First published in The Age on June 29, 1880
EXTERMINATION OF THE KELLY GANG
CAPTURE OF NED KELLY
SUPERINTENDENT HARE SHOT IN THE WRIST
BYRNE SHOT DEAD
THE HOTEL FIRED
HART AND DAN KELLY PERISH
Ned Kelly.
The excitement in Melbourne throughout yesterday was intense. The public had been startled by the announcement in the morning journals of the reappearance of the gang, and the deliberate and callous murder of Sherritt. Everyone was on the tip-toe of expectation, anxiously awaiting further news, and hoping that the bloody career of the outlaws would be brought to a speedy termination by their capture and arrest.
No one, however, anticipated how soon that end would be, nor how sensational its character. When the intelligence was received in the morning of the surrounding of the gang at Glenrowan the public were electrified. Anxious crowds assembled in the streets, flocking round the offices of The Age and other newspapers, awaiting with eagerness the announcement of intelligence as it filtered through.
Edition of edition was issued by The Age, and the sheets were seized with avidity as the runners left our office. The extraordinary occurrence, in a civilised and settled country, of a pitched battle between the police and a gang of desperados seemed to stagger the community.
Portrait of Ned Kelly.
As one startling item after another came through the wires the excitement increased – First the surrounding of the gang, then the wounding of Superintendent Hare, the injuries inflicted on the two unfortunate children, the encounter with Ned Kelly (which reads like an imaginative chapter from a romantic novel), his capture, the constant fusillade kept on the hotel, the death of Byrne, and the final tragic ending by the burning of the building in which the doomed outlaws were.
From our special reporters:
Glenrowan, 28th June, 9.30 a.m. – The special train arrived here at three o’clock this morning. Owing to the courage of Constable Bracken the lives of the whole party who were in the train were saved. It was ascertained that the lines had been torn up, and that the Kellys had stuck up the whole of Glenrowan. The bushrangers, on the arrival of police, at once got into Jones’s Hotel, which is the most substantial building in the place, taking with them forty men and women. Firing then commenced, and has continued at intervals until seven o’clock.
About seven o’clock Ned Kelly was seen in the timber, where he fought valiantly for about half an hour. He was then shot down and brought into the township, evidently mortally wounded.
Kelly was wounded at the first shot last night, and could have escaped in the darkness, but he stood to his comrades and fought to the last.
The hotel which Hart, Dan Kelly and Byrne are in is completely surrounded, but the bushrangers still hold out.
Superintendent Hare was shot in the wrist at the commencement of the firing, Kelly being within a few yards when he fired at him.
It is stated that a boy in the hut has been shot dead.
The bullet punctured helmet Ned Kelly wore during his gang’s last stand at Glenrowan in 1880.
About fifty police are now on the scene and the firing is almost incessant.
It is stated that some children have been killed in the hotel, but whether shot by the police accidentally or by the bushrangers cannot be ascertained yet.
Glenrowan, 10.30 a.m. – Firing still continues. Dan Kelly and Hart still hold out.
Byrne has been shot dead.
Beechworth, 12.20 p.m. – The most intense excitement prevails here in reference to the Kellys. As a special train conveying Superintendent Hare and a number of police were travelling from Benalla to Glenrowan at an early hour, it was stopped, and the occupants informed that the line had been pulled up by the Kellys a mile beyond Glenrowan.
Superintendent Hare, on going to the stationmaster’s house, was informed by the latter that everyone in Glenrowan had been taken into the bush by the outlaws. The police were immediately ordered to leave the train, when Constable Bracken steeped on the scene and exclaimed, “I have just escaped from Jones’s public house. For God’s sake go quickly or they will get away.”
Mr Hare, followed by two or three police, without the slightest delay proceeded to the place indicated, on nearing which a shot, which struck Superintendent Hare in the arm and wounded him, was fired from inside the house, which was immediately surrounded by all the police present. Hare’s wound was not serious.
Contingents of police from Beechworth, Wangaratta and Benalla were telegraphed for and dispatched accordingly.
Ned Kelly was shot by Sergeant Steele and mortally wounded. The rest of the gang were surrounded in Jones’s Hotel, Glenrowan.
Byrne shot Jones, the landlord of the hotel.
The inhabitants of Glenrowan who were shut in the hotel by the gang are now free.
The firing between police and the outlaws continues.
There is no chance of the outlaws escaping.
Glenrowan, 1.20 p.m. – The fighting still continues, and considerable anxiety is manifested at the result, inasmuch as it is feared that if night should come on before Dan Kelly and Hart surrender, they may escape in the darkness.
All those who were liberated this morning report Byrne was shot dead in the hotel at five o’clock this morning. His two companions at once covered up the remains and returned to their posts.
The rest of the story has been damaged.
REMOVAL OF NED KELLY TO MELBOURNE
Ned Kelly was this morning removed by Captain Standish to the Melbourne Goal. Whilst in the lockup here last night and this morning he conversed freely with the police, Senior Constable Kelly had several conversations with him.
The constable asked him, on behalf of the widow of Sergeant Kennedy, if Kennedy had given him a letter before he died. He replied, “No, he fought to the last; and I had to shoot him or he would have shot either Byrne or myself. When he fall all he said was, ‘God forgive you.’”
Constable Kelly also said, “Is Fitzpatrick’s story that you shot him true?” and he replied, “Yes it was I who shot him.” He also said, “I shot the police at Stringy Bark Creek because if I had not done so they would have shot me. We would have been fools to have let them do that.”
The body of Byrne was brought to Benalla, and at an early hour this morning it was photographed. Miss Lloyd and Miss McIlroy were permitted to see the remains. They also saw Ned Kelly prior to his departure. Miss Lloyd bade him an affectionate farewell, and at the station she appeared dreadfully agitated.
INTENTIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT
The Government has not yet decided when and how the outlaw shall be tried, or whether he will be arraigned at Melbourne or Beechworth.
The Chief Secretary received the following telegram in the afternoon from Mr A. H. Palmer, Chief Secretary of Queensland:
“On the part of the Government I congratulate you on the destruction of that pest of society, the Kelly gang. We are pleased that O’Connor and our boys were of some service in the fray.”