Kelly Gang Rides Again |
A feature article in Saturdays Melbourne HeraldSun by Mike Edmonds Sat 8 Sept 2007
Ned's reputation
is unfair according to a new gang
MIKE There's a new Kelly
Gang roaming the central Victorian bush. But this gang has no interest in
robbing banks, holding up Cobb &Co coaches and shooting it out with the
"traps". |
![]() Living link David Gorman 81, from Berrigan, picture FIONA HAMILTON |
The others are Graham "Dook"
Gibb, a landowner at Bobinawarrah, David Harris from Wangaratta and Arthur
Hall from Glenrowan, both places well known to the original Kelly Gang. It's perched on a flat area
on the side of one of the thousands of High Country gullies surrounding
Bobinawarrah.
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The gang had big public sympathy in the area because of historic links with the Eureka Rebellion, which occurred around Ned Kelly's birth, and more recently the founding of the Australian Natives Association, of which former Melbourne Herald proprietor Samuel Winter* was a founding member. The ANA's main task at the time was keeping the federation movement on track, and oddly enough many people in the Bobinawarrah area about the time the Kelly Gang was on the rampage had family connections in the Corowa - Berrigan - Jerilderie region. The initial meeting of the
Federation Convention was held in Corowa** in 1893. David Gorman, 81 of Berrigan is a living link between the nationalist activities of the old revolutionary families, which spawned the Federation movement, and the Kelly gang sympathisers who thwarted the authorities every move to hunt the Kelly gang down. Members of his family were
involved in the federation movement while being Kelly gang sympathisers.
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Their crimes were seen by many in the federation and republican movements as part of the battle for nationhood and a rebellion against British rule. To many people the portrayal of the gang as callous robbers and brutal killers was a plot hatched by spin doctors working for the British Crown. Today Bill Denheld and his
backers believe the same - that Ned Kelly was a lawbreaker, but was also one
of the unsung heroes deeply involved in cementing the mood that led to the
formation of the Commonwealth of Australia.
Bill Denheld with David
Gorman at Berrigan NSW. David is a direct descendant of the Gorman family
that lived next door to the Kelly's at Wallan East Victoria.
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Story line by Bill Denheld and
reported by journalist Mike Edmonds of
the Melbourne Herald Sun Saturday 8 Sept 07 captures two stories - One is about the site finding of the 'Hut Behind the School' at Bobinawarrah in Victoria where the Kelly gang hid out during the winter period of 1879. The second story was the synergy of the Kelly outbreak with the increased memberships of The Australian Natives Association ANA and the Federation League both for a better peoples voice in a new parliament. The closeness of the Kelly family
with their direct Irish neighbors ' the Gorman family ' and in particular one family member who grew up with Ned
Kelly, - then went
on to become 'Chairman' of the Federation League at the ' Berrigan ' branch that initiated
the first Federation meeting at that town. Shortly after a second meeting was
organised at Corowa because it was more central for all concerned
at which E J Gorman was the Convener and
Secretariat of that meeting
which sealed and delivered the positive move towards a Federation for Australia
in 1901. Writer Mike Edmonds has used
his
poetic license to knit the story together.
Thanks to Mike and the
Melbourne Herald Sun to bring this unrecognized Kelly association
to
our colonial ambitions for a fairer society, and finally to Federation.
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