Australian Iron Man: Ned Kelly’s Final Standoff

Throughout history, many outlaws have gained fame for their exploits, often becoming romanticized figures in folklore, literature, and film despite their criminal activities. Figures like Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy, and Bonnie and Clyde have achieved legendary status as symbols of rebellion. While the American Old West produced some of the most famous outlaws, the concept of banditry exists across cultures and historical periods worldwide.

Australia’s most famous outlaw was Ned Kelly, an Irish-Australian, who became a folk hero for his defiance of colonial authorities and his iconic homemade armour. Though not as widely known internationally as other legendary outlaws, he is a central figure in Australian folklore and cultural identity. His story is deeply tied to 19th-century Australia, reflecting the country’s colonial history, hardship faced by Irish settlers, and a deep-seated resentment toward the police, who frequently targeted his family. Over time, his life and exploits have taken on a legendary quality, symbolizing themes of rebellion, social injustice, and resistance against authority.

The homemade armour that Ned Kelly and his gang wore during their final showdown with the police. Photo credit: National Museum of Australia

Ned Kelly was born in 1854 in Beveridge, north of Melbourne, to Irish parents. He spent his childhood on his family’s farm, where he became well acquainted with the bush. When he was a young boy, Ned once risked his life to save another child from drowning in a creek. In gratitude, the boy’s family gifted him a green sash. It is said this was the same sash worn by Ned during his last stand in 1880.

When Ned was 14 years old, he met bushranger Harry Power and together they committed many armed robberies. Power was often described as Ned’s bushranging “mentor”, and Ned was seen as his “young accomplice”. However, this relationship turned sour when Power was arrested and rumour spread that Ned had informed on him in exchange for having his own charges dropped. Though Ned denied the accusations, Power always insisted that he had been betrayed.

Ned continued his life of crime, working with various gangs to steal horses mainly. His felonious activities brought him into conflict with the police frequently. On one occasion, after being arrested for riding over a footpath while drunk, a constable named Thomas Lonigan reportedly grabbed Ned’s testicles, at which Ned vowed: “Well Lonigan, I never shot a man yet; but if I ever do...you will be the first!”

Ned Kelly on 10 November 1880, one day before his execution.

Ned kept his promise. In 1878, Ned and his brother Dan were on the run for shooting and wounding a policeman when they were confronted by a party of police. Ned shot and killed Lonigan without regret calling him the “meanest man that I had any account against.”

The encounter with the police party turned out to be ghastly with three policeman dead, prompting the Victorian government to declare them outlaws and announced a reward of £2,000 for the capture of Ned and his gang. The murders also led the Parliament of Victoria to pass the Felons Apprehension Act, which gave anyone the right to kill them without consequence.

Less than two months after the shooting incident, the gang robbed a bank in Euroa in north-eastern Victoria in an elaborate operation and took off with more than £2,200 in cash and gold. Two months later, the gang was back in action, this time at Jerilderie, a town 65 km across the border in New South Wales. There, they robbed the local bank of another £2,100 in cash and valuables. Before leaving, Ned found and burnt deeds, mortgages and securities, saying “the bloody banks are crushing the life's blood out of the poor, struggling man.”

Ned harboured deep hostility toward authority and whenever he could, he lectured those around him about police corruption and social injustice. Once he wrote to a Victorian parliamentarian, describing cases of alleged police misconduct and the harassment his family had endured. Before robbing the bank in Jerilderie, he composed a 56-page manifesto justifying his actions and outlining the injustices he claimed to have suffered at the hands of the police. In it, he also urged squatters to share their wealth with the rural poor and called for open rebellion against the colonial English.

The massacre at Stringybark Creek, which led to the death of three policemen including Thomas Lonigan.

Ned attracted a strong following, particularly among the poor Irish-Australians, who often faced discrimination and harsh treatment. Many of these settlers believed that the colonial police were corrupt and oppressive and saw Ned as a victim of relentless harassment and injustice.

To his supporters, Ned was more than an outlaw—he was a defender of the working class, standing up against wealthy landowners and a legal system that favoured the rich while leaving struggling farmers behind. His bold defiance, including his letters accusing the authorities of corruption and wrongdoing, resonated deeply with many, earning him widespread sympathy and admiration.

Following the Jerilderie raid, Ned and his gang went into hiding as the New South Wales government raised the bounty on his head to £4,000. The Victorian government matched the offer, bringing the total reward for the Kelly gang to an unprecedented £8,000—the largest ever placed on bushrangers.

While on the run, Ned and his gang—consisting of Ned, his brother Dan and Joe Byrne, and Steve Hart—devised a devious plan to “astonish not only the Australian colonies but the whole world.”

The gang from left to right: Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne.

In June 1880, sixteen months after the Jerilderie affair, Dan and Byrne shot dead one of their former gang members, Aaron Sherritt, after he turned a police informer. The murder took place at Sherritt’s home near Beechworth, in the presence of four policemen. The gang anticipated that news of the killing would reach Beechworth quickly and that within hours, a special police train would be dispatched from Melbourne. The train, they calculated, would stop at Benalla to pick up reinforcements before continuing through Glenrowan, a small town in the Warby Ranges.

It was at Glenrowan that the gang planned their ambush. They intended to derail the train and gun down any survivors before riding to an undefended Benalla, where they would bomb the railway bridge over the Broken River. This would cut off the town, giving them time to loot the banks, destroy the police barracks, set fire to the courthouse, free the prisoners from the gaol, and unleash widespread chaos before vanishing back into the bush.

The plan was foiled when the pilot of the incoming train saw the damaged track ahead and stopped the train on time, averting the disaster. Meanwhile, the gang had taken refuge in the local hotel, holding several hostages, when police arrived to confront them.

Ned Kelly’s head armour. Photo credit: State Library Victoria

Ned and his gang had spent months preparing for this final showdown. For months before their plan was put into action, the men had been forging crude but effective armour from mouldboards taken from stolen ploughs. After heating the mouldboards in a bush forge, the men beat and cut the heated iron into shape and riveted the parts together to create an armour for each member of the gang.

Each suit was made of 6 mm thick iron and consisted of a long breastplate, shoulder plates, back guard, apron, and helmet. The helmet resembled a tin can without a crown, and included a long slit for the eyes. The individual pieces were strapped onto the body, while the helmet, lined with internal leather straps, sat above the head to keep its massive weight off the collarbones and shoulders. This design not only provided protection but also allowed the helmet to be removed quickly if needed. Ned Kelly’s suit was the heaviest of them all, weighing an astonishing 44 kilograms.

For eleven hours, Ned’s gang held their ground against around forty policemen. None of the officers realized the outlaws were wearing armour until Ned was finally captured.

During Ned’s last stand, in the misty, dim light of dawn, the bulk and strange outline of his armour led some policemen to question whether he was even human. His apparent invulnerability filled onlookers with “superstitious awe.” Journalists at the scene described him as “a strange apparition” and “a fiend with a charmed life.”

One constable recalled being “completely astonished” and unable to comprehend what he was shooting at. As the gunfight continued, he assumed Ned was “a huge blackfellow wrapped in a blanket.” Another officer, who recognized Ned’s voice, later recounted, “I fired at him point-blank and hit him straight in the body. But there is no use firing at Ned Kelly; he can't be hurt.” Yet another, bewildered by the sight, became convinced the figure before him was none other than the legendary bunyip.

"A strange apparition: Ned Kelly's Fight and Capture", wood engraving, printed in The Age. Image credit: State Library Victoria

Although no bullets actually penetrated Ned’s armour, each shot that struck his helmet caused severe bruising, lacerations, and concussive force, leaving him disoriented. The armour also protected only the head and torso, leaving his limbs vulnerable. Ned was eventually wounded in the left hand, left arm and right foot. Joe Byrne was shot in the calf, while Dan Kelly and Steve Hart were killed in the final stages of the standoff.

Bleeding heavily, Ned retreated into the bush behind the hotel, where he lay for most of the night. At dawn, still clad in his armour and armed with three handguns, he emerged from the undergrowth and launched a final assault on the police. As he staggered forward, moving from tree to tree toward the hotel, the police opened fire. His injuries, the crushing weight of his armour, and the relentless impact of bullets against the iron plating slowed him down. He later described the sensation of being hit as feeling “like blows from a man's fist.”

The gunfight with Ned lasted around 15 minutes before he was finally brought down by two shotgun blasts to his unprotected legs and thighs. Severely wounded, he was carried to the railway station, where a doctor tended to him. A later examination revealed that he had sustained twenty-eight wounds, including serious gunshot injuries to his elbow and feet, multiple flesh wounds, and numerous cuts and abrasions from bullets striking his armour.

"The capture of Ned Kelly", wood engraving, printed in The Illustrated Australian News. Image credit: State Library Victoria

Once he had recovered enough to stand trial, Ned was brought before the court, where he was sentenced to death by hanging. Thousands of his sympathizers gathered in Melbourne to protest, demanding a reprieve. Their efforts were in vain. On 11 November 1880, Ned Kelly was hanged.

After Ned’s execution, the Victorian government launched an inquiry into the conduct of the police during the Kelly outbreak. While the report concluded that officers had acted appropriately in response to the gang’s criminality, it also exposed widespread corruption within the force. As a result, several careers were ended, including that of the Chief Commissioner, while numerous other officers—some in senior positions—were reprimanded, demoted, or suspended.

News of Ned Kelly’s armour caused a sensation across Australia and beyond. Even Arthur Conan Doyle remarked on the gang’s ingenuity, suggesting that similar armour could be used by British infantry. The four disassembled suits were eventually split between two locations: the State Library of Victoria, which holds Ned Kelly’s armour, and the Victorian Police Museum, which houses the armour of Dan Kelly and Steve Hart. All remain on display today.

Ned Kelly’s story has been romanticized in Australian culture, with many viewing him as a symbol of resistance against oppression and the struggles of the working class. His legacy continues to spark debate about law, justice, and the treatment of marginalized communities in Australian history. His life has also inspired countless books, films, songs, and artworks, while the striking image of his homemade armour endures as one of the most powerful symbols in Australian folklore.