Black Snake

This is the story behind Australia's most contested legend, told with the clarity of a writer used to making history vivid for young readers. If you want to understand why a police killer became a folk hero, and what that says about colonial Victoria, this is the accessible starting point. Best for readers new to the Kelly story and for anyone who enjoys narrative history.

1. 1Early chapters

   A family already on the wrong side of the law

   Ned Kelly grows up in Victoria in a family already marked by trouble with the law. His father serves a sentence and takes up farming at Greta, but trouble keeps finding the family, and the pressures of poverty and the courts weigh on the household. When his father dies, Ned's mother is left to raise the children on a farm the family cannot hold.

   The idea

   The Kellys start life in Victoria with the deck stacked: an Irish Catholic family with a convict past, and land they cannot hold. In a colony where land and respectability were supposed to be available to anyone willing to work, the Kellys learn early that the law can take everything from a man who has almost nothing. That lesson is passed to the children.

   Try this: Look up your own family's arrival story this week and note what pressures they faced on landing.

2. 2Early chapters

   The boy who saved a drowning mate

   Ned is sent to school in Avenel, and his mother remarries. Then comes a moment that shows another side of the boy the police will later hunt: a schoolmate falls into a creek, and Ned dives in and saves him from drowning. For this he is awarded a green sash. It is one of the few honours Ned Kelly ever receives, and he keeps it.

   The idea

   Before the armour and the murders, there is a boy who risks his life for a schoolmate and is rewarded with a green sash. The detail matters because it complicates the legend: the boy capable of that courage is the same one the system will push to the margins. Wilkinson lets the sash speak for itself, and readers are left to hold both Neds at once, the rescuer and the outlaw.

   Try this: Write down one act of courage you witnessed as a child and what it revealed about the person.

3. 3Early chapters

   Learning the bushranger's trade

   As a teenager, Ned is repeatedly arrested. Some charges end in dismissal, but one ends in conviction: he is sentenced to hard labour and serves time in gaol. The experience hardens a boy who had previously walked free, and he comes out of it knowing the courts can ruin you whether or not you are guilty.

   The idea

   Adolescence in the Kelly household means repeated arrests, some ending in dismissal, one ending in gaol. The conviction that sends him to hard labour is the hinge: it hardens a teenager who had previously walked free. Wilkinson shows a boy learning that the courts can ruin you whether or not you are guilty, and that lesson shapes how he deals with the law for the rest of his short life.

   Try this: Next time you read a headline about a young offender, ask what their first encounter with the system was.

4. 4Mid-1870s chapters

   Horse thief, trooper, and the family the police kept arresting

   Out of gaol, Ned works as a horseman and plays football for a local team. But the family remains a target. A constable visits the Kelly home, claims he was attacked by the family, and warrants are issued for Ned and his brother Dan. Dan takes to the bush instead, and Ned soon joins him.

   The idea

   By the mid-1870s Ned can ride, break horses, and hold down work, yet the family name counts against him. A constable's account of an attack at the Kelly house triggers warrants, and the fact that Ned was far away does not stop the hunt. When the law comes for you on a contested story, running is not madness but arithmetic. Dan goes bush; Ned follows his brother rather than surrender to a charge he denies.

   Try this: When you are accused of something this week, write down the evidence on both sides before reacting.

5. 5The gang chapters

   Stringybark Creek: three policemen dead

   A party of policemen sets out to find the Kelly brothers. At Stringybark Creek the gang ambushes them and kills three. The fourth escapes. The killings make the Kellys outlaws of the worst kind, and the government posts a reward for each man.

   The idea

   Stringybark Creek is the point of no return. Three dead policemen turn a family feud with the law into a manhunt that grips the colony, and the reward puts a price on their heads. Whatever grievances brought the gang to that creek, the shooting of three policemen cannot be undone, and every later act of the gang, including the armour and the manifesto, is an answer to this day.

   Try this: Pick one decision you made this year and trace its irreversible consequences honestly.

6. 6The gang chapters

   The Euroa and Jerilderie robberies

   The gang robs the bank at Euroa. Then they cross into New South Wales and rob the bank at Jerilderie, locking up the police. During the Jerilderie raid Ned leaves the famous Jerilderie Letter, a long document in which he sets out his side of the story and demands justice for his family.

   The idea

   The bank robberies are audacious: two towns, two banks, and the Jerilderie police locked in their own station while the gang works. But the real prize of Jerilderie is not the money. The Jerilderie Letter, dictated by Ned, is his attempt to write himself into history as a man wronged rather than a criminal. It fails to save him, but it survives, and it is why we can still hear his voice today.

   Try this: Write your side of a dispute you are in, in your own words, before the other side writes it for you.

7. 7The gang chapters

   The manifesto and the reward

   The gang's exploits make them famous, and the government's response escalates: the reward for each man is raised to a huge sum. The gang's support among some selectors and sympathisers makes them hard to catch, and the police's heavy-handed treatment of suspected sympathisers only strengthens the legend.

   The idea

   A huge reward a head tells you how seriously the authorities now take the gang. What keeps four men ahead of hundreds of police is not luck but a network of sympathisers, many of them small farmers who see the Kellys as one of their own. The police answer with mass arrests of suspected sympathisers, which hardens sympathy into something closer to loyalty.

   Try this: Notice this week who your community protects when authority comes asking, and why.

8. 8The gang chapters

   The armour

   The gang has armour made: heavy plate suits, helmets included. The armour is intended to protect them in a final confrontation with the police. It is heavy, hot, and cumbersome, but it works: at Glenrowan, bullets fired at the gang bounce off. The sight of a man in plate armour, bullet-proof and on the run, is like nothing the police have seen.

   The idea

   Four suits of armour are the gang's most famous invention, and the most desperate. The plates turn bullets, but they are agonising to wear and leave the wearer half-blind and half-deaf. The armour is both a shield and a confession: Ned no longer believes he can outrun the law, so he prepares to stand and be shot at. It is the moment the legend becomes an image, a man in iron facing the guns of the state.

   Try this: Identify one situation where you are preparing to defend rather than resolve, and ask what that costs you.

9. 9Final chapters

   Glenrowan: the last stand

   The gang takes over the town of Glenrowan, plans to derail a police train, and makes prisoners of the townspeople in the Glenrowan Inn. The plot fails, and in the gun battle that follows, three gang members die. Ned, wearing his armour, is shot in the legs and captured. The inn is set on fire.

   The idea

   Glenrowan is the end, and it goes wrong from the start. The plan to wreck a police train depends on secrecy, and the gang ends up besieged in the Glenrowan Inn with the townspeople they took hostage. Three gang members die in the inn, and Ned, shot in the legs, is taken alive. The fire that finishes the inn finishes the gang, and the legend is complete.

   Try this: This week, when a plan of yours starts failing, name the first thing that went wrong instead of the last.

10. 10Final chapters

    Trial, appeal, and the gallows

    Ned is tried and found guilty of murder. An appeal for clemency is made, but the sentence stands, and Ned Kelly is hanged. His last words are reported as 'Such is life.'

    The idea

    The trial is quick, the appeal fails, and the petition for reprieve changes nothing. Ned is hanged, reportedly saying 'Such is life.' The speed of the process and the refusal of clemency are part of why the story still stings: to his supporters, the state proved his point about justice, and to his opponents, the law finally did its work. Both sides left the gallows with their opinions intact.

    Try this: Write one sentence this week that sums up how you want to be remembered, and keep it.

11. 11Final chapters

    After the rope: a legend that will not die

    After the hanging, the Kelly story is retold in books, paintings, films and songs, and the armour becomes one of the most recognisable images in Australia. The question of whether Ned was a criminal or a hero is still argued about today.

    The idea

    The story does not end at the gallows. The armour, the Jerilderie Letter, and the last stand at Glenrowan keep the argument alive: was Ned Kelly a murderer or a martyr? Wilkinson's answer is that the question is the point, and that the argument tells us as much about Australia as about the man.

    Try this: Choose a controversial figure from your own country's past and read one account for and one against.

Readers new to Australian history who want the Kelly story told clearly and fairly, and younger readers meeting Ned Kelly for the first time. Also for anyone curious about how legends are made.

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