Highly respected journalist Mike Munro, presenter of the series LAWLESS,
has unwittingly been led astray by the “experts” who he believes have
solved the mysteries of the Stringybark Creek (SBC) police shootings by
the Kelly Gang in October 1878.
Please click on video to start viewing preview. |
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The photo below shows Mike Munro and Adam Ford viewing a Lidar 3D “fly-over” of Stringy Bark Creek (SBC). The scan is comprised of multiple images which capture the high and low points in the landscape. When these levels are averaged out it produces contours of the terrain. The scan is certainly something which will wow the viewer. But does it assist to reveal the truth about SBC? |
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The building circled in red are the toilets opposite the SBC picnic
ground reserve. |
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The image below shows the other features in the vicinity of the picnic ground. No attempt has been made to show the actual site of the police shootings. I have added this in myself (the red ‘V’ which shows the angle of view corresponding to the Burman photograph). The Kelly tree shown in the image is the third such tree that has been identified at SBC and has no relationship to the site where the police were shot. The Lawless documentary will use this tree to suggest the killings happened in the area identified by the yellow circle. |
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In the photo below, Adam Ford tries to associate the hut 'splodge' with the scan. A red arrow marks the site which he wants to tell us was where the police camp was. But nothing ever happened at this location. The true site of the shootings is actually 250 metres UP the creek near the ruins of two small huts, the fireplaces of which can be seen in the bush today. |
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If you look at the map above, you will see the figures 804 M and 645 M. These are distance markers measured from the junction of SBC and Ryans Cks. These distances are where survey maps prepared by surveyors in 1884 and 1885 identified the remains of an old hut. Both these sites have been dismissed by SBC experts as the site of the police camp. But with the aid of that flying Lidar3D scanner machine, Adam Ford claims that the hut site is rather miraculously somewhere in between. This same site however was documented by the CSI@SBC team in their 2011 report. They described it as a small pile of rocks to the north-west of the tree known as the Kelly tree. The site was known well before Adam Ford came on the scene.
Shown below is a bird’s eye view of this site. But what is the truth
about these rocks? |
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The photograph below shows the so-called stone fireplace that Adam Ford
claims to have discovered. It is a rather unnatural square cut block.
Next to the block (where the red arrow points) is a very flat surfaced
stone which does not all appear to predate 1878. I suspect they might
have excavated rocks brought in to the site years later when the picnic
ground was being established. Alternatively it might be the remains of
a small shack built around 1885 by the landowner James McCrum.
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The fireplaces in these huts would have been constructed of easily
obtainable local rocks (ordinary large river tumbled stones). From the
appearance of the stones in the photograph above, these appear to be
shaped or cut in the manner of large 'blue stone pitchers' used in town
buildings or pavements, and must have been brought into this area.
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![]() Link to Dee's comprehensive Blog where the CSI at SBC report, the DELWP StringyBark Creek signage is all being discussed, and no doubt also this Foxtel Lawless Ned Kelly episode. |
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Stringybark Creek News-updates, After four years,13th May 2008, Jeremy Smith of Heritage Victoria gives the go ahead to list the Kelly sites at Stringybark Ck, Kellys Ck, on the Victorian Heritage register. Since that time nothing has been done to undertake any proper archaeological work to verify the sites. In March 2014, Bill and Leo Kennedy identify a most likely spot where his G Grandfather Sergeant Kennedy was murdered . |
![]() Valid links with the Past. New Roads map courtesy Sheila Hutchinson and Fay Johnson 2004. |
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Back to Ironicon Map sources: Lands department records, copy from book Ned Kelly The Authentic Illustrated story. Keith McMenomy 1984. This page was first uploaded 22 October 2017. Copyright: Bill Denheld |