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Ned Kelly: Hero or Outlaw? After dropping down the west side of the Great Dividing Range on a narrow, winding road, I drove into the town of Bright, which had a pleasant name and seemed like a nice place, so I got a motel room there and spent the evening. After chatting with the friendly owner and checking into my room, I walked around town and spent a half-hour at a pretty downtown park watching kids play in the river that cuts through town. On the way back to my room, I stopped at a corner cafe to get some fish and chips, and that evening I watched the Winter Olympics on TV from Salt Lake City.
I really love the Olympics, especially the smaller and more casual Winter Olympics, and Salt Lake City is only a two-day drive from Portland, so I wish I could've gone there to watch the Olympics in person. I'm pretty familiar with Salt Lake City, since I worked there during the past few years on their new Light Rail Transit system, which they built partly because of the Olympics. Now that I think about it, though, Salt Lake City isn't the most exciting place in the world, so maybe it's just as well that I didn't go!
I was reluctant to leave Bright the next morning but I wanted to make tracks. An hour down the road, I stopped in Beechworth, a historic mining town in central Victoria. Beechworth is in the heart of the Victoria gold mining country and reminded me of the California gold rush towns that dot the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. In fact, with the rolling foothills, golden grasslands, and scattered trees, this whole area reminded me of the Sierra foothills. A lot of miners from California came to Beechworth in the 1850s after the California gold played out and, considering the surroundings, I bet they felt right at home here.
Beechworth is probably best known as the site of the 1880 trial of Ned Kelly, Australia’s most famous outlaw, who was either a hero or a bandit depending on whom you talk to. After the trial in Beechworth and one in Melbourne, the 24-year old Kelly was found guilty of robbery and murder and was hung in the Melbourne Prison. His legend grew shortly afterwards and about a week later, I'm sure, the first "Ned Kelly" t-shirts and bumper stickers were printed up, a prolific marketing endeavor that continues to this day.
A lot of Aussies glamorize Ned Kelly, comparing him to Jesse James or Billy the Kid in the U.S. That's not a very favorable comparison in my book, because those two American outlaws were simply cold-blooded killers and there was very little "noble" about them, despite the misplaced idolatry which lingers in their wake. After visiting Beechworth for a few hours and visiting the courtroom where Kelly was tried, I couldn't decide for myself whether Kelly was really a hero unjustly accused for crimes he didn't commit or was simply a cold-blooded killer. As you might say, "The jury is still out."
Another hour down the road, I stopped in the small town of Glen Rowan, which is where Kelly was captured by the police during his last battle. Glen Rowan really milks the Ned Kelly thing to death (no pun intended) with lots of mugs, t-shirts, and even a play about Kelly using computerized mannequins, which performs every hour, on the hour. The Mannequin Play was pretty expensive and, from the pictures, it reminded me too much of wax museums, which I generally detest, so I didn't see it. Well, O.K, it also looked pretty scary.
After walking around Glen Rowan for a half-hour, I headed back to my car, but then I heard the strains of “Waltzing Matilda” playing over the loudspeakers of a nearby café. "Waltzing Matilda" gets me every time, so I popped into the cafe and chatted with the friendly owner, a woman in her 50s, then ended up buying the CD. As the owner told me, the CD was recorded by a well-known Australian folk singer named Lazy Harry (seriously, that's his name) who lives nearby.
For the next hour as I drove across the hot, flat farmlands of northern Victoria, I listened to Lazy Harry belt out “Waltzing Matilda,” “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport,” “A Pub With No Beer,” and 22 other Australian favorites in his nasally voice. I loved it.
Above left: Beechworth is in the heart of the Victoria Gold Country and the buildings here have been well preserved. It's a great place to walk around if you want a taste of the 1800s. Above right: The Australian folk singer, Lazy Harry, has been memorialized in Glen Rowan. I'll post some of his songs on my website as I travel around Australia.
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