friends and sympathisers were present, but there was no disturbance. Etty Hart, sister of Steve was, however, very excited and fell into hysterics. It has transpired that the unfortunate line repairer Martin Cherry was not shot by the police but by Ned Kelly and that intentionally. The fact was at first suppressed by those who knew it out of a fear that they might be marked men if they made the disclosure. Three of the prisoners have, however, ventured to tell the police, on the condition that their names should not be published. They were interviewed separately and their statements all correspond.
This is the fifth deliberate murder committed by the gang and it was perpetrated under the following circumstances:
When the gang fired their first volley from the verandah of the hotel, they retired inside. Ned Kelly, as is already known, was wounded in the foot and arm. He went to the window of the front parlour to fire again on the police but the blind was down and, having one arm wounded, he could not hold it aside and fire at the same time. He therefore ordered the old man Cherry to hold the blind up whilst he fired. Cherry refused and Kelly at once shot him with his rifle in the groin and he fell. Kelly may have intended to fire at the poor man's legs or, being disabled, he may simply have been unable to raise his rifle higher. The fact, however, remains that it was he who did the deed and that he thus added one more fiendish murder to the black list against bis name.
It seems that immediately after this, he made his escape by the back door and got into the bush before the police got the house surrounded. The coat which Ned Kelly wore was a long grey mackintosh. It covered his armour, and is full of bullet and slug holes.
Senior Constable Kelly and his men returned from Glenrowan this morning and reported that, during the night, perfect quietness prevailed there.
Constable Jas. McArthur is the man Ned Kelly referred to as being an excellent shot. He gives the following interesting narrative of his experiences:
CONSTABLE McARTHUR'S NARRATIVE.
I was one of the first party of police who attacked the gang. As has been already stated, we were fired on from the verandah, and we returned the fire. Senior Constable Kelly stationed our men at different places round the building. He took me round in the bush to a point opposite to the north-western corner of the building. We approached by passing from tree to tree and taking shelter at times under fallen timber.
When 100 yards away from the building, we got behind one tree and I stooped down to look round it, placing my hand on the ground. I was rather startled for I touched a rifle which was covered with blood. A pool of blood lay near it and also a round skull cap. "Look here" I whispered to Kelly and we both held our arms ready, for we thought that one of the gang must be near. I indeed felt sure that Ned was behind the very tree we were standing at but we soon found that he was not there. That he was quite close to us, however, there is now no doubt. I crept forward from tree to tree and got within 80 yards of the house finding shelter behind a fallen tree. I fired at figures of men I saw in the hotel for some time. There were several lulls in the firing and, feeling cold, I filled my pipe to have a smoke. As I was stooping down doing so, a bullet fired from the hotel ploughed the ground under my breast. I then changed my position, going behind another tree.
After I had stayed there for some time, and still feeling cold, I stooped down to light my pipe. In the act of doing so I caught sight of a strange figure coming down the hill. My pipe fell out of my mouth and I gazed at the mysterious being for a minute, not knowing what to make of it. The figure approached steadily and I saw it was a man with what I thought to be a mail-can on his head. Thinking he was someone who intended storming the hotel under the protection of the headgear he wore, I sang out to him, "Keep back, you damned fool" but he still advanced and only replied by firing at me with his revolver. I could see that he was unable to hold out the weapon and take a proper aim and the bullet tore up the ground a yard or two away from me. I then fired at his head with my Martini-Henry rifle. The bullet hit his head and jerked off. I fired a second time with the same result and he still advanced. Seeing a slit in the helmet for his eyes, I aimed at it and the bullet hit the mark but, as I afterwards found, it only bruised and discoloured his eye. It was my other bullet that blackened his other eye. This he told me afterwards.
By this time, Senior Constable Kelly, Sergeant Steele and Constable Philips and Guard Dowsett were also pelting away at him but with no better effect. Our feelings may be easier imagined than described, for it seemed we were fighting with a supernatural being. Dowsett exclaimed, "By God, it is the devil". Senior Constable Kelly, after having another shot at him, replied " No, it must be the bunyip".
Thinking that he might have no armour on his back, I made a track round to get to his rear and, in the meantime, Sergeant Steele, Senior Constable Kelly and Guard Dowsett closed upon him, brought him down and secured him. Then, of course, we found that it was the veritable Ned Kelly. I came down in the train with him from Glenrowan and we entered into conversation. He said that my bullets staggered him and injured his eyes. He also stated that when, during the night, he stood within a couple of yards of the senior constable and me, that he could have picked us off easily. I asked him why he did not then do so. He replied "It was not my game," and explained that his intention was to get near the hotel and so attract the attention of the police away from the building. It would then, he said, have been the part of his mates to sally out and attack the the rear. He indeed did call out "Come out - I am here".
From what has transpired, it appears that the Kelly gang fully intended to make a raid on one of the banks in Benalla had their plan succeeded in upsetting the railway train. When Ned Kelly was asked whether he intended to rob the Colonial Bank at Benalla, he said, "Oh no; Brock, the Manager, is a decent sort of cove; we wouldn't harm him. We should have stuck-up the other bank though". The other bank that narrowly escaped a visit from the Kelly gang is the Bank of New South Wales.
See the Report in the Wagga Wagga Advertiser of 29 June 1880 for details of his capture.
BEECHWORTH, JULY 1.
The excitement caused by the capture of the Kelly gang is gradually subsiding, although the matter still remains the all-absorbing topic of conversation. Mrs. Barry and her daughters still remain here, and have not yet returned to their residences. Aaron Sherrit's house remains untenanted.
It will be remembered that, at the inquest, Mrs. Barry said that Joe Byrne was talking to her about his mother but she did not detail the conversation. It appears that Byrne asked Mrs. Barry how long it was since she had seen his mother and Mrs. Barry replied not since Mrs .... 's funeral - mentioning the name of a neighbour who had died some weeks previously. Byrne affected ignorance of the death and denied having seen his mother for some time. What his object in misleading Mrs. Barry was cannot, of course, be ascertained, but is known that he was at the house several times recently.
Some curiosity has been expressed as to the causes which led Aaron Sherritt to turn against the gang - with all of whom he was once on terms of intimate friendship - and go over to the police. From inquiries from the deceased man's friends and relatives, it transpires that Sherritt was on several occasions served very shabbily by them especially by Byrne. A mob of stolen horses and cattle would be put on Aaron Sherritt's selection and left there until they could conveniently be sold and, when these were realised upon, none of the money was given to Sherritt. This led to bickerings and gradually engendered the ill-feelings which ultimately developed into hate.
In consequence of the controversy which is still carried on with much warmth, regarding the conduct of the police in Aaron Sherritt's house on the night of his murder, the place itself has become an object of interest. The house is situated in the ranges at Sebastopol, about eight miles from Beechworth, at a spot exactly in a line with the "Devil's Elbow". It is a one-story weather-board structure, with a shingle roof and comprises two rooms. One of these rooms, which was used as a kitchen, is 15ft. by about 9ft. and the other, the bedroom, about 11ft. by 9ft. There are two doors, one at the back, and the other at the front, nearly opposite to each other. There is no passage formed through the house, both doors opening into the kitchen, which is partitioned off from the bedroom by a wooden screen having a doorway cut in the centre of it The partition does not reach to the ceiling but there is a space of about 2½ft. There is no door in the partition, the opening being covered by a piece of grey calico, which hangs down like a curtain. There are two windows, both of which are in the front of the house. The bed on which the three constables were lying when the first shot was fired is a double iron one and is placed directly beneath one window. In front of the other window is the table on which the candle was burning – an impromptu affair constructed of a zinc-lined packing-case with boards laid upon it. Directly opposite the table is the flue, which is an open one, for burning logs of large dimensions. The chimney, as in most bush houses, is built out from the house, and is close to the back door. It is built of strong weatherboards, the upper portion of the flue being constructed of pieces of kerosene tins. It was in the angle made by the lower portion of the chimney and the side of the house that Byrne stood when he made Weeks knock at the door. From the position of the rooms, both doors of the house being open, it would be impossible to pass from the bedroom to the kitchen without being under two fires if a man were posted at each door. Whether the doors could not have been shut from the bedroom without anyone leaving, by someone leaning over the top of the partition, is however a matter of question. The house is surrounded by large trees, affording excellent cover and it would be almost impossible from the house to hit anyone concealed behind them. Ned Kelly's armour has been on view at the police camp all day, and has been inspected by many of the residents and visitors from Melbourne and elsewhere.