I recently became aware that the National Trust, Victoria, is appealing for assistance from the public to raise funds for the acquisition and restoration of Ned Kelly’s first family home, built by his father, Red Kelly.
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Ned Kelly’s life and times is one of the most powerful Australian folklore stories of our nation.
I remember as a young girl participating in a play at our one-teacher school in Glen Alice, where all the students of this tiny school had to act out a brief version of events of the Kelly Gang and their family and friends. It was the first time I came to really understand hardship, struggle for survival and death.
Despite whatever side of the fence you sit on, a man and his mates that are prepared to stand up for family, friends, community and countrymen, and fight to the death to defend human rights, is something to be admired.
Some describe Ned and his associates as cold-blooded killers, but it is interesting to note that they never attacked women and children, or free-men, or killed anyone who wasn’t out to hunt them down.
Anyone who was detained by the gang was treated firmly and fairly.
This is how the legend that is Ned Kelly and the Kelly Gang has resounded so well with the Australian psyche.
They were the underdogs that believed in a fair go and were prepared to stand shoulder-to- shoulder and fight together.
The same type of mateship displayed again so strongly at Gallipoli.
To ensure that this important Australian story survives for future generations, please visit www. nationaltrust.org.au or contact the National Trust, Victoria, by phone (03) 9656 9800.
Trisha Cansdale
Tamworth
