Ned Kelly trackers’ reward still unpaid after 140 years

It’s nearly 140 years since Australia’s most celebrated outlaw was finally taken down, but some of those instrumental in his capture are yet to be acknowledged.

IN LATE 1880 two Aboriginal trackers from Queensland were hot on the heels of bushranger Ned Kelly and his gang as they pushed towards the Glenrowan Hotel for their infamous last stand.

The trackers from the Fraser Coast’s Butchulla tribe, listed simply as “Jackey and Barney” in official documents, had been promised a chunk of the £8000 reward on offer in Victoria for the capture of Australia’s most wanted man.

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Queensland police trackers who helped capture Australia’s most famous bushranger, Ned Kelly, in 1880.

But as the 140th anniversary of Kelly’s famous shootout and capture approaches, the money remains unpaid despite the then Victorian Police Rewards Board approving a £50 reward for each man — Jack Noble and Gary Owens.

The Rewards Board wrote at the time, “it would not be desirable to place any considerable sum of money in the hands of persons unable to use it”.

An undated reward poster for the capture of the Kelly Gang.

The battle for the missing money recently received a boost when Butchulla elders took the case to Fraser Coast Regional Council Mayor George Seymour, who then tracked down Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to enlist her help

“If a wrong has been done, no matter how far in the past, we must try and right it,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“I have written to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews calling for a renewed investigation of all the available files and facts to try to find a way forward and once and for all resolve this troubling issue.”

She said historical accounts clearly showed the trackers, who were members of the Native Police, never received the £50 they had each been promised if their actions led to the capture or death of Ned Kelly.

Ned Kelly portrait — taken the day before he was hanged. Picture: State Library of Victoria

Reports said the trackers were involved in daylong gunbattle and had “acquitted themselves well”.

“These men had risked their lives in pursuit of the Kelly Gang who were very fearful of our native tracker’s finely honed skills,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“Before they even ventured south, the Queensland police team — all volunteers were assured by the Victoria Police Commissioner ‘of a fair share of the reward offered’ if they were successful.”

Police from Victoria and Queensland, some not even involved at Glenrowan, received payouts substantially higher than the two native trackers.

Tourists at Glenrowan to see the place that Ned Kelly made his infamous last stand in armour.

It was recommended the payments be handed to the Queensland and Victorian governments to be dealt with “at their discretion”.

A claim by the descendants against the Victorian and Queensland governments was heard in the Queensland Supreme Court 19 years ago but wound up without a finding in favour of the applicants.

Earlier this week the Queensland Government announced it had reached a settlement with indigenous Australians who had their wages stolen by the state in the mid-20th Century and up for $190 million.