Steve Hart facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Steve Hart
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Steve Hart's armour
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| Born | 1860 |
| Died | June 28, 1880 Glenrowan, Victoria, Australia
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Steve Hart (born 1860 – died June 28, 1880) was an Australian bushranger. He was part of the famous Kelly Gang. Steve was a close friend of Dan Kelly, Ned Kelly's brother. He became involved in a serious event where three policemen died at Stringybark Creek. Steve Hart died during a big standoff, known as a siege, at Glenrowan, Victoria.
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Early Life of Steve Hart
Steve Hart was born in 1859 near Wangaratta, Victoria, at a place called Three Mile Creek. His parents, Richard Hart and Bridget Young, had moved to Australia from Ireland. Steve had several brothers and sisters, including Richard 'Dick' Hart (Jr.), Hugh Hart, Thomas Hart, Nicholas Hart, Esther 'Ettie' Hart, Jane Hart, and Winifred Hart.
Steve was a small person, but he was an amazing horse rider. His brother Nicholas was also a jockey, someone who rides horses in races. Some stories say that Steve worked as a jockey around Beechworth and Wangaratta. It's even said he won a race called 'The Benalla Handicap'. He was known for never opening farm gates; he would always jump over them with his horse!
Steve Hart as a Bushranger
Steve Hart took part in two famous bank robberies with the Kelly Gang. These happened in Euroa and Jerilderie.
The Euroa Robbery
At Euroa, Steve met an old school friend named Francis 'Fanny' Shaw. Through her, the police later found out Steve's name. During the robbery, Hart also took a watch from Robert Scott, who was the bank manager. When a bank worker, Bob Booth, asked for something to remember the visit by, Steve gave him a lead bullet with the letter 'H' carved into it.
The Jerilderie Robbery
In 1879, the Kelly Gang held many people hostage at the Royal Hotel in Jerilderie before robbing the bank. Steve Hart took a watch from Reverend Gribble, a parson from the Protestant church. However, Ned Kelly told Hart that taking the watch was wrong and made him give it back.
After the Jerilderie robbery, Steve Hart went into hiding with the gang for most of 1879. Even while hiding, Hart went to a doctor in St.Kilda to get treatment for a problem with his foot.
The Glenrowan Standoff
In June 1880, Ned Kelly came up with a plan to try and get his mother released from prison. Dan Kelly and Joe Byrne went to Beechworth and killed their friend Aaron Sherritt. They believed he was a police spy. They knew this act would make many police officers travel by train to Beechworth to try and capture them.
Meanwhile, Steve Hart and Ned Kelly had gone to Glenrowan. They forced railway workers to pull up the train tracks. Their hope was that the police train would crash. Then, wearing their special homemade armour, they planned to capture the surviving policemen. These officers would be held as hostages until Ned's mother, Ellen Kelly, was set free.
The Plan Goes Wrong
Hart and Kelly forced many people from the town into a small hotel owned by Ann Jones. Dan Kelly and Joe Byrne joined them after riding quickly from Beechworth. They waited at the hotel for the police.
However, the plan failed because news of the Sherritt event took a long time to reach Melbourne. The people held at the hotel were also becoming difficult to control. Ned Kelly let one man go free at 3:00 AM. This was a school teacher named Thomas Curnow, who said he needed to go home to his wife. Instead, he went to the train line and managed to stop the police train safely.
The Siege Begins
The police then went to the hotel and started shooting. It's thought that about 15,000 bullets were fired during the standoff. Joe Byrne was shot dead in the front room of the hotel. Ned Kelly left the hotel early in the morning, probably to meet with other men who were supposed to help him capture the train. He was later captured by the police.
At 10:00 AM, the police had to stop shooting to let some of the hostages escape. Sadly, several people, including the hotel owner's son, had been shot and died. Dan Kelly's sister, Maggie Skillion, and a Catholic priest named Father Gibney tried to go to the hotel. They wanted to tell Steve and Dan to give themselves up, but the police stopped them. The police wanted a cannon sent from Melbourne to blast the two men out of the hotel.
At 2:30 PM, the police set the hotel on fire. Father Gibney bravely rushed inside. Gibney saw the bodies of Hart and Dan Kelly lying side by side in a room at the back of the hotel. Their heads were resting on blankets. They had taken off their armour, which was placed beside them. It is thought they may have taken their own lives.
Steve Hart's Death
The bodies of Steve Hart and Dan Kelly were badly burned during the hotel fire. People who saw the burned and blackened bodies could not tell which was Dan Kelly and which was Steve Hart.
Hart's body, which was very badly burned, was taken by his brother, Dick Hart. He was buried at Greta Cemetery the next day, June 29, 1880. He was buried in the same grave as Dan Kelly. Steve Hart was 21 years old when he died. After the grave was filled in, the whole area was ploughed over. This was done to keep the exact spot of the grave hidden. The family was worried that the police might still try to get the bodies. Today, Steve Hart's armour is on display at the Victoria Police Museum in Melbourne.
Stories of Escape
Over the years, there have been claims that Steve Hart and Dan Kelly did not die at the hotel. Some stories say they escaped and went to live in Queensland. One man named Billy Meade, as he was dying in 1938, told a nurse he was actually Steve Hart. Another story suggests that Hart and Dan Kelly went to South Africa. After fighting in the Second Boer War, they supposedly went to India. In this story, Hart is said to have drowned himself in Calcutta in 1917. However, there is no real evidence to prove any of these stories.
Images for kids
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Greta Cemetery, where Steve Hart is buried in an unmarked grave
See also
In Spanish: Steve Hart para niños
