TONY
JONES: Ian Jones, how did Ned Kelly evolve from a young boy
in constant trouble with the police into a legend -- in a
sense the hero of the struggling poor selectors in their
battle against the squatters and the Melbourne aristocracy
or the Melbourne club?
IAN JONES: He wasn't in constant trouble with the police to
start with, Tony.
Ned Kelly was jailed for three years -- three years hard
labour for innocently receiving a stolen horse.
This tape is when Alex Mc
Dermott and Ian Jones disputed the Kelly legacy, enjoy!
What sort of man was he?
IAN JONES: He was a man who wasn't a victim.
He wasn't on the receiving end all the time.
He dictated his own destiny to a very large extent.
He made some bad decisions, some serious mistakes, which
headed his life in particular directions at particular
times, often with tragic results.
He was a likable man.
As I say, an incredibly brave man.
At Glenrowan he showed almost superhuman strength and
endurance and if you start adding up all his qualities, you
start to sound like you are creating a wish fulfilment
figure.
This is the danger with Ned Kelly, the fact that he is
almost too good to be true.
If you line up all the qualities that you would look for in
an Australian folk hero, a frontier folk hero, Ned Kelly
seems to have them all.
TONY JONES: Let me throw that straight to Alex McDermott.
You say the dark side of Ned Kelly has been somehow
underplayed or ignored by most historians and you describe
his brooding and implacable menace.
Now you tell us your view of him.
ALEX McDERMOTT, AUTHOR, 'THE THINGS NED KELLY SAID': He was
obviously one of the most charismatic and engaging
characters in the region at the time.
Every single person who encountered him was not only
intimidated and frightened by him but in awe of the man.
He did manage to attain a great deal of prowess through his
horse-riding ability, his physical stature, his ability to
beat up anyone who crossed his path.
IAN JONES: This idea that he beats up anyone who comes
across his path is simply not true.
ALEX McDERMOTT: That's what Ned says in his own letter.
TONY JONES: I would like to get to your broader argument,
particularly as you have drawn from the Jerilderie Letter a
lot of bloodcurdling threats which Ned Kelly evidently was
making through this letter.
What is the point, in your article, of dwelling on these
things?
Why are you suggesting that Ned Kelly has made threats to
others?
ALEX McDERMOTT: One of my chief points of dwelling on those
aspects of the letter in the article was because most other
historians have tended to run a mile from them, and trying
to explain them away by saying things like, "The letter
is a composite production, "it's not Ned Kelly's voice
here, "it's been worked on by Ned Kelly and Joe
Byrne."
As Ian puts it in his study, it's a composite production
that defies psychological analysis.
My particular point is that what is so frightening about
this letter is it gives us such a clear picture and image of
what was going through Ned's mind at this stage.
TONY JONES: Ian Jones, there is some bloodthirsty stuff in
the Jerilderie Letter.
Did Ned Kelly write it?
Did he intend to carry out these threats against people who
informed or worked with the police?
IAN JONES: Of course he didn't.
This is bulldust.
I mean this stuff in the letter is bulldust.
ALEX McDERMOTT: He is having a joke?
He is playing around?
IAN JONES: He is not having a joke.
He is intimidating.
This is would-be intimidating.
It's bluff.
It's Harry Power bluff on a gigantic scale.
Ned Kelly's mentor in bushranging, Harry Power, used a
booming voice and piercing blue eyes to intimidate people so
he never had to use his gun.
TONY JONES: There is a long tradition of dealing bloodily
with traitors and informers in Irish history.
Is this part of it?
IAN JONES: No.
No.
TONY JONES: Because they dealt bloodily with one person
identified as being a traitor and that was Aaron Sheritt.
IAN JONES: Aaron Sheritt, who was a lifelong mate of Joe
Byrne, and Joe Byrne killed him.
I don't think Ned was very happy with that decision but went
along with it.
I don't think Ned truly believed Aaron had betrayed them.
After he was captured, he said to one of the police -- he
said, "Did you torture Aaron?"
He couldn't understand how it was possible that Aaron
Sheritt had betrayed him.
Once Joe decided that Aaron had to die, that had to become
part of the plan, otherwise it would wreck everything.
TONY JONES: In the end, Kelly was the leader of that gang.
IAN JONES: Certainly.
TONY JONES: That murder would not have happened without his
say-so, would it?
IAN JONES: Probably not.
But then, you forget he was also planning to kill an entire
train load of police.
We're looking at warfare here.
We're looking at guerilla warfare in which one life --
ALEX McDERMOTT: So it's not an unhinged mind, it's warfare.
TONY JONES: Alex McDermott, what is your view of the Aaron
Sheritt killing?
ALEX McDERMOTT: I think it's fairly typical of the time and
the culture that was taking place.
You see, what was fairly detailed is the amount of
litigation and arguments and stealing of each other's stock,
even amongst these small groups and clans.
It's not as if they were an entirely cohesive, lovely, matey
unit that were at war against the outside world that's busy
trying to oppress them or anything.
They're half the time carrying out feuds and personal feuds
which is why Ned Kelly growing up is running to the police
to hide from his uncles who are trying to beat him up and so
on.
This is a continual thing that spills over into what we know
of as the Kelly outbreak.
My problem with the traditional view of Ned Kelly is that
it's just a humble, decent man trying to do what he does
until the big, bad oppressive people come along.
That's an unreasonable way to look at any human being.
TONY JONES: Ian Jones, how did Ned Kelly evolve from a young
boy in constant trouble with the police into a legend -- in
a sense the hero of the struggling poor selectors in their
battle against the squatters and the Melbourne aristocracy
or the Melbourne club?
IAN JONES: He wasn't in constant trouble with the police to
start with, Tony.
Ned Kelly was jailed for three years -- three years hard
labour for innocently receiving a stolen horse.
I don't think anyone who looks at the evidence can believe
for a moment that he was anything -- that he had received
the horse -- could doubt he received the horse innocently,
not knowing it was stolen.
ALEX McDERMOTT: The police finally managed to nail him on
one particular case but he was reputed throughout the
district both to selectors, to people, to the police as
being a wild and notorious character.
And this gets no mention at all in your work, Ian.
IAN JONES: How is he known throughout the district as a
wild, notorious character, Alex?
ALEX McDERMOTT: In that particular thing I'm quoting from
the police themselves.
It came out in the Royal Commission after the outbreak.
I realise you'll say "Well, we cannot listen to the
police, what would they say?"
But I feel wherever you find evidence, you have to try to
weigh it up.
It seems to be indicative of a sentiment that was being
voiced throughout the newspapers and the police at the time
and I don't think you can just all say it's a smokescreen.
TONY JONES: Ian Jones, can I come back to the central point.
Was he a criminal clansman or did he have a sort of
political purpose?
Was he struggling with some kind of roots of Irish rebellion
against authorities?
IAN JONES: You get back to the clan, you get back to the
core of it.
Ned was a member of the Lloyd Quinn clan who were in
constant trouble with the police.
He was the most formidable member of that clan.
Consequently he was regarded as the most dangerous man of
the group and physically he was.
Now, his evolution into a political figure came about simply
because of the way the police handled the Kelly outbreak.
They -- there was tremendous popular support for the Kelly
Gang which was increased throughout their outbreak.
ALEX McDermott: Popular support?
Who?
As in the region?
Poor selectors?
That was the support?
Or larrikins in Melbourne?
Precisely who?
IAN JONES: Throughout the region.
ALEX McDermott: So selectors who were losing their only
draft horse are all of a sudden going to go, "Wow, that
Ned Kelly is a great guy, "I'm going to support him, he
is on our side"?
How does that add up?
IAN JONES: That is what they seemed to do, Alex.
That is why the police became impossibly frustrated because
they hadn't lost their last draft horse to Ned Kelly.
This is a line, for heaven's sake.
TONY JONES: How widespread was his support, among the poor
selectors in Kelly country at least?
IAN JONES: Very widespread and not just among poor
selectors.
The general spread of popular support for the Kelly gang was
an enormous frustration to the police which is why they
started doing stupid things by locking people up without
trial for up to three months and eventually setting up a
black list of friends, relatives, people who had even
slightly known members of the Kelly Gang and they were not
allowed to take up land in the Kelly country.
This is what catapulted the Kelly outbreak into a rebellion.
Because at that point, Ned Kelly had to act on behalf of a
whole class of people in the north-east.
TONY JONES: Ian Jones, your reading of the final siege at
Glenrowan is that it was meant to be a general uprising, a
rebellion, if you say.
Is that how you, in the end, see Ned Kelly -- as a failed
revolutionary?
IAN JONES: Yes.
Yes.
A revolutionary who failed simply because he was not at core
violent and ruthless enough to carry it through.
That's the only reason it failed.
TONY JONES: Alex McDermott, what's your view of the last
stand?
ALEX McDermott: Well, it's the culminating point of a fellow
that's pretty much gone off the rails.
I must say I fundamentally disagree with Ian's argument that
the reason why there was very little support for the police
in the area was because they were all in support of Kelly
and his gang.
I would offer the contrary argument -- there's such a
history of fear and climate of intimidation that Ned,
amongst others, has managed to inculcate over the years,
that no-one is going to be coming forth with information if
they're aware they're running a high risk of losing their
fences to being burnt or very traditional forms of
retaliation that are deeply enmeshed in the culture itself.
TONY JONES: Ian Jones, in the end, did Ned Kelly change
anything for those poor selectors?
Did he change anything for the better in their ways of life?
IAN JONES: Yes, he did.
As a direct result of the Kelly outbreak, the whole land
policy was re-evaluated and with -- particularly with the
work of Robert Graham who took over the Kellys' hometown
after the destruction of the gang -- the Kelly country's
rehabilitated even though the rebellion continued for nearly
a year after the destruction of the gang.
And that gives the lie to this whole thing about a community
kept in subjection by this creature that Alex would have us
believe in.
I mean that's this ridiculous 1880 image of Ned Kelly.
That was gone, yet the Kelly rebellion continued.
New suits of armour were being made and it was eventually
defused by Robert Graham.
The Kelly country became a place where Robert Graham could
get married, bring his wife and raise a child.
I mean that was one legacy.
The other legacy, of course, is the Royal Commission of
1881.
Ned was outspoken in his criticism of the way the police had
conducted not only the conduct of the pursuit of the Kellys
but the way they had handled the entire north-east and the
Royal Commission of 1881 created a tradition of public
accountability which -- and self-examination which exists in
the Victoria police to this day and I believe it gave us the
foundation of what is arguably the best police force in
Australia.
That I regard as Ned's greatest legacy.
TONY JONES: Alex McDermott, what do you see as Ned Kelly's
legacy?
ALEX McDermott: If Ned Kelly had not lived, we wouldn't have
one of the most precious icons that we now have to worship.
He is up there with Don Bradman and Phar Lap.
He is something we can empathise with as a mythic figure and
I feel that's a wonderful thing.
But it's important to remember that's quite different to the
historical reality that took place.
TONY JONES: I'm afraid we have to leave it.
Alex McDermott, Ian Jones, thank you both for joining us.
A lively and spirited discussion
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