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2003 News
Vault
10/12/03 'Besieged' Video
VHS copies of Besieged
can be purchased for $38 plus postage. (No DVDs available yet.)
Enquiries:
Ronin
Films www.roninfilms.com.au
for more
information
PO Box 1005, Civic Square, Canberra ACT Australia 2608
Phone: 02 6248 0851 or Fax: 02 6249 1640
Email:
orders@roninfilms.com.au
17/10/03 'Something to talk
about' (Jacquie Schwind )
Source: The Chronicle Friday, October 17 2003 Page 3
Townspeople
come up with Kelly concept plans
A concept model and
design plans have been created to get Glenrowan residents thinking and
talking about what to see in the proposed Ned Kelly Interpretive Centre.
They go on display at the Glenrowan hotel today for a week before a touring
display at various Glenrowan locations. The concept has no approval for
procedure in any way. It is purely being placed in the community at this
stage to encourage discussion about the centres potential location, physical
structure, features and contents.
Glenrowan resident Gary Dean who is one of the 10 members of the
Glenrowan Improvers Masterplan Planning Committee said he had spoken to
Bill Denheld from Melbourne about the proposed centre and the obstacle
of the Glenrowan overpass. Mr Denheld, who shares a strong interest in
Kelly history and is an industrial designer, subsequently decided to collaborate
with Canberra architect, Penleigh Boyd to create a concept model
and plans.
As a result, Glenrowan residents can examine a 3D model of the town, one
in 775 scale and contoured in two metre levels, which includes a representation
of where and in what form the centre could be built. The Centre draws
on ideas put forward in the feasibility study. Concept plans illustrate
a building complex with a central foyer, interpretation hall, children's
activity areas, cinema, cafe/restaurant, tourist information centre, bookshop
and touring exhibition area.
Mr Dean said the concept plans incorporate a lookout tower over the foyer
which is 26 metres above floor level, a metre for every year of Ned Kelly's
life."The building has very little concrete and is mostly glass,
steel and redgum or other timbers" Mr Dean said. He believes
they will give Glenrowan residents much food for thought. " It's
designed to be something for people to look at, talk about and get an
idea of what could be done" Mr Dean said. " We want to
end up with something really good and we're only going to get one go at
this."
One major difference to the concept model and plans is the centre's positioning.
" It has different positioning to that mentioned in the feasibility
study." Mr Dean said. " Its only about 100 metres and
is located close to the siege site. It addresses the problem of having
to acquire further property - you don't have to." Mr Dean said
the different positioning didn't take up too much of the Lions Park area
and its siting over the railway line tracks, with floor level in line
with the top of the overpass, accommodated train requirements.
Caption to the picture, Glenrowan resident, Gary Dean, says concept plans
for the proposed Ned Kelly Interpretation Centre near the Glenrowan overpass
will stimulate discussion among locals as to what form the centre should
take. Website www.denheldid.com/nedcentre
Thanks to Bill Denheld for sending in this article.
28/10/03 'Stringybark site
needs to be listed'
Source: Border Mail (Print page 3)
The Victorian Government is
being urged to give special protection to stone remnants of chimneys at
Stringybark Creek which have a link to Ned Kelly. The call has been made
by Kelly enthusiasts Mr Bill Denheld, of Melbourne, and Mr Gary
Dean, of Glenrowan, who say they re-discovered the remains last year
using a surveyor's map dated 1884-1885.
The clash between the Kelly gang and police at Stringybark Creek in 1878
left three troopers dead and raised the bounty on the outlaws. Mr Denheld
said at the time one of the chimneys was part of a shingle hut while the
other was already in ruins. The significance is this hut pinpoints where
the police camp was, without that we wouldn't know," Mr Denheld said.
Ned Kelly noted the shingle hut in his Jerilderie Letter. "I came
on police tracks between table top and the bogs," Kelly wrote. "I
crossed them and returning in the evening I came on a different lot of
tracks making for the shingle hut."
Mr Denheld and Mr Dean want the Government, through the Department of
Sustainability and Environment, to protect the site to stop looters souveniring
rocks from the chimneys.
"It should become a heritage site under the Heritage Act,"
Mr Dean said. "At the moment all you need is a miner's licence
and you can do what you like."
15/10/03 'Ned Kelly takes
on Leeds' (Terry Ingram)
Source: Financial
Review
Ned Kelly is alive and well
in the Tower of London. Or at least in its northern offshoot in Leeds
known as the Royal Armouries.
He appears in one of
three current or pending exhibition reminders in the financial capital
of Britain's north of the ubiquity of Australiana. Bushrangers, a sculptor
and a cartoonist are being celebrated in an entirely uncoordinated and
coincidental homage to Australian collectables.
The exhibition featuring Kelly is called Outlaws. It can be seen at the
Royal Armouries from October 26 to November 2 and features a real live
Ned Kelly, played by Rob Temple, and a replica of his armour.
The museum has a troupe of actors who buttonhole visitors and otherwise
re-enact the museum's interpretation of history. Ned will give a 20 minute
oration ending with "such is life".
Other outlaws featuring in the exhibition include Guy Fawkes and Bonnie
and Clyde but it's Ned who has been chosen for the poster...
Three policemen slain by the
Ned Kelly gang 125 years ago have been remembered at the Mansfield-Stringybark
Remembrance Festival.
A service was held at Mansfield yesterday for Sergeant Michael Kennedy
and constables Michael Scanlan and Thomas Lonigan, who were murdered at
Stringybark Creek on October 26, 1878. The service was part of events
to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Victoria Police.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon and 22 new police recruits
led a parade through Mansfield to the police monument, where she unveiled
a new plaque honouring the fallen policemen.
Historically significant witness
statements prepared for the murder trial of Ned Kelly in 1880 are now
back in public hands, the Minister for Victorian Communities, John
Thwaites said tonight.
“These rare depositions, prepared around the time of Kelly’s
committal hearing in Beechworth, help fill some of the missing jigsaw
pieces of the Ned Kelly story,” Mr Thwaites said.
The Public Record Office Victoria – on behalf of all Victorians –
tonight purchased the documents at auction for $20,000. Ned Kelly was
tried for the murder of Constable Thomas Lonigan at Stringy Bark Creek,
however the court documents show that the prosecution
had also begun preparing the case against Kelly for the murder of Constable
Michael Scanlon.
“Kelly was eventually tried and convicted for the murder
of Constable Lonigan, but until these documents came to light historians
were not aware that the prosecution had actually begun the paperwork for
the second prosecution for the murder of Constable Scanlon,”
Mr Thwaites said. “The mere existence of these copy depositions
are highly significant.”
The records will now join a $20 million collection of Ned Kelly records
at the Public Record Office Victoria. “I am very pleased that
these documents have now been secured for the public record with a winning
bid of $20,000,” Mr Thwaites said. “The two documents
both contain significant annotations that will give historians new insight
into the workings of the legal process in the Kelly trial.”
While originally in public ownership, the documents were discovered in
private boxes last year in a Camberwell home. The family has asked to
remain anonymous.
“In these circumstances, the Public Record Office Victoria (PROV)
is obliged to purchase at market rates,” said Keeper of Public
Records, Justine Heazlewood. “Now these important documents
will once more be accessible to all Victorians.”
Mr Thwaites said PROV intended to digitise the records and make them available
on its Ned Kelly website www.prov.vic.gov.au/nedonline.
The documents will also be available for exhibitions
and be on public viewing at Public Record Office Victoria in North Melbourne.
A new Kelly Gang, complete
with a Ned-style suit of armour, plans to raid Parliament House in Canberra,
looking for money. It's a delegation from "Kelly country" of
north-eastern Victoria seeking support for a proposed $NZ17,000,000 Ned
Kelly Interpretive Centre at Glenrowan - where the gunman-bushranger was
captured in 1880. About 100 politicians including Tourism Minister Joe
Hockey, ministerial advisers and media are being invited to see a formal
video presentation of the plans, supported by seven municipalities in
the area.
A suit of armour worn by Kelly gang member Joe Byrne who was killed in
the 1880 Glenrowan siege, is being loaned to the group by its private
owner in Canberra.
The party will include two Kelly gang descendants, Anthony Griffith
and Ned Lloyd.
A spokesman says the concept of the new centre is a broad interpretation
of Kelly's life - descendents in the area of his family and of the policemen
he killed remain sharply divided to this day on his character. The interpretation
would include the Glenrowan Heritage Tourism Precinct, enabling visitors
to view key sites including where the siege and Ned's capture occurred
and where the gang planned to derail a police train. In the centre would
be an auditorium where the visitors could look through a window - in reality
a wall screen - and view the siege site as it looked in 1880.
Apart from Glenrowan, among stops on a Ned Kelly trail would be:
- Beechworth, where
Ned and his mother were once imprisoned.
- Benalla, where
the district historical society is custodian of the bloodstained green
sash worn by Kelly under his armour- during the Glenrowan siege.
- Jerilderie across
the borde in NSW, where Kelly wrote what became known as the Jerilderie
Letter seeing himself as a victim of ancient wrongs against the
Irish people.
Delegation leader Irene
Grant, Mayor of Wangaratta, says the Ned Kelly Interpretive Centre
would inject an estimated $A6.9 million a year into the area, and create
more than 120 new jobs.
Thanks to Sharon Hollingsworth for bringing this article to my
attention.
Victoria Police recruits are
honing their marching skills as they prepare to lead the town parade at
next month’s Mansfield–Stringybark Remembrance Festival. The
festival forms part of this year’s celebrations marking 150 years
of Victoria Police serving the community. Held on weekend of 25-26
October 2003, the festival features a number of events based around
Mansfield, including a recruit swearing-in ceremony on the Sunday morning.
Twenty-four recruits will be officially sworn-in as Victoria Police members
after completing 20-weeks of training at the Victoria Police Academy,
the first time the ceremony has been held away from the Academy. The new
police officers will then lead a town parade through Mansfield to the
Police Monument commemorating the lives of Sergeant Michael Kennedy and
Constables Michael Scanlan and Thomas Lonigan. Chief Commissioner Christine
Nixon will unveil the monument to the fallen members, who lost their lives
at the hands of men who would later become known as the Kelly Gang.
A highlight of the day will be a dramatic public re-enactment
of those Stringybark Creek events, which have now become part
of Australian folklore.
Police will hold a memorial service on Sunday afternoon to honour their
fallen colleagues, who died in the line of duty exactly 125-years-ago
to the day. Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon said it was a significant
occasion for the new Constables to begin their police careers. "The
police officers killed and injured at Stringybark Creek were victims of
one of the most horrific incidents in Australian history," Ms
Nixon said. "We pay tribute to our fallen colleagues, who throughout
history have died in the line of duty. We recognise their selfless actions
in protecting this community," she said.
Senior Sergeant Bruce Klinge of Mansfield Police said it was important
for the new police members to realise they were joining part of an extended
family. "I think it is symbolic that twenty-four police members
will begin their careers on the anniversary of events 125-years-ago where
three police members careers were tragically cut short," said
Senior Sergeant Klinge. He said he was aware the Stringybark events not
only had great significance for the local community, they also held an
important place in the Australian psyche.
Descendants of police members killed and injured by the Kelly Gang this
month helped launch Victoria Police Blue Ribbon Day, which honours the
137 Victoria Police members who have died on duty. Blue Ribbon Day coincides
with National Police Remembrance Day to be held on Monday 29 September
2003.
Thanks to Sharon Hollingsworth for bringing this article to my
attention.
The rural city of Wangaratta,
in north-east Victoria, has secured another key strategic site which forms
part of the Kelly Siege Heritage Precinct at Glenrowan. The council will
work closely with Heritage Victoria to undertake an archaeological dig
at the vacant site to determine whether any relics from the Kelly era
remain. Mayor Irene Grant says the purchase is an exciting step forward
in the Glenrowan revitalisation project and helps to ensure Glenrowan
is recognised as the keeping place of the Kelly legend. "Well, council
decided that it would purchase the vacant allotment at 50 Gladstone Street,
Glenrowan, which was the site of the former McDonnell's Railway Tavern
and it was part of the Ned Kelly story," she said. "It was a
very important location in the times of the Kelly uprising."
The Rural City of Wangaratta
has secured a key strategic site that will form part of the Kelly Siege
heritage precinct at Glenrowan. The vacant land was the site of the former
McDonnells Railway tavern which was well recognised as the “Kelly
Sympathisers Pub” during the reign of Ned Kelly and his gang... Interpretive
signage would be installed to explain the role of the tavern in the Kelly
saga...
Thanks to Sharon Hollingsworth for
bringing the above two articles to my attention.
10/09/03 In memory of the
cops, not the robbers (Suzanne Carbone)
Source: The Age newspaper (Picture: Simon Schluter)
Police recruit Tim Noisette
knows too well the dangers lurking on the job. He only has to look to
that infamous encounter of cops and robbers involving the outlaw Ned Kelly.
Mr Noisette's great-grandfather, Constable Thomas McIntyre, was injured
during the Kelly Gang shooting at Stringybark Creek on October 26, 1878,
which claimed the lives of Sergeant Michael Kennedy and Constables Thomas
Lonigan and Scanlon (pictured below).
 If
the 1 million blue and white checked ribbons to be distributed n the lead-up
to Blue Ribbon Day on September 29 serves as memorials to all police officers
who have died on duty, then Mr Noisette is a living reminder of the risks
police face. At the launch of the Blue Ribbon Day campaign yesterday,
Mr Noisette was joined by another descendant of those involved in the
Kelly Gang shootings, Senior Constable Mick Kennedy (pictured
right), the great-grandson of slain Sergeant Kennedy .
Unlike some of the stories about Ned Kelly, Mr Noisette, 27, said
there was nothing romantic about killing police. It disappoints him that
accounts of the police involvement at Stringybark Creek have often been
overshadowed by the attention given to Kelly. "Thomas McIntyre
was criticised in the media at the time for surviving," Mr Noisette
said. "He was regarded as a coward for escaping with his life,
even though he was unarmed."
 In
Victoria police's 150-year history, 137 officers have died at work - 29
of them murdered. Mr Noisette (pictured far left),
who gave up a career as a journalist to apply his investigative skills
to the force, said he was unfazed by the dangers of life on the beat.
"That's what I joined the police for - to protect the community,"
he said. If his great-grandfather had been killed, "I wouldn't
be here".
Senior Constable Kennedy (pictured left, seated
right of Mr Noisette), 52, had dreamed of becoming a dairy farmer,
but after reading about his family history he gravitated to the blue uniform
32 years ago. He scoffs at Kelly's portrayal: "Unfortunately there
are a lot of people out there trying to make a saint out of a bully, a
buffoon and a horse thief."
…Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon said next month's
125th anniversary of the Stringybark Creek shooting showed the high price
for being a police officer. "These cold-blooded killings will
stand as a stark reminder to how dangerous policing can be,"
she said.
...Blue Ribbon Day began in 1998 as a tribute to slain officers Sergeant
Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rod Miller, and is now a day of remembrance
for all police killed on duty. To mark the 150th anniversary of Victoria
Police, a service will be held at the police memorial in Kings Domain
at 10am on Monday, September 29. The event coincides with National Police
Remembrance Day.
21/08/03
CATALYST ABC TV / ANSTO Investigation (Paul Willis - Reporter)
The big question
about the armour is 'how was it made?' The armour tested was the suit
that belonged to Joe Byrne (now owned by Rupert Hammond).
Was it made by a professional blacksmith or by the amateur Kelly gang
out in the bush? The key to finding out who made the armour lies in the
temperature that the metal was heated to. A professional blacksmith uses
a charcoal fire and bellows to heat the steel to yellow hot, that is over
1000 degrees celcius, before shaping it. A normal bush fire has a much
lower temperature and would only be able to get the metal to cherry red
or 750 degrees, at this temperature it's a lot harder to shape.
ANSTO (The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) is
the only place in Australia where all the tests can be done under one
roof. A number of analytical techniques and a large team of scientists
from ANSTO, the Australian National University and the National Museum
of Australia were involved. Gordon Throrogood a physicist from ANSTO explained
that the tests would examine the structure of the steel, what changes
to it have occurred, how it started out initially, so the scientific team
could determine how it was made.
- The helmet was tested
in the nuclear reactor. To understand the internal structure of the
metal the helmet was blasted with neutrons. Which did not damage the
armour in any way, but gave vital clues as to its composition.
Neutron diffraction: this process provides information on how the atoms
are deformed in the crystal lattice of the armour as a result of heat
treatment or being worked with a hammer or something similar.
This test confirmed that it's made of the same type of steel that would
have been available in the 1880's.
- The X-Ray department tested
one of the side plates. To determine what temperature the armour reached,
if any of the trace elements were changed, and what the starting material
was.
X-ray fluorescence: x-rays from radioactive sources were used to generate
characteristic radiation from elements within the armour, confirming
the alloy content of the steel. Lead detected at some places indicated
where bullets had ricocheted off the armour.
X-ray diffraction: this process is similar to neutron diffraction. The
x-rays interact with the crystal structure near the surface, whereas
neutrons examine the bulk of the material.
These tests indicated that significantly it had only been heated until
it was 'cherry red'.
- The back and breast plates
were tested using metallography, to get information about the carbides
that indicates the actual temperature it's been to.
Metallography can find out exactly what temperature the metal was heated
to by looking at the individual metal crystals. To do this a small part
of the surface of the plates had to be ground down and etch it with
acid to reveal the individual metal crystals. Then looked at under the
microscope.
Metallography: areas of the armour that had been scuffed bare while
on display were polished without mechanical deformation, the area etched
in acid and the revealed metal structure (which proved to be steel)
was replicated with cellulose acetate film
There was a great variety of results, differentiating the original areas
of the metal and those that had been changed when they fabricated them
into a suit of armour.
The heating of the metal was "very patchy". In some places
it hasn't been heated enough, and bent cold, and in other spots it's
been subjected to extended periods in a heat source of about 750 degrees.
After two and half days of
testing and examining, the team reassembles to put together what they've
found.
The findings of the research according
to Gordon Throrogood were that the armour was probably likely to have
been made by a "bush forge" and not made by a blacksmith. He
said a bit more work needed to be done but the tests show the metal only
got to about 700, 750 degrees C. the sorts of temperatures that are consistent
with a fire that able to be built in the bush and kept fairly hot in order
to work the metal.
Extract from transcript:
Narration: So the burning question is…could it have been made
by the Kelly gang?
Gordon Throrogood: "Oh yeah definitely, definitely. It looks
like it's been made by people who haven't had the time to sit down and
work out how they're going to do it. It's been made in a hurry. If it
had been made by a blacksmith and people who weren't worried about being
watched and stuff the craftsmanship would be a lot better… so yeah
definitely it was made by the Kelly Gang. Yeah there's no doubt."
Narration: …It seems that the accepted view of how the armour
was made could be wrong…
Full Program Transcript: http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s929067.htm#top
ANSTO Site: http://www.ansto.gov.au/info/scienceweek/joebyrne.html
Extra pieces of the Ned Kelly
jigsaw have emerged with the discovery of copies of 1880 witness statements.
The rare copies, found at the bottom of an old box of documents in a Melbourne
home early last year, contain the evidence of some of the crucial players
in the Kelly gang drama.
They include the accounts of Constable McIntyre, the sole police survivor
of the triple shooting at Stringybark Creek, and of Edwin Living, a bank
accountant to whom Ned Kelly handed his famed Jerilderie letter.
The two documents have been
inspected by Public Record Office staff and will be auctioned in October
at Leonard Joel's in South Yarra. Auctioneer Lachlan Burnet invited Kelly
legal expert, Victoria's Chief Justice John H. Phillips, to inspect
the items.
Justice Phillips, author of The Trial of Ned Kelly and two performance
works, said the depositions would have been hand-copied by a Crown Law
Office clerk. "These are pretty good ones," Justice Phillips
said. "He seems to have written down the actual words used by
the witnesses. As time went by, clerks tended to abbreviate."
The documents were prepared around the time of Kelly's committal hearing,
in Beechworth's Court of Petty Sessions in August 1880, for the murder
of Constables Thomas Lonigan and Michael Scanlon at Stringybark Creek.
Sgt Michael Kennedy was also killed. One has the accounts of 10 Crown
witnesses; the other of six witnesses.
Justice Phillips said the copies would have been among about six made
before trial, others going to the judge, defence and public officials.
The Public Record Office and Scotch College hold other copies. He said
the notes in the margins were probably written by a law clerk or instructing
solicitor for the attention of Crown counsel Smythe and Chomley, preparing
the Supreme Court trial in Melbourne. "These are things of interest
to him, posed as either further questions for the witnesses or issues
for Smythe and Chomley," he said.
Pencilled notes next to McIntyre's account of Lonigan's murder include:
"Wound in the eye", "Saw a large bloodstain on his coat",
"How did you recognise them? He never saw them before", "Ammunition
Extra". One note states: "Yes, cowardly."
Other queries include, "Why did Kennedy go reconnoitring then?"
and "Why did Kennedy not seek to escape instead of McIntyre?"
Justice Phillips said: "He's
got a note 'no duty to shoot', looking at a possible defence Kelly might
raise at the trial. "He's really concerned with Kelly at the
trial saying: 'You came out to shoot me, rather than arrest me'."
Other important statements are made by Mansfield's Dr Samuel Reynolds,
who examined Lonigan's corpse. Written in the margin is: "Were the
bullet wounds made before or after death?" Justice Phillips said
he would like a public institution such as the State Library, National
Trust or Public Record Office to obtain the copy depositions, but realised
they would go to the highest bidder.
The papers were found last
year among masses of boxes in the Camberwell home of a prominent doctor
and general, whose family wants to remain anonymous. "I was told
that he came home with them about 30 years ago. His wife could remember
he was very excited about his purchase, but then he put them away,"
Mr Burnet said. "He had a large collection."
Company chief executive Warren Joel expects the documents to fetch $20,000-$30,000.
Thanks to Sharon Hollingsworth for
bringing this article to my attention.
 The
Big Picture: Outlawed: The Real Ned Kelly
at 8:30 pm Wednesday 6 August 2003
With award winning novels
and glossy feature films this year Ned Kelly has gone global.
Narrated by renowned Australian actor Jack Thompson, this documentary
tells the story of a man who for most Australians is our first revolutionary-a
persecuted hero who fought to tear his country from the shackles of Mother
England and free his people from the corruption of British rule. From
the moment the Kelly Gang burst out of the Glenrowan Inn in 1880 clad
in suits of iron forged from old farm ploughs, he was set not only to
take on the colony's rogue police force, but to become Australia's very
own knight in shining armour.
Today his values are touted as those of a nation-he is our beloved 'underdog',
the true 'Aussie battler'. At the Sydney 2000 Olympics, hundreds of Ned
Kellys cavorted around in the Opening Ceremony, their armour suits glinted
in the beam of the international spotlight, their guns fizzed with firework
sparks. Ned Kelly had made it.
Now descendants of the Kelly Gang, the police officers murdered at Stringybark
Creek and the Glenrowan hostages, alongside leading Kelly experts and
Australia's number one criminal profiler, help build a far more alarming
picture of the man. Ned Kelly may not be the rebel hero he is cut out
to be-he may have been little more than a horse thief, a bank robber,
a cop killer, a colonial terrorist, a murderous thug.
Production Details:
Narrated by Jack Thompson. Produced and directed by Mark Lewis. Produced
by Windfall Films and Look Television for The Australian Broadcasting
Corporation in association with Channel 4 and National Geographic Channels
International. 1 x 55 minutes.
Legend has long held that
the armour worn by Ned Kelly's gang more than 120 years ago was manufactured
from parts of stolen and donated ploughs. But while some believe the bushrangers
co-opted a sympathetic blacksmith to forge the suits for them, others
claim the outlaws did it themselves, beating the steel into shape over
a green log after heating it in a bush furnace.
Now science is being used to sift folklore from fact. Researchers at Sydney's
nuclear reactor this week began extensive testing of the suit worn by
Ned's No. 2 in the famous gang, Joe Byrne, to determine its origin and
mode of manufacture.
Gordon Thorogood, a physicist at the Australian Nuclear Science
and Technology Organisation at Lucas heights, said ANSTO was the only
place in Australia able to carry out the necessary range of analytical
techniques, which included firing a beam of neutrons from the reactor
through the armour. Preliminary results indicated
the steel had been heated in a low-temperature bush fire, rather than
a smithie's furnace, Mr Thorogood said. So it was very likely the bushrangers
"did their own work".
The armour also appeared to have been made from a plough share, he said,
but detailed comparisons between steel from the suit and steel from old
ploughs was needed to confirm this.
Joe Byrnes's suit, consisting of helmet, and front, back, and groin plates,
was passed from Superintendent Hare, the only policeman shot at the Glenrowan
siege, to his sister-in-law, Janet Lady Clarke. Her great-grandson, Rupert
Hammond, its custodian, said it was a treasured gift for nursing Hare
back to health. His grandfather, however, regarded Kelly as a criminal
and moved it to his cellar, where it lay hidden for years, "under
horse blankets and tonnes of mallee roots". This cool, dry environment
contributed to its excellent state of preservation, Mr Thorogood said.
David Hallam, a conservator at the National Museum of Australia,
said he realised there was potential for Joe Byrne's armour to tell its
own story, "and debunk some of the theories", when he
first saw it as part of preparations for an exhibition on outlaws to be
held later this year.
The resulting testing project is a collaboration between the museum, the
University of Canberra and ANSTO.
The tests can determine whether the steel is of a high quality, and so
likely to have been used in a plough. ANSTO researcher Graham Smith has
peeled off layers of metal so thin they are transparent, to detect whether
the metal was worked at a high or low temperature.
Thanks to Sharon Hollingsworth for
bringing this article to my attention.
Return to Current NEWS
page
My thanks to the various sources who brought
to my attention many of the articles and information in the news section,
particularly S. Hollingsworth, B. Denheld, D. White and E. Hollow.
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