Dan Kelly facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Dan Kelly
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Dan Kelly illustration (1878)
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| Born | 1 June 1861 |
| Died | 28 June 1880 (aged 19) Glenrowan, Victoria, Australia
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| Cause of death | Killed by the police |
Dan Kelly (born June 1, 1861 – died June 28, 1880) was an Australian bushranger and outlaw. He was the youngest brother of the famous bushranger Ned Kelly. Dan and his brother were involved in the deaths of three policemen. With two friends, they formed the group known as the Kelly Gang. Dan Kelly died during the well-known siege at Glenrowan.
The Kelly Gang is a very popular topic in Australian history. More books have been written about them than almost anything else. They were even the subject of the world's first full-length feature movie, The Story of the Kelly Gang, made in 1906. The gang robbed banks and took over towns. They caused a lot of fear in Victoria and New South Wales. For two years, the Victorian police searched for them. They even arrested friends and family members, but they could not find the gang.
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Dan Kelly's Early Life
Dan Kelly's father, John "Red" Kelly, was from Ireland. He was a convict who had been sent to Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) in 1842. He was likely held in the convict gaol at Port Arthur.
In 1848, after his time in gaol, Red Kelly moved to Victoria. He started working as a farmer near Beveridge. He built a simple wooden house there. This house on Kelly Street is still standing today. Over the years, more rooms were added, and it now has 11 rooms.
Red married an Irish girl named Ellen Quinn in Melbourne in 1850. They had seven children together. These included Annie (born 1853), Edward "Ned" (born 1854), Maggie (born 1856), Jim (born 1859), Dan (born 1861), Kate (born 1862), and Grace (born 1863).
Moving to Greta
In 1864, Dan Kelly's family moved north to a farm in Avenel. His father, Red Kelly, took a calf without permission. He was sent to gaol for six months. Dan was only five years old when he first had trouble with the police. They thought he had taken a horse.
Dan's father died in 1866. In 1867, his mother, Ellen Kelly, moved the family to a small farm. This farm was near Greta in north-east Victoria. Ellen Kelly's two sisters and two brothers lived in the Greta area. The Quinn family, Ellen's relatives, were well known to the police.
Dan Kelly had more trouble with the law when he was just 10 years old. He and his brother Jim, who was 12, were arrested by Constable Flood. They were riding a horse that did not belong to them. Jim was working for a farmer and had taken the horse to ride home. Constable Flood did not believe them. The boys had to spend two nights in a prison cell.
In 1875, Dan Kelly and his cousins, the Lloyds, traveled to New South Wales. Like many young men, they looked for seasonal farm work. They worked in the Riverina area and on the Monaro High Plains. This group of friends was known as "the Greta mob." They often went out together to hotels, dances, and horse races. By 1876, they were well known for visiting nearby towns. These towns included Wangaratta, Beechworth, and Benalla.
During a visit to Benalla in 1876, Dan was stopped for taking a saddle. The police let him go because they did not have enough evidence. Dan and his cousins had more trouble with the police in October 1877. They went to a shop for food and supplies, but it was closed. When the owner refused to open, Dan Kelly broke down the door. They were accused of damaging property (the door) and taking items worth £113. The boys went into hiding. The police spent three weeks searching for them. Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick told Ned Kelly to convince them to give themselves up. In court, the police could not prove most of the accusations. However, Dan went to prison for one month for damaging property worth £10.
On April 15, 1878, Constable Fitzpatrick went to the Kelly house. He wanted to arrest Dan Kelly for taking horses. Dan had been seen in Chiltern riding a horse that was not his. What happened at the house is now called the "Fitzpatrick incident." There was a fight with Fitzpatrick. He said the Kelly family had tried to kill him. Dan and Ned went into the bush to hide. Ellen Kelly was sent to gaol for three years. Maggie's husband, William Skillion, and a neighbour, William Williamson, were sent to gaol for six years.
The Kelly Gang Forms
Ned and Dan Kelly hid in the Wombat Ranges. Dan Kelly had built a small hut there earlier on Bullock Creek. He had cleared about 20 acres (8 ha) to keep horses. The brothers spent their time looking for gold in the creek.
While they were hiding at Bullock Creek, friends often visited them. These friends included Steve Hart, Joe Byrne, Aaron Sherritt, and the Lloyds. The police took the accusation of attempted murder very seriously. A reward of £100 was offered for the capture of the two Kelly brothers. The police thought the brothers were hiding in the Wombat Ranges. In October 1878, they sent two search groups to find them. One group traveled south from Greta. The other started from Mansfield and traveled north.
Stringybark Creek Shootout
The Mansfield police group was led by Sergeant Michael Kennedy. He had three policemen with him: Constables Thomas McIntyre, Thomas Lonigan, and Michael Scanlon. They set up a camp at Stringybark Creek in a thick forest. Kennedy and Scanlon went to search for the Kellys. Lonigan and McIntyre stayed at the camp.
The Kellys were living in a hut nearby at Bullock Creek. They heard noises and found the police camp. They decided to capture the policemen and take their guns and horses. Ned and Dan, along with Joe Byrne and Steve Hart, went to the police camp. They told the policemen to surrender.
Constable McIntyre put his arms up. But Lonigan pulled out his gun. Ned Kelly shot him dead. When the other two police came back to camp, McIntyre told them to surrender. Scanlon reached for his gun, but Ned shot him dead. Kennedy ran, shooting from tree to tree, with Ned chasing him. During the shooting, Kennedy was shot and badly hurt. Ned shot him in the chest to end his suffering. McIntyre managed to escape during the confusion. Newspapers later reported that Dan had shot Kennedy. Dan was wounded during the shooting.
Becoming Outlaws
The Victorian government passed a law on October 30, 1878. This law made the Kelly Gang outlaws. They no longer had any legal rights. Anyone could shoot them at any time without warning. A reward of £500 was offered for the capture of one gang member, dead or alive. The reward was £2,000 for all four men.
The bushrangers were seen in several places around north-east Victoria. They had tried to cross the Murray River into New South Wales, but the water was too deep. The police had many large groups hunting for them. On December 10, the Kelly Gang robbed the bank at Euroa.
In February 1879, they went to Jerilderie, New South Wales. They locked the town's policemen in the police station cells. They also held many people prisoner in the Royal Mail Hotel for three days. Dan Kelly and Steve Hart kept the people in the hotel. Meanwhile, Ned Kelly and Joe Byrne robbed the bank. After these bank robberies, the reward was increased to £2,000 for each man. This meant a total of £8,000 for the whole Gang.
Over the next 18 months, many policemen were sent to north-east Victoria. They searched for the Kelly Gang. The police could not find the bushrangers. This was because the police were not well-led and did not know how to live in the bush. However, the Kellys were experts at living in the bush. They also had the support of the local people.
The Glenrowan Siege
In June 1880, the Kelly Gang came out of hiding. They knew that Joe Byrne's friend, Aaron Sherritt, had been giving information to the police. Four policemen were living at Sherritt's house, near Beechworth, to protect him. Dan Kelly and Byrne went to Sherritt's house late at night. They knocked on the door. When Sherritt opened the door, Byrne shot him dead. The policemen were hiding under the bed.
Kelly and Byrne rode quickly back to Glenrowan. There, Ned Kelly and Hart had forced many townspeople into a hotel, the Glenrowan Inn. They had also forced railway workers to pull up the train tracks. They knew that more police would be sent by train to Beechworth to find them. The gang wanted the train to crash where the tracks were removed near Glenrowan. The bushrangers, wearing homemade armour, would then capture any policemen who survived the crash. With the police out of the way, the Kelly Gang planned to go into Benalla and rob the bank. The captured police would be released when Ellen Kelly, William Williamson, and William Skillion were let out of gaol.
The plan did not work. The four policemen did not come out of Sherritt's house until the next morning. This meant the news of the murder did not reach Melbourne as quickly as the Kelly Gang hoped. The people held prisoner in the hotel became restless. Ned organized music, and Dan joined in dancing to keep the people entertained. Dan also organized some sporting games, including long jump and hop, step and jump.
Dan wanted to leave Glenrowan when they realized the plan was failing because the train was late. Ned Kelly let Thomas Curnow, the school teacher, go home to his wife. Dan told his brother not to trust Curnow and to keep him at the hotel. Instead of going home, Curnow went to the railway. Around 3 am, he managed to stop the train before it reached the broken rails. The police quickly left the train and surrounded the hotel. The Kelly Gang was trapped inside.
The Final Battle at Glenrowan
When the bushrangers heard the train pull into the station, they knew their plan had failed. They put on their suits of armour. They went onto the verandah of the hotel to wait for the police. In the first few shots, Police Superintendent Hare, Ned Kelly, and Joe Byrne were wounded. Jack Jones, the hotel owner's son, was killed. Ned Kelly, wearing his armour, left the hotel and kept shooting at the police.
The police fired their guns into the hotel building for seven hours. It is estimated that 15,000 bullets were fired. Byrne died after being shot. Ned Kelly went back to the hotel but could not find Dan or Steve Hart. They were hiding in a back room. Ned again left and tried to find his horse. Ned Kelly was shot in the legs as he searched outside for his brother. The police were then easily able to capture him.
By 10:00 am, a large crowd of people was watching the action. Police Inspector Sadleir had to stop the shooting. This allowed many of the hostages to escape. He would not let Dan's sister Maggie, or a Catholic priest Father Gibney, go into the hotel. They wanted to tell the men to give themselves up. Instead, he ordered a cannon to be sent from Melbourne to destroy the hotel.
At 2:30 pm, the police set fire to the building. They wanted to force the rest of the Kelly Gang to leave. Father Gibney ignored the police and went into the burning building. He found Dan Kelly and Steve Hart dead in a back room of the hotel. He said their bodies were lying side by side, with their heads resting on blankets. Byrne's body was pulled out of the hotel. But the bodies of Hart and Kelly were badly burned in the fire. People who saw the burned bodies could not tell which was Dan Kelly and which was Steve Hart. They were placed on sheets of tree bark and photographed. Three Glenrowan people held prisoner inside the hotel also died during the siege.
Family members, including his sisters Kate and Maggie, and friends took the bodies back to Greta. The police tried to get the bodies back. They sent 16 policemen to Greta. But they worried this would start another fight, so they went back to Benalla. Dan Kelly and Steve Hart were buried in unmarked graves at Greta on June 30, 1880. About 100 people attended the funeral. Dan's cousin, Tom Lloyd, was the undertaker. A Greta farmer, Daniel O'Keefe, acted as a preacher. After the graves were filled, the whole area was ploughed over. This was done to keep the grave sites hidden. The family was worried the police would still try to get the bodies.
After Glenrowan, Dan Kelly and Steve Hart's armour was taken by the police. It was kept at Benalla. Ned Kelly's armour was sent to Melbourne for his trial. Joe Byrne's armour went to the police depot in Richmond. By the end of 1880, all the pieces were in Melbourne. One set of armour was given to Sir William Clarke. Over the years, the pieces got mixed up. In 2002, the State Library of Victoria and the police exchanged some pieces. They wanted to try and complete the sets. The State Library has Ned's armour. Joe's is still owned by the Clarke family. The police have Dan and Steve's armour, which can be seen at the Victoria Police Museum in Melbourne, Australia.
What Happened to Dan Kelly After Glenrowan?
It was not possible to prove how Dan and Steve died. Also, it was hard to confirm if the bodies were really theirs. Because of this, many stories have been told about what might have happened. Some people think they might have taken their own lives. This idea was used in the first Kelly movie, The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), and in the 2003 Ned Kelly movie.
There have also been stories that both Dan and Steve survived the fire. However, there is little proof for these claims. One man, James Ryan, said he was Dan Kelly. In 1934, he appeared on stage at the Brisbane Exhibition. He told stories about the Kelly Gang. He died on July 29, 1948, after being hit by a train. The Ipswich City Council has placed a memorial on his grave.
In 2001, scientists took a small piece of bone from the grave of Charles Devine Tindall. This was in Toowoomba, Queensland. They wanted to see if they could find DNA to prove he was Dan Kelly. Devine, who had burn scars, told his family he was really Dan. He claimed he had hidden under the floor of the Glenrowan hotel and escaped after the fire. In October 1902, a Melbourne newspaper printed a story. It said Dan Kelly and Steve Hart were living in South Africa. The men had supposedly fought in the Second Boer War. Another man, Jim Davis from Darra (a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland), said in 1938 that he was Dan Kelly. He claimed that he, Steve Hart, and Joe Byrne had escaped from the hotel. He also said he was born at the Eureka Stockade in 1854. This would make him too old to have been the real Dan Kelly.
The story of Dan and Ned Kelly has been told many times. More books have been written about the Kelly Gang than any other event in Australian history. The very first full-length movie in the world, made in 1906, was The Story of the Kelly Gang. In the 2003 Ned Kelly movie, Heath Ledger played Ned Kelly. Laurence Kinlan played the part of Dan Kelly. Orlando Bloom played Joe Byrne.
In 2012, a pistol was put up for sale. It had "1876 DAN KELLY" carved into it. A pistol was known to have been found at Glenrowan after the siege, but it is now lost. The pistol being sold was found on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River in 1900. It is a muzzle-load single shot pistol made for the East India Company Cavalry.
