Mar 14 2008
Poor Old Ned
Ned Kelly is our famous bushranger, a folk hero who became a legend during his own life.
Ned is part of the mythology of ‘the bush’ - the perceived cradle of mateship, equality, and the masculine virtue of fearless strength. A self–educated man, Ned was extremely articulate, known for his poetic turn of phrase and sharp wit. Much has been made of his ironic statements and colourful language but it doesn’t take an academic degree to have the gift of the gab, much less a passion for freedom.
In another example of total disrespect, the skeletons of 5 or 6 men were roughly dug up at a housing estate located in a former jail in Melbourne. We usually see this sort of treatment confined to bones belonging to Australian Aborigines or to Chinese people - dug up to be sold off , as a curiosity, to some museum on the other side of the world.
In this case, the remains are of Europeans, but on the same social scale as the Aboriginal people, or the 19th century Chinese immigrants, white men and women who were outcasts, outlaws. Criminals.
Some of these bones are the last remains of Ned Kelly. Apparently they will all be thrown together into a bag and placed into a rose garden. Very nice, I’m sure.
Where is Ned’s head?
While news reports abound with stories of Ned Kelly’s missing bones not a word is mentioned about his stolen skull
Back in December 1978, Kelly’s cranium was lifted from the Old Melbourne Gaol in what appeared to be a university student prank. One of the culprits was rumoured to be a former prime minister’s son, yet to this day no one knows what happened to it.
Ned Kelly isn’t known to many outside of Australia. Indeed there are many Australians who don’t know of him except for what they read in the newspapers .. the same newspapers that rejoiced at his death in 1880.
Despite his demonisation by the colonial administration with its anti-Irish, anti-Catholic repression, Ned has become a symbol of national pride to the majority of Australians.
Would a parallel to Ned possibly be Pretty Boy Floyd ?
More from me about Ned :
Our Ned Kelly
Ned Kelly Country
