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Tiki Central / Other Events / Kustom Tiki Kill! Kill! at Straya's Kustom Lane Gallery May 27th with Doug,Toe,and Kinny! Oi!

Post #764128 by Swamp Fire on Sun, May 22, 2016 5:31 PM

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Kustom Tiki Kill Kill!
Category: Famous Australian
“Ned Kelly”6“ X 8”, Pencil on paper, Vintage frame
I chose Ned Kelly as my famous Australian. Below is his story, I decided to focus on the part of the story where Kelly wears his homemade suite of armour when confronting the police.

Ned Kelly is an Australian legend. He epitomised many qualities that ordinary Australians admire. He was a larrikin, loyal to his family and ready to sacrifice himself for his mates. An underdog, he represented the struggling classes and thumbed his nose at the establishment. He was inventive, he was fearless and charismatic.Ned was barely educated, yet his famous letters were poetic and passionate. He killed police officers, was outlawed and could be shot on sight by anyone. Yet when he was sentenced to hang, more than 30,000 people signed a petition asking for a reprieve.

We mustn't forget that there are many sides to the legend of Ned Kelly.

Yes, he was a criminal and had had numerous brushes with the law from a young age. But was he merely following his father and uncles' lead and a product of his environment? In the context of the times, he was a hero to Irish immigrants, who felt they were being persecuted by the establishment. It's claimed that most of the takings from his famous bank robberies went to help his supporters, so many say Ned was an Australian Robin Hood.

He was intensely protective of his family and avenged a police officer's assault on his sister - which is what really set off the troubles. Until the Fitzpatrick incident, Ned had been a petty criminal, involved in horse stealing and assisting at a few holdups on the highway.

However, after the Fitzpatrick incident, Ned and his brother Dan were wanted for attempted murder and went bush. Some claim Ned wasn't even there at the time of the incident, while others day Ned and his mother dressed Fitzpatrick's wound before he left.

While in hiding, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart joined Ned and Dan and the foursome became known as the Kelly Gang. They committed two large-scale bank robberies to support themselves and thus dug the hole deeper. A manhunt was mounted and Ned and his gang confronted a group of four policemen at Stringybark Creek with no intention of murder. In the fracas three policemen were shot dead and thus the price on Ned's head went even higher.

As part of the plans for Glenrowan, Aaron Sherritt was shot dead by his best friend Joe Byrne for being an informer (having begged him to join the gang the year before).

At Glenrowan the plan was to take a large number of people hostage and negotiate the release of Ned's mother Ellen and the two other men who were jailed in connection with the Fitzpatrick incident. Forty-six police arrived, surrounded the Glenrowan Inn, where the gang and hostages were holed up, and fired on the hotel for seven hours. During the siege Dan Kelly, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart died. Ned, wearing his trademark homemade armour, came toward the police, shooting, but was shot in the legs and captured.

Ned was held at Melbourne Gaol to recover from his injuries. He was tried in Beechworth Courthouse and in Melbourne by Judge Redmond Barry and sentenced to death by hanging, which occurred on 11 November 1880.

Contact Tony Peake for price and availability: [email protected]


The Art of Doug Horne
https://www.etsy.com/shop/DougHorneArt

[ Edited by: Swamp Fire 2016-05-22 17:32 ]