Kelly Country

Leaving Bendigo, we had planned to go north to Deniliquin then continue on to Hay, Cobar then Bourke. We didn’t get to Bourke last year because we were advised to avoid the area as they were having some trouble with the locals at the time. As fate had it we weren’t going to get to Bourke again this time. Central NSW and Northern Central Victoria were suffering from some serious floods. The roads that we were going to take were completely closed off and most of the campgrounds were closed.

So we changed our route and headed east to Shepparton, planning on staying at the Benalla Showgrounds. However once we arrived there, there was a big sign on the gate telling us camping at the showgrounds was no longer permitted.

We continued up the Hume Hwy to Glenrowan and found a beautiful little caravan park out the back of Glenrowan. The owners were really nice and did everything possible to make our stay comfortable. They only charged $25 per night and an extra $3 per child on top of that. A very nice price compared to most other caravan parks.

The view from our caravan

A beautiful little caravan park

 Sam and Will are completing their schoolwork through the Distance Education Centre of Victoria. It is a great system which accommodates for families travelling around Australia. In fact they encourage us to substitute their schoolwork for work based on the areas of Australia that we are visiting. So I encouraged the boys to learn as much as they could about Glenrowan whilst we were there.

As Glenrowan is the town where Ned Kelly was captured, Will and Sam completed a project on the famous Bush ranger and his gang. He is a copy of Will’s project:

Ned Kelly was born in 1855 and he died in 1880. Ned’s Dad died when Ned was 10. His mum had 5 kids. Ned was the oldest.

When Ned was 10 he saved a boy from drowning and got a green and gold sash for bravery. Ned’s dad was proud of him.

The police didn’t like Ned and Ned had lots of fights with the police. The police went after Ned and his gang, and Ned killed the policemen. In the gang there was Ned, his brother Dan Kelly, Joe Byrnes and Steve hart.

Any person who found the Kelly gang and took them to the police got an 8000 pound reward. But no one handed them in because they thought they were heroes. The police were treating everyone badly and Ned Kelly stood up to the police.

Ned made a plan to derail the train tracks and capture the policeman on the train. But his plan didn’t work because a school teacher stopped the train before it got derailed. Ned and his gang made really strong armour that bullets wouldn’t go through. Ned only had armour on his face and stomach because it was too heavy to put on his arms and legs.

The police surrounded the Inn where the Kelly Gang were hiding. The police started firing first and the Kelly gang started shooting back. There were about 100 policemen against 4 people. Lots of people in the Inn were getting shot by the policemen.

Joe Byrne got shot, and the police set fire to the Inn. Dan Kelly and Steve Hart’s bodies were found in the burnt Inn.

Ned Kelly was shot in the arm and captured behind the Inn. He was taken on a train to Melbourne Gaol.  The judge decided to hang Ned Kelly.

Just before Ned Kelly died he said “Such is life”.

Along with photos and pictures, the projects turned out great and the boys gained a lot of knowledge on the small town of Glenrowan.

 

When we arrived home one afternoon, we were greeted by one of the kids that we had met at the Bendigo Showgrounds. Maddie came running up to Sam and handed him his book that he had left at the showgrounds. Maddie’s mum, Laura had tried to hand it in to lost and found at the Bendigo showgrounds, but they were closed. So they decided to keep the book in the hopes that they would catch up with us on the road somewhere. They didn’t expect it to be the next day!