Tag: Dan Kelly

Picture Perfect: Bushrangers and Photography

Humans in the 21st century are obsessed with photography. For the vast majority of us we carry a camera in our pocket wherever we go thanks to smart phone technology. It’s incomprehensible to many of us that there was a time when photography didn’t exist or that even though it did, it was extremely rare. Perhaps the strangest thing of all is that over time many photographs have vanished due to poor preservation, unforeseen disaster, or the images being discarded by relatives with no knowledge of the people in the images. Bushranging history is a perfect example of how much history has either been lost or not even recorded in the first place.

Could this be the only surviving image of Frederick Wordsworth Ward, aka Captain Thunderbolt, taken while he was alive?

There are a great many mysteries in the pictorial history of bushranging. Sometimes it seems that an image merely needs to be of a man with a beard for people to start claiming that it’s Ned Kelly. We’ve had notable cases of photographs claiming to depict Ned Kelly or members of his gang that have been debunked or dismissed, but none so infamous as “Gentleman Ned”.

Brickey Williamson?
“Gentleman Ned”

When this portrait hit auction in 2001 people went nuts. A version of it was known to exist, having been published in newspapers and subsequently in Keith McMenomy’s Authentic Illustrated History of Ned Kelly, albeit in a poorer quality format with darkened hair and beard. Experts were brought in who placed the date to the mid-1870s when Ned was a free man making an honest living, Ian Jones even made the suggestion that the belt matched the converted saddle bag strap that was buckled around his body armour at Glenrowan (which is on display in the Ned Kelly Vault in Beechworth). Everyone was so convinced it sold for $19,000. Then further tests were done comparing a 3D digital model of Ned’s death mask with all known portraits of Ned and surprise, surprise, this was the odd one out. Many speculated about the identity of the man and no clear answers came up. To date nobody has solved the mystery of “Gentleman Ned”. 

 Then in 2016 another photo found its way to an auction house with a bizarre backstory to go with it. This image allegedly depicts three of the gang looking tough because the image was meant to be sent to the police to intimidate them. Already it’s sounding a lot like that joke about Chuck Norris sending the IRS a photo of himself crouched and ready to attack instead of his tax return. Furthermore, this photo was taken just after the Euroa bank robbery and Joe Byrne had to sign all the names because he was the only literate one. Oh, and the image is stamped with details of a photographic studio in Launceston because it was sent there for copies to be made. Nothing suss. 

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The Launceston “Kelly Gang” portrait

This photograph looks less like an intimidating gang of bushrangers and more like an album cover for a seventies Country and Western band. The detail of the faces is almost non-existent, making confirmation pretty much impossible. But, let’s imagine for a moment that the provenance checks out. Do these men look like the Kelly gang? Certainly there’s a passing resemblance to Dan, Ned and Joe Byrne (though the figure that resembles Joe is labelled as Steve Hart in different hand writing). Dan may have had a big moustache, which would explain all the etchings that portray him with one. Moreover the man in this image could very well be in his late teens, there’s no way to tell. The clothes are a sticking point. It was made a point in descriptions  that the gang were well dressed and in the other portraits we have of Joe he’s definitely well dressed, the same not being the case for the Kelly brothers. In the only verified Dan Kelly portraits he’s wearing oversized hand-me-downs with a rope for a belt. In the only verified portrait of Ned outside prison he’s dressed in his undies and boxing shorts.  

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Not Thunderbolt: This photograph was misattributed as being a portrait of Fred Ward during his lifetime.

A prime example of how a misattribution can run rampant is in a photograph purported to have been of Captain Thunderbolt’s wife Mary Ann Bugg. It is important to note that Mary Ann was frequently referred to as a “gin”, meaning Aboriginal woman, owing to her half-indigenous heritage. 

This image has been published and republished without attribution claiming to be Mary Ann Bugg. The cowboy hat was always conspicuous and the clearly Anglo-European features.

Then Google image search threw up this image. 

It’s almost identical. Evidently it was taken in the same sitting as the first image. So what’s so remarkable about this other than the higher quality of the image? This one has a very specific attribution that conclusively disproves that the former image is Mary Ann Bugg. As it turns out, this is a photograph from around 1903, taken in New York of sharp-shooter and Wild West legend Annie Oakley, sourced for Wiki Commons from Heritage Auction Gallery. It is definitely going to be a disappointment to the many people who have been picturing this beautiful, flamboyantly dressed woman as a romantic female outlaw. There have even been artworks based on this image depicting The Captain’s Lady. 

For further clarification here is another image of Annie Oakley:

And here is a photograph known to depict Mary Ann Bugg:

It doesn’t take Benedict Cumberbatch in a great coat to figure this one out, yet the romantic idea of Mary Ann Bugg means people will be drawn to an image incorrectly attributed to her as long as it fits the ideal, just like the alleged Kelly gang photo. 

When we look back over the history of bushranging we can see that the vast majority of bushrangers have not been recorded visually. Jack Donohoe wasn’t depicted visually until his corpse was taken to Sydney. We have photos of relatives of Teddy the Jewboy but nothing at all of him personally. Even when photography took off in the 1860s and we got multiple portraits of people like Ben Hall in addition to etchings in the newspapers most of the Gardiner-Gilbert-Hall gang’s appearances can only be guessed at with no specific images of Peisley, O’Meally or Burke among others and the one photo depicting Johnny Gilbert may not even be him. A portrait of John Vane from around that time was replicated as an etching but the actual photograph appears to be missing. Without a visual record of these people it’s no wonder that they are often thought of so romantically. Donohoe seems far more gallant if you ignore the fact that he was a short, scrawny, straw-haired Irishman with freckles and a snub nose. 

So in the end, just remember that the ability to capture images the way we do now is a privilege that previous generations could only dream of, and it might be worth looking into some old photo albums – you never know who might show up. 

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Spotlight: Dan Kelly and Steve Hart, Are They Alive or Dead?

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No other bushranger conspiracy theory has had as much traction as the theory that Dan Kelly and Steve Hart escaped from Glenrowan and survived into full adulthood whereupon they became soldiers in the Boer War. The truth is that these stories were almost always peddled by swaggies or other such entities who would spin yarns as entertainment. Very few of the people claiming to have had an intimate enough understanding of the the people or events to prove the identities of these men actually did but – as they say – why let the truth get in the way of a good story? To this day there are towns throughout Australia who cash in on these oral histories as a way of helping put themselves on the map. This article, published in 1902, is one of the earliest recorded accounts of the stories about Dan and Steve’s escape.

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Dan Kelly and Steve Hart, Are They Alive or Dead?

Some weeks ago it was reported by cable that the bushrangers Dan Kelly and Steve Hart, who were supposed to have been killed at Glenrowan in the final encounter between the police and the Kelly gang, were in South Africa. Mr. W. B. Melville writes a detailed account from South Africa regarding the alleged outlaws, whom he says he met and from whom obtained a particulars of their escape, Dan Kelly told the story as follows: —

‘Steve here, and me, and Ned and Joe Byrne, was in that pub alright. Ned got away, and we was to foller him, but Joe was boozed, and we couldn’t poll him together. When we wasn’t watching him he stepped outside and was shot. After that two drunken coves was shot dead through the winder. They would have a go at the police, so we gave them rifles, revolvers, powder and shot. The firing where they fell wus too hot for us to reach them, so our rifles and revolvers was found by their remains. This was why they thought we were dead ‘uns. I’m sorry these coves didn’t take my tip and get out with a flag of truce. But they’d drink and the devil was in them, and I think Jo Byrne’s recklessness maddened them. Well, Steve and me planned an escape. We was in a trap, and had to gut out of it. We had the traps’ uniforms and their caps, which we used at times to disguise us. We put them on, and you couldn’t tell us from the blooming troopers. Steve, in a joke, wanted to arrest me, and I wanted to arrest him. Didn’t we, Steve? The next thing was how to leave the pub. A few trees and bushes and logs at the back decided us. We hung along the ground for a few yards, and then blazed away at the pub like the bobbies. We retreated from tree to tree and from bush to bush, pretending to take cover. Yes, cover from Steve and me! Soon we wus among the scattered traps who, no doubt thought we wus funking on it. But we banged away at the blooming pub more’n any of them. The traps came from a hundred miles miles around and only some of them know’d each other. They, didn’t know us anyhow. They couldn’t tell us from theirselves. We worked back into the timber and got away. Soon afterwards we saw the old shanty blazing, and we thanked our stars we was not burnt alive. Well, we got to a friend’s — a shepherd’s hut. We stayed there days, and the shepherd brought us the papers with whole pages about our terrible end, burnt up bodies, and all that sort of stuff. And we heard of Ned’s capture, and was fer taking to the bush again ; but the old shepherd made us promise to leave Australia quietly. He found us clothes and money. We got to Sydney, and shipped to the Argentine. We’ve had a fairly good time since, and ain’t been interfered with. We don’t want to interfere with anybody either. A few years ago we crossed to South Africa. The war broke out and being out of work we went to the front. We’ve had some narrer escapes, but nothing like the narrer escape from the Glenrowan pub.’Mr. Melville adds that they said they were Ieaving South Africa for come place which they kept a secret, and they had no objection to their story being published in a few weeks after they got away. Some weeks afterwards he met them in Capetown, and they said they were off next day. A resident of Sydney who knew the Kellys well states that shortly after the arrival of the Drayton Grange he was standing at the corner of Bathurst and Pitt streets, when he noticed three men in khaki quarrelling. There was an old woman there who was endeavoring to act as a peacemaker. One of the men said to the other with an oath, ‘You —, you thought you were — clever, acting the goat as Dan Kelly,’ and the other answered, ‘ I had to do it, Jim, it was a joke first, and got to be serious.’ Besides, I were in that other trouble.’ The passer-by was naturally attracted by such words, and turning saw before him a man who in every way tallied with Daniel Kelly in appearance, and with the added 32 years to his 18 (his age at the time of the capture of the gang), would wear the same aspect. And as the bystander caught his eye there was a marked expression of interest centred in it, with that peculiar look coming of a mutual recognition. This gentleman also stated that there was an idea prevalent in the Kelly country at the time that Dan and Steve had made their escape. And some months after wards, when it was supposed that they were clear away, and the £8000 reward had been split up, most of the old hands in the disturbed district winked a knowing eye and laughed.
—

Source:
“Dan Kelly and Steve Hart.” The Clarence River Advocate (NSW : 1898 – 1949) 26 September 1902: 8.
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Joe Byrne and the Kelly Brothers (opinion)

Having spent a lot of time researching the Kelly story as a hobby, then examining it more in-depth as a screenwriter, I found the nature of Joe Byrne’s relationship to the Kelly brothers intriguing. It is a matter of fact that Joe Byrne was considered by Ned Kelly to be his greatest friend, describing him as “cool and firm as steel”, but there are still many mysteries around the friendship. How did they meet? How did Ned’s relationship to Joe compare to the relationship between Dan and Joe? Do Joe’s actions and words to Ned at Glenrowan demonstrate that the two weren’t as close as Ned suggested?

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Joe Byrne

In order to ascertain how the Kelly brothers met Joe Byrne and, by association, Aaron Sherritt, we must look for the earliest possible provable instance of their paths crossing. In early 1876 Joe and Aaron were arrested for assault. They had been skinny dipping in a dam when they were approached by a Chinese man, Ah On, and Aaron believed he had stolen from their piled up gear. Aaron, probably spurred on by Joe, threw rocks at the unfortunate Chinese man and badly wounded him when one of the rocks collided with his head. They were held in Beechworth awaiting their hearing, which was on February 13. They were committed to stand trial at the circuit court on February 28. At the same time Daniel Kelly, the teenage tearaway who was the youngest of the Kelly boys, was about to be put through the same proceedings for the offence of stealing a saddle. The incident was innocuous enough: a saddle had gone missing from a hotel and Dan was later seen riding with the saddle on his horse. Dan claimed he had bought the saddle from a man named Roberts and produced a receipt for £1 as evidence. Given that the two cases were to be heard in the same court on the same day it’s probable that Dan would have been in the holding cell at the back of the court room with Joe and Aaron. Perhaps they got to talking about the charges and Dan drew a parallel between the situation Joe and Aaron were in and the assault case his big brother Ned went through because of a Chinese miner named Ah Fook years prior. Joe would have gotten along easily with Dan as he was known for being personable. Perhaps they agreed to hit the pub afterwards if their cases were dismissed. It’s important to note that Ned was present to offer his brother support as a witness. Given that both cases resulted in a ‘not guilty’ verdict a celebration would have been in order and alcohol is the greatest social lubricant.

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Beechworth Courthouse: Was this where Joe Byrne and Aaron Sherritt had their first fateful meeting with Ned and Dan Kelly?

So given that Dan and Joe were acquainted first, could this have meant that Joe identified as Dan’s friend rather than Ned’s? Certainly Ned refers to Joe and Steve Hart in the Jerilderie letter as his brother’s mates. It is also true that according to reports of sightings of the gang Dan was often spotted with Joe whereas Ned was only really seen with Joe when all four gang members were seen together according to police reports. One could assume that this was some strategy from Ned to keep someone in the gang from doing something they shouldn’t, but more likely it was simply a matter of who worked well together. If we account for the suggestion that Ettie Hart was Ned’s girlfriend at the time, that may also provide reason for Ned spending more time with Steve, though that’s a topic for another discussion.

When the gang decided that Aaron Sherritt needed to be exterminated, Ned went to Glenrowan with Steve Hart while Joe was accompanied by Dan to Aaron’s hut. It is probable that the decision to murder Sherritt was Joe’s as he had the most grievance with Aaron’s supposed betrayal. No doubt Ned would have had misgivings but saw it as an opportunity to escalate whatever it was he was trying to kickstart at Glenrowan, whether it was a full-blown war between the bushrangers and the police, or a republic as some have suggested despite this claim relying solely on anecdotal evidence. As unstable as Ned’s mindset was at the beginning of 1880, Joe’s was clearly more so as he had spent months testing Aaron and Jack Sherritt, on one occasion meeting Jack in the bush looking pale, thin, jittery and having pushed his horse so far his spurs were bloodied, on another occasion luring Aaron to the puzzle ranges for a rendezvous but proved to be a no-show (perhaps he was observing from afar to see if Aaron would show up?).
It is no secret that Joe was an opium addict and given that the months after the robbery at Jerilderie had resulted in no more heists and therefore depleted funds, it is unlikely that Joe would have been able to score the hit that he would have been craving regularly if at all. Opium is an extremely addictive drug and the withdrawal symptoms are severe. Weight loss, fever, diarrhoea, nausea, depression, paranoia and violent mood swings are typical. This would explain Joe’s threatening letters to Detective Ward and Aaron Sherritt, as well as his obsession with Aaron and Jack’s fidelity to him and the gang. That Ned would buy into the aggression of a man suffering severe opiate withdrawal enough to factor in his revenge fantasy when plotting his Glenrowan campaign speaks much to the desperation that Ned was experiencing that had pushed him into even contemplating mass murder.

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The Murder of Sherritt: Was it opium withdrawals that made Joe Byrne murder his best friend?

Finally, it seems pertinent to highlight Joe’s demeanour at Glenrowan. He was sullen and quiet the majority of the time and clearly had a short temper. He conspired with Steve and Dan to leave the inn, though they never got the opportunity. That he would even consider abandoning Ned alludes to him not being quite as firm a supporter of Ned as has been previously thought. Furthermore, Joe’s famous line about the armour:

I told you this bloody armour would bring us to grief!

Implies that Joe had had little faith in Ned’s lofty plans at Glenrowan. It is reported that after the initial volleys of gunfire, Ned and Joe went to the breezeway between the inn and detached kitchen and spoke at length. What they spoke about can’t be certain. Perhaps it was during this exchange that Joe revealed that he had spoken to the others about leaving the inn. If so, had he painted Dan or Steve as the instigators? This might shine a light on Ned’s resentment of the pair after his capture. Could it be that he believed they had tried to turn Joe against him? No doubt with Ned’s alcohol muddied and sleep deprived mind it wouldn’t have taken much to convince him, having previously had a very public argument with Dan about the very same matter.

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Joe Byrne’s armour: It is clear from his interactions with Ned that Joe was not keen on the gang’s signature ploughshare armour.

Unfortunately, this remains merely theoretical. Without clear evidence, such as first hand accounts by Joe Byrne or Dan Kelly to fill in some of the blanks we can never get a full understanding of the relationships and genesis of one of the most renowned bushranging teams in history. Thus it falls on historians, both professional and amateur, to fill in those blanks as well as possible. Certainly examining the gaps in the narrative opens the door to a great deal of speculation and some very interesting interpretations.

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The Murder of Aaron Sherritt

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Aaron Sherritt

Today marks 137 years since the death of Aaron Sherritt at the hands of his best friend Joe Byrne. This event was the trigger for the Kelly Gang’s Glenrowan campaign and would ultimately result in tragedy for most everyone involved.

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Anton Wick with his wife
(source: http://twistedhistory.net.au/wordpress/2017/03/12/character-form-ned-kelly-history-2/)

On the evening of June 26, 1880, German immigrant Anton Wick was walking home from a friend’s place along the road at the Devil’s Elbow. As he reached the crest of a hill he noticed before him two horsemen dressed in long topcoats and low-crowned hats. As it was dark he could not recognise them. As they approached him he wished them a good evening but they were unresponsive. Wick continued on his way only to hear the horsemen double back towards him. One of the riders came up next to Wick and asked him “Do you know me?” to which Wick replied in the negative. “I am Joe Byrne.” said the rider, sweeping aside his topcoat and brandishing a pistol in his belt. Presently the other rider, Dan Kelly, approached Wick and Joe gestured towards him stating “This is Mr. Kelly.” After Wick was handcuffed by Dan he was informed that he was to accompany the outlaws.

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“Sherritt’s Hut” from The Australasian Sketcher, 17/07/1880

Aaron Sherritt resided in a small hut in Eldorado, just outside of Sebastopol, with his young wife Ellen (nicknamed Belle) who was pregnant. The hut was situated on an embankment just adjacent to the road with concealed holes built by miners leading from the property, under the road and out into the scrub on the other side, which Aaron would use to move unseen from the hut. On this night accompanying the couple was Sherritt’s mother-in-law, Mrs. Barry, and the four police constables (Armstrong, Duross, Alexander, and Dowling) that had been stationed with Aaron for his protection. Since 1878 Aaron had been providing information to the police and had become somewhat of a star-informant in the eyes of Superintendent Hare despite most of the information being bogus or misleading. Sherritt had been working very closely with Detective Michael Ward, whose idea it seems to have been to have a police party assigned to Aaron. Aaron’s younger brother Jack had also been working with police under the code-name “Jones” and he had earlier warned Aaron that the gang were beginning to suspect them of colluding with the police. Much of this was also driven by an incident involving Joe Byrne’s mother spotting Aaron resting with a police party on the Byrne property and the subsequent falling out. Aaron had been engaged to Joe’s sister Kate but the betrothal was broken off. In retaliation, the spurned Sherritt had stolen a horse belonging to his former fiancee and showed it off to Kate Kelly. Mrs. Byrne had lodged a complaint and Sherritt had found himself in hot water. Word spread as fast as wildfire through the bush telegraph to reach the gang and planted the seeds of doubt in Joe’s mind. This revelation combined with Joe’s addled mental state as the result of opium withdrawals would prove fatal for Aaron Sherritt.

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“Ground Plan of the Hut” from The Australasian Sketcher, 17/07/1880

Relaxing after supper, Aaron was roused by a knock at the back door. The police were huddled in the partitioned bedroom, having supped earlier, with the exception of Constable Duross who was warming himself by the fire. Ellen Sherritt called out “Who’s there?” to the visitor. Duross moved to the bedroom as the feeble response from the outside came through the door with a familiar German inflection: “It’s Anton Wick, I’ve lost myself.” Ellen asked her husband to direct Wick to the road and Aaron chuckled to himself as he went to the back door. He could not have expected that on the other side of the door Wick was restrained with stolen police handcuffs and held at gunpoint by Joe Byrne. Byrne moved behind the chimney to hide in the darkness as the door latch was drawn and the wooden door pulled open. Backlit in the doorway, Aaron looked out at Wick long enough to point at a copse of trees near the road and state “You see that sapling over there…?” before movement in his peripheral vision distracted him.

“Who’s that?”

Without a word Joe Byrne emerged from the shadows and leveled a double-barrelled shotgun at Aaron, discharging one barrel into his victim’s throat. As Aaron reeled back, incapable of making any sound other than a strangled gurgle, Joe stood into the doorway and discharged the second barrel into Aaron’s belly, some of the shot whizzing past Ellen into the front wall. Aaron stumbled backwards and fell to the floor, his handsome face quickly drenched in blood from the ruptured arteries in his blasted throat. Mrs. Barry, the mother-in-law of the victim screamed in terror. Joe entered the building, thin wisps of gun smoke swirling past him from his shotgun. “That is the man that I want,” Joe snarled as he stood over Aaron’s lifeless body, “the bastard will never put me away again.”

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“THE MURDER OF SHERRITT. (From a Sketch Taken Immediately after the Departure of the Kelly Gang)” from The Illustrated Australian News, 03/07/1880

Turning to Mrs. Barry Joe proclaimed “You needn’t worry Mrs. Barry; I won’t harm you nor your daughter, but I want whoever is in that room.” gesturing to the bedroom. Joe asked Ellen who was in there and she told him it was an itinerant worker named Duross, knowing that the constable was not acquainted with Byrne or the Kellys as he was only recently up from Melbourne and wouldn’t be recognised. Promptly Joe presented a revolver and covered Ellen Sherritt, ordering the terrified widow to bring Duross out and Mrs. Barry to open the front door. As she did so Dan Kelly entered, nodding a greeting and presenting a revolver. He grinned at the sight of Aaron’s body. Mrs. Barry asked to go outside and Joe consented, being more occupied with getting whoever was in the bedroom. Joe reloaded his shotgun and once more instructed Ellen to clear out the bedroom. When she entered she found the constables cowering under the bed in terror with pistols in hand. She told them to come out but they responded by telling her to get down for fear they might accidentally shoot her. Calling back to Joe, Ellen informed him that the man in the bedroom would not come out. Joe fired a shot into the bedroom past Ellen’s head and demanded she bring whoever was in the room out or he would riddle the house. Ellen tried once more to bring the police out with no success and Joe’s patience was worn thin. He hollered that if she did not bring the man out of the room he would shoot her and her mother. Ellen tried a final time to coax the police out but they dragged her under the bed with them and kept her there. The young woman was shoved back against the corner of the bed and worried that she would be suffocated and suddenly passed out. She was roused when her mother entered the room and tried to pull her out from under the bed but the police prevented her. Mrs. Barry was frantic, stating that Byrne would burn the hut down unless everyone came out of the bedroom. From inside they heard Byrne grumbling “Come on; those bloody dogs in the room won’t come out.”

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Aaron Sherritt poses for Bray of Beechworth. He wears a low-crowned hat with chinstrap under the nose – the sign of the Greta Mob.

At nine o’clock Joe and Dan left the hut, tired of waiting for everyone to emerge from the bedroom, cussing and grumbling as they went. Constable Armstrong was the first to leave the room at eleven, by which time the candles had all burned themselves out. Armstrong put out the fire and closed the doors and directed everyone to wait until sunrise before venturing out, believing that the outlaws were waiting outside to ambush them. He asked for a drink to which Mrs. Barry informed him that there was cold tea on the table from supper. Ellen cautioned that Dan Kelly may have poisoned the tea and it was immediately disposed of. Armstrong then sent Mrs. Barry out to fetch water and prepare breakfast for the police. By this time Anton Wick had been set free by the outlaws.
At sunrise a Chinese man was passing by and Armstrong gave him a note to give to the schoolteacher (the school being not far from the hut) and some money to pay for the service. Eventually Mr. O’Donoghue  the schoolmaster came by the property and said he would raise the alarm. However half an hour later he was back stating he could not go as his wife feared she might be murdered before he came back. A local miner named Duckett took up the task of raising the alarm but after two hours with no communication Armstrong decided to head out himself. Nothing further was heard at the hut until late in the evening when four troopers arrived to relieve the ones that had been on duty.

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“Portrait of Byrne” from The Australasian Sketcher 17/07/1880

The conduct of the police led to them all being dishonorably discharged from the police force. Constable Armstrong in particular was heavily criticised for his cowardice.
The stress of the night resulted in Ellen Sherritt having a miscarriage, thus losing her husband and unborn child in one fell swoop. She campaigned to receive maintenance payments from the police as Aaron was officially on their payroll when he died.
The effect of the delays was that it was almost a full day before a party was sent on a special police train to hunt for Sherritt’s murderers, throwing out Ned Kelly’s well-laid plans to derail the police train at Glenrowan – but that’s a story for another day.

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The site of Sherritt’s hut in Eldorado as it looks today.

Resources:

“SHERRITT AND THE KELLY GANG.” Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 – 1899) 5 August 1880: 3. Web. 27 Jun 2017 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38261162&gt;.

“ANOTHER KELLY OUTRAGE.” The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957) 28 June 1880: 5. Web. 27 Jun 2017 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5983167&gt;.

“MURDER OF AARON SHERRITT.” Cootamundra Herald (NSW : 1877 – 1954) 7 May 1881: 9. Web. 27 Jun 2017 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article143382164&gt;.

“The Police Commission.” Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 – 1954) 23 July 1881: 19. Web. 27 Jun 2017 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article220487341&gt;.

Jones, Ian. The Fatal Friendship: Ned Kelly, Aaron Sherritt and Joe Byrne. Revised ed. South Melbourne: Lothian, 2003. Print.

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