Ned Kelly's Last Stand Centenary [Sharon Hollingsworth]

Many years back (2005) I did an article about the Ned Kelly Centenary Festival at Winton that took place in November of 1980. My interest was piqued after hearing about and then seeing the souvenir booklet for it and I followed up on it and even was in contact with the festival director, Peter Galvin. All of that can be read at http://elevenmilecreek.blogspot.com/2018/12/flashback-1980-ned-kelly-centenary.html where I re-uploaded the article in 2018.

What I have just come to find out is that there was yet another Ned Kelly Centenary celebration that year in June. While the November one was for the centenary of Ned's  death/hanging, this one was on the weekend of June 28/29, 1980 and it was called Ned Kelly's Last Stand Centenary. When I was doing research for the 2005 article linked above we did not have the Trove newspaper database to use, otherwise I would have found the information about the other event sooner. I only just found the info by stumbling over it during a free access weekend for a subscription based newspaper database (and then going to Trove and finding more info). There must not have a souvenir booklet or programme to leave as a bread crumb for the Glenrowan June event like there was for the November Winton one. Or, if there was, it has escaped my notice.

Don Tibbitts, then owner of the Glenrowan Tourist Centre was president of the planning committee for the June event. It took 12 months of planning and a cost of about $4,000 to get it all together. When the weekend came, it was rainy and there was lots of mud (enough to bog a duck as one article wryly commented). Despite the weather, according to one source, 10,000 people attended. Another source said "over 6,000."

There were loads of activities planned with the re-enactment of the Last Stand and burning of the Inn as the centerpiece. There would be a fee for viewing that spectacle, as they needed to recoup costs and to raise funds for the local kindergarten. More on how the re-enactment went in a bit.

 There was a full slate of activities planned.  A square dance on Friday night and a Colonial Ball on Saturday night went well as they were inside but some of the other things set outside such as a fun run/walk up to Morgan's Lookout had to be canceled due to the rain.

Other planned activities included per The Age of June 20, 1980-

An arts and crafts bazaar featuring glassblowers, potters, spinners and blacksmiths

a facsimile of Ned's armour made especially for the event, to be auctioned off after the re-enactment

The armour worn by Mick Jagger in the Ned Kelly film was on display

The Victorian Police put on an exhibition of Kelly armour, a saddlebag, handcuffs, and so forth along with a photographic display of the Kelly era

Aust. Post was to have pre-stamped envelopes and a special franking stamp to commemorate the centenary of the Last Stand

There was to be a display of limited edition Centenary medallions

An exhibition called 100 Bushrangers featuring photos and copies of prison and convict records

exhibition and sale of paintings by Frank Harding called  "Kelly Gang and Colonial Days"

Steam engine displays and early model oil engines  and demonstrations of muzzle loaders and cannons of the era.

But, as mentioned before the big deal was the Last Stand re-enactment featuring "40 actors...and vintage steam train and replica of the Inn"

According to the Age newspaper of June 30, 1980 -

"The latter day Kelly gang (members of the Historical Re-enactment Society) shot it out in a paddock on the outskirts of town about 500 metres from the site of the original siege. The actors sloshed around in the mud outside a building, dragged in for the occasion, representing the Jones Hotel. Spectators greeted the "police" with a few desultory cheers and spent the rest of the re-enactment cheering actors as they fell in the mud. The "hotel" was set alight as a finale and then the Kelly armour, made for the occasion, was auctioned."

Another article states that Gary Dean won the armour for a bid of $1,200. Also in another article Gary Dean said that when they dragged in the building to be used as the Inn that they had to carefully guard it around the clock to avoid having it prematurely burned down(!)

The Age article from June 30 also had Centenary organizer Don Tibbitts as saying "the town has a duty to preserve it's history and it's good for business."

The article also quoted from Kelly relatives in the area expressing displeasure and saying that none of them would be going. The article also stated that "No Kelly relatives were invited to the celebrations."

It also mentioned about the Ned Kelly Centenary Festival that was to come up in November 1980 in nearby Winton.