MATT HOLBROOK, REPORTER: Edward Kelly. Hi, how's it going?
NED KELLY: Oh, uh... Good. MATT: Caref... Mind your... Mind your head.
You can... NED: Oop!
MATT: You can maybe just take it off for now, and, uh, we'll see how we go.
NED: Yep. MATT: Take a seat.
NED: You've really made it hard for me to get in here, haven't you?
MATT: Is it alright if I call you Ned?
NED: No. MATT: Ok.
NED: Nah, just kidding! Mate, you can call
me whatever you like. People like to call me larrikin, top bloke,
bushranger, outlaw, hero. MATT: Some people also call you 'police murderer'.
But we'll come back to that one. For now, I'd like to start with learning a
bit more about your family, can you tell me about them?
NED: Oh right! Yeah my mum was tough as nails I tell you that. She outlived me.
And my dad, he was an interesting fellow, everyone called him Red.
He was Irish, they were both Irish. Poor. Dad actually came here as a convict.
Landed in Tasmania; got done for stealing a few of pigs.
MATT: How'd he get caught? NED: Well obviously someone squealed.
It was a long time ago now but I was born in Beveridge in Victoria way back in... December?
MAN: Yeah, it was December. NED: Yeah, December 1854. I was one of 8 kids.
Mum and dad had quite a few kids so they kept them busy.
Look, I don't think they had it easy, no, Dad had a few run ins with police.
He was an Irish Catholic ex-convict so.... they had it out for him.
MATT: You once... you once described the police as:
NED: A parcel of big ugly fat-necked wombat headed, fat bellied, magpie legged, narrow
hipped, splaw-footed sons of Irish bailiffs or English landlords.
MATT: Uhhh... NED: Look, they were corrupt. They stole for
themselves. Us, a whole bunch of others, we were poor farmers.
But you see these squatters they would take big chunks of land and get rich off it.
The British tried to make them share, but at the end of the day they they paid out the
police officers to come and harass us. MATT: You took on a lot of responsibility
pretty early in life. NED: When I was 12, my father died. Left just
me, the eldest to look after the family. MATT: You essentially became a bushranger.
Well, as a teenager you were a known accomplice of a famous one, Harry Power and you were
arrested a few times before one charge in particular stuck and that sent you to jail
for three years. NED: Yeah. Three years experience in Beechworth
Pentridges dungeons for receiving a stolen horse.
But here's the kicker I didn't know it was stolen, I just got it from me mate!
So there you go, was it my fault? MATT: in April 1878, a police officer tried
to arrest your brother, Dan, for stealing horses.
NED: Nah mate don't get me started! This whole thing is a fabrication.
That Fitzpatrick fella reckons that I shot him. I didn't.
FITZPATRICK: He shot me. NED: Yeaaaaaaaah, I shot him. [LAUGHS]
NED: They locked up my mum, they locked up... a few other people who had nothing to do with it.
It was really unfair, really unfair. And everyone knew it.
MATT: So then you, your brother, and some
of your friends went into hiding and eventually became known as...
NED: The Kelly Gang. MATT: I just want you to take a look at this.
NED: Oouf, 2500-pounds. Murder of police. It was never meant end like this.
No, the police, they got a tip off that we were up at Stringybark Creek, and, well, the
long and short of it is... NEWSPAPER REPORTER: Atrocious murder by bushrangers.
NED: Yeah, we shot three cops. From that point on we were declared Outlaws, and it meant
that we could be taken "dead or alive". Shot on sight pretty much.
So ah, yeah, months and months went on, but we ah, escaped the old po po.
MATT: Why were you never caught? NED: Well the short answer is police just
didn't know the countryside like we did. POLICE: Have you seen Ned Kelly?
PERSON: Sorry no, haven't seen him anywhere. NED: We had a lot of people looking out for
us actually. People who had their own struggles and at
the end of the day they could see we were fighting for them as well.
MATT: You robbed banks. You took entire towns hostage.
NED: Ah nah nah but yeah, most of them actually enjoyed that one.
You see we burned mortgages and shared our loot with them.
MATT: You went on to kill another man, Aaron Sheritt, who you suspected of being a police
informant. NED: Yeah, he was a police informant.
Yeah by now we knew the police were after us so we tried to draw them out.
See we tried to take out the line at Glenrowan, and anyone that would be left alive well,
we would be there waiting for them. MATT: But someone tipped them off.
NED: But someone tipped them off. MATT: At Glenrowan you had this with you.
NED: I did. MATT: Looks pretty strong, useful, heavy...
Is it easy to make? NED: Easy to make? This? Easy to make! Mate,
this is made out of old ploughs, iron, heavy iron - do you think it's easy to make?
Yeah I was just sitting there with me hammer going bang bang. My brother walks in going
- DAN KELLY: Awww, that looks pretty difficult.
NED: Yeah Dan of course it looks difficult, it's fifty kilos of solid iron.
But no, it wasn't easy. MATT: Could it withstand a bullet?
NED: Yeah! As many as you like. Go on, get yourself a revolver, give it a go.
MATT: Ned, we don't have any firearms here, this is a television studio.
NED: You've got to give me a warning first... MATT: I appreciate the enthusiasm...
Ah, it was at Glenrowan in June of 1880, that you made your last stand.
The rest of your gang was killed in the fighting, but you were wounded, captured and, later,
sentenced to death by hanging. NED: Yeah, and you know what? People rallied
in the streets for me, nobody wanted me dead. There was even a petition going round with,
like, 32,000 signatures on it. They could see I was fighting for them, for
the poor and against corruption. MATT: You were convicted of murder. Those
things, by your own admission did happen. NED: Yes. And I paid the price, on 11 November
1880. MATT: After you died, there was a Royal Commission
Victorian police and their conduct during the Kelly Outbreak.
It exposed corruption and problems in the police force. And led to some big changes
in the way it operated. After all this time, you're still really famous,
both as a kind of underdog hero some people celebrate... and also as a killer and outlaw
others despise. What do you say to that?
NED: Such is life. MATT: Thanks Ned.
NED: Nah just kidding MATT: Appreciate your time.
NED: Likewise, thanks for having me on.