Black Bunny's Bushrangers (T) - Stringybark Creek Archerton, Victoria, Australia
By Black Bunny on 07-Jun-19. Waypoint GA11499

Ned Kelly - Stringybark Creek

Ned Kelly - Stringybark Creek

The infamous shootout between police and the Kelly Gang took place at Stringybark Creek on 26 October 1878.

Four Mansfield policemen had ridden out with tents and supplies to search for the Kelly Gang. Ned and his brother surprised two of the police at their camp (McIntyre and Lonigan) and held them up. McIntyre surrendered but Lonigan fired at Ned so Ned fired back and shot and killed Lonigan. When the other two members of the group returned, McIntyre was supposed to tell them to surrender and Ned had promised not to harm them. However, Scanlan fired a shot and was shot in return. Kennedy took cover behind a tree and fired shots and was also killed by Ned. McIntyre escaped on horseback and Ned let him go, wishing to keep his promise.

It was these events, where Ned committed his first murder – which he claims were all in self defence – that sealed his fate when he ultimately stood trial. The gang was declared outlaws at the Mansfield Courthouse on November 15 1878 when they failed to appear and a reward of £800 for the Kelly gang (£200 each member) was posted in Victoria.

There’s a police memorial here (and another at Mansfield, where the policemen were stationed).

The natural bush setting at Stringybark Creek is largely undisturbed and can be reached by a well-graded dirt road from either Benalla or Mansfield. Drive carefully as logging trucks frequently use this road.

Bushrangers.

Over 2,000 bushrangers are estimated to have roamed the Australian countryside, beginning with the convict bolters and drawing to a close after Ned Kelly's last stand at Glenrowan.

Bushrangers were originally escaped convicts who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term "bushranger" had evolved to refer to those who abandoned social rights and privileges to take up "robbery under arms" as a way of life, using the bush as their base.

Bushranging thrived during the gold rush years of the 1850s and 1860s when the likes of Ben Hall, Frank Gardiner and John Gilbert led notorious gangs in the country districts of New South Wales. These Wild Colonial Boystypically robbed small-town banks and coach services.

In other infamous cases, such as that of Dan Morgan, the Clarke brothers, and Australia's best-known bushranger, Ned Kelly, numerous policemen were murdered.

The number of bushrangers declined due to better policing and improvements in rail transport and communication technology, such as telegraphy. Kelly's capture and execution in 1880 effectively represented the end of the bushranging era.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushranger

Getting to Stringybark Creek

From Benalla you get to Stringybark Creek via the Tatong-Tolmie Road.

From Mansfield follow the Mansfield-Whitfield Road, past Tolmie, to the Tatong-Tolmie Road.

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