Thank you to Kim and Peter for having us to stay for a couple of nights at your lovely house in Bunbartha. Winston especially says thank you for letting him have some sofa time and also to Oscar for letting him play with his toys.
We headed North to Echuca/Moama on the Murray River. There are a few of these twin towns either side of the Murray, as it forms the border between NSW and Victoria. Echuca is a large modern town but it feels as though you’ve stepped back in time when you walk through the Port of Echuca Precinct.
Port of Echuca Precinct speciality shops.
The main attraction though are the paddle steamers which cruise up and down the Murray all day.
Winston has learned to be a bit more careful when running down to the river for a dip after he sunk into some thick oozing mud and had to have a bath!
We couldn’t drive to North East Victoria without finding out more about the legendary bushranger Ned Kelly and we visited several historical sites in the Glenrowan area. It seems that Ned went on the run with his brother Dan and friends Joe Byrne and Steve Hart after a violent incident involving a policeman at the Kelly family home. Ned’s dear old ma was sentenced to 3 years hard labour for her part.
A shoot out at Stringy Bark Creek left 3 policemen dead and we visited the graves of Sergeant Michael Kennedy and Constables Thomas Lonigan and Michael Scanlan in Mansfield Cemetery.
The gang were declared outlaws and then carried out several daring bank robberies. Ned hatched a plan to derail a special police train sent from Melbourne, when it reached Glenrowan. The police received advance warning of the attack and surrounded Ned, his gang and several hostages who were inside the Glenrowan Inn. Then came the famous shoot-out on the 28th June 1880 when Ned and the others wore their home made armour.
An animatronic re-enactment at the Glenrowan tourist centre
Joe Byrne was shot dead whilst drinking whisky at the bar. It was thought that Dan and Steve committed suicide. Ned Kelly was captured, sentenced to death and hanged on 11th November 1880 at Melbourne Gaol. He was buried there in an unmarked grave. In 2011, Ned’s skeleton was identified using DNA but his skull was missing. The bones were returned to his descendants and he was buried with his family at Greta Cemetery in 2013.
After almost 140 years, it’s difficult to discover the truth behind the Ned Kelly legend. The Kelly family claimed that the police had it in for them and Ned had been trying to make an honest living. Many people were appalled when Ned’s mother was sentenced to hard labour. Thousands of people signed a petition to stop Ned’s execution.
