Article Alert: Ned Returns Home to Join His Mother

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Such is life: 130 years on, Ned returns home to join his mother in Kelly country

    by: JOHN FERGUSON and PIA AKERMAN
    From: The Australian
    January 16, 2013 12:00AM




More than 130 years after Ned Kelly was hanged, the bushranger will be buried in the rock-hard country he roamed as an outlaw in the 19th century.

A memorial service for the villain who personified colonial anti-authoritarianism has been scheduled for midday on Friday in regional Victoria.

Monsignor John White, the parish priest at St Patrick's Church in Wangaratta in northeast Victoria, confirmed yesterday that mass would be said for Kelly and that the service would not be confined to relatives. The family has kept details of the proceedings quiet, however, amid strong speculation the bushranger will be buried at a secret location on Sunday in the heart of Kelly country.

Sources familiar with family talks told The Australian last year that the clan had favoured the bushranger being buried at the tiny cemetery of Greta, near Glenrowan, about 185km northeast of Melbourne. However, there had been divisions in the family about the final resting place, with the argument that it should be more private.


There is deep resentment in the family about the way the bushranger and his relatives have been portrayed over the decades as a murderous, promiscuous clan that lacked a moral compass.

The Greta cemetery holds the remains of several members of the Kelly family and is in the vicinity of the gang's last stand at Glenrowan in 1880, where Kelly was captured.

From his veranda, Michael Wescombe has a clear view of the Greta cemetery and the Kelly fans who come hoping to pay their respects at the grave of Kelly's mother. The tourists are easily identified by the way they wander through the rows of graves, searching for one that is actually unmarked. "At the moment, all those people are disappointed, because they don't know what they're looking for," he said. "There is enormous interest. I believe there should at least be a map at the front gate so people know where to go."

Isolated on a country intersection, the cemetery has been tidied and nine council bins have mysteriously arrived, fuelling speculation that Kelly's remains will soon arrive. "Bury him with his mum," Mr Wescombe said. "As soon as there is a new grave here, people will know. I don't think they can keep it a secret. You drive around here, everyone is making a living out of Ned."

While Ellen Kelly's grave has no headstone or other marker, locals believe it lies in the back left corner of the cemetery, which is the Roman Catholic section. The Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine confirmed yesterday that Ned Kelly's remains were still held at its facility in Melbourne. It is believed that a funeral director will soon pick up Kelly's skeleton - minus the skull - to be shifted for the last time.

The whereabouts of Kelly's skull are unknown. Wangaratta and Glenrowan are alive with speculation about when and where the bushranger will be finally lowered into the ground.

Wangaratta funeral directors believe a Melbourne firm has been hired to transport Kelly's remains.

The family's spokesman, Anthony Griffiths, did not respond to calls from The Australian yesterday.

Gary Dean, the owner of Cobb and Co in Glenrowan, said the family "won't tell you a thing". "There's been no sense of digging at the Greta cemetery," he said. "I don't know why the hold up."

Acting Victorian Police Association secretary Bruce McKenzie said the Kelly family was entitled to bury the police killer with dignity but warned against the grave becoming a tourist attraction. "He murdered our members a long time ago," he said.

Kelly's remains were identified in 2011 after a 20-month investigation of 24 skeletons, which were exhumed from Melbourne's notorious Pentridge Prison.

Victorian property developer Leigh Chiavaroli was forced to surrender Kelly's skeleton, which the developer planned to use as part of a museum exhibit.

But the Victorian government overruled the developer's plans, drawing on the precedent set after the return in 2008 of the remains of the last man to be hanged in Melbourne, Ronald Ryan.

Kelly was hanged in 1880 after being found guilty of killing three policemen.



http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/such-is-life-130-years-on-ned-returns-home-to-join-his-mother-in-kelly-country/story-e6frg6n6-1226554699874