When Ned Kelly fought his "last stand" at Glenrowan, he made his suit of armor and a tiny bush pub part of Australian folklore. But what really happened at the Glenrowan Inn when the Kelly Gang took up arms against the government? Who was there when the bullets began to fly and how did their actions help to set the course of history? Almost 130 years after the gunfight, a team of archaeologists peeled back the layers of history at Glenrowan to reveal new information about how the battle played out, uncovering the stories of the people caught up in a violent confrontation that helped to define what it means to be Australian. The True Story of Ned Kelly's Last Stand uses science, history, and family lore to literally unearth a new understanding of how a legend was made. It examines the actions of a woman who took a chance and lost. It delves into the lives and deaths of the people who helped to create the legend. And, perhaps most importantly, as the inn reveals its lost secrets, it creates an opportunity to shed new light on Ned Kelly, a man who still polarizes a nation as either a romantic hero or a convicted killer.

SOONTO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE The international bestseller, Booker Prize winner, and winner of the 2001 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book. Out of 19th century Australia rides a hero of his people and a man for all nations: Ned Kelly, the son of poor Irish immigrants, viewed by the authorities as a thief (especially of horses) and, as a cold-blooded killer. To the people, though, he was a patriot hounded unfairly by rich English landlords and their stooges. In the end, Kelly and his so-called gang (his younger brother and two friends) led a massive police manhunt on a wild goose chase that lasted twenty months, in which Ned’s talents as a bushman were augmented by bank robberies and the support of nearly everyone not in a uniform. His one demand – for which he would have surrendered himself was his jailed mother’s freedom. Executed by hanging more than a century ago, speaking as if from the grave, Kelly still resonates as the most potent legend in the land down under.

Kate Kelly has always been overshadowed by her famous brother Ned, but the talented young woman was a popular public figure in her own right. This moving biography tells her astonishing story in full for the first time. Kate Kelly, the daring sister of legendary bushranger Ned Kelly, was mysteriously found dead in a lagoon outside the NSW town of Forbes in 1898. At the inquest, Kate's husband Bricky Foster claimed that she was addicted to drink and frequently spoke of suicide. However, a neighbour testified that she had only known Kate to drink since the recent birth of her baby and that she never spoke of suicide. Was it suicide, accident or murder, and why had she changed her name to Ada? While only a teenager, Kate rode as a messenger and decoy for the Kelly Gang, and was present at the gruesome Glenrowan siege. After Ned's execution, she appeared at public gatherings around Australia. Huge crowds came to see her talk and ride, and she helped to popularise the Ned Kelly story as a celebrity in her own right. Then she disappeared from the public eye. Rebecca Wilson is the first to uncover the full story of Kate Kelly's tumultuous life. It will surprise anyone who thought they already knew the story of Australia's most famous outlaw. 'Rarely told in full, this is the fascinating life of one of the great characters in one of our greatest stories.' - Paul Terry, author of The True Story of Ned Kelly's Last Stand 'Thoroughly recommended not only to those who have an interest in bushranging and the Kelly dynasty but anyone who enjoys a well-written and riveting yarn, based on fact.' - Rob Willis OAM, National Library of Australia Oral History and Folklore Collections

Outlaw, murderer, self-proclaimed victim, Ned Kelly is an Australian icon. But who was he? Kelly’s extraordinary achievement is to have provided his own answer to that question. The Jerilderie Letter is his remarkable manifesto and a startling record of his voice.

Most Australians know something about Ned Kelly ndash; his gangrsquo;s final shoot out with the police at Glenrowan, Ned in his iron armour taken down by troopers shooting at his exposed legs, his subsequent trial and hanging in Melbourne ndash; itrsquo;s a story often told. But did you know that Ned was planning a republic of north-east Victoria? That many of the settlers in the area were ready to take on the establishment and form their own independent state? That Nedrsquo;s lsquo;life of crimersquo; can be linked to the gross corruption of the colonial Victorian police force? Historian Brad Webb has written the essential guide to the Kelly legacy, with rarely seen images. This book is a must for any library, and has plenty to offer to those who think they know the full story of the Kelly Gang.

Such Is Life is an Australian novel written by Joseph Furphy under a pseudonym of “Tom Collins” and published in 1903. It purports to be a series of diary entries by the author, selected at approximately one-month intervals during late 1883 and early 1884. “Tom Collins” travels rural New South Wales and Victoria, interacting and talking at length with a variety of characters including the drivers of bullock-teams, itinerant swagmen, boundary riders, and squatters (the owners of large rural properties). The novel is full of entertaining and sometimes melancholy incidents mixed with the philosophical ramblings of the author and his frequent quotations from Shakespeare and poetry. Its depictions of the Australian bush, the rural lifestyle, and the depredations of drought are vivid. Furphy is sometimes called the “Father of the Australian Novel,” and Such Is Life is considered a classic of Australian literature.

Love him or loathe him, Ned Kelly has been at the heart of Australian culture and identity since he and his gang were tracked down in bushland by the Victorian police and came out fighting, dressed in bulletproof iron armour made from farmers’ ploughs. Historians still disagree over virtually every aspect of the eldest Kelly boy’s brushes with the law. Did he or did he not shoot Constable Fitzpatrick at their family home? Was he a lawless thug or a noble Robin Hood, a remorseless killer or a crusader against oppression and discrimination? Was he even a political revolutionary, an Australian republican channelling the spirit of Eureka? Peter FitzSimons, bestselling chronicler of many of the great defining moments and people of this nation’s history, is the perfect person to tell this most iconic of all Australian stories. From Kelly’s early days in Beveridge, Victoria, in the mid-1800s, to the Felons’ Apprehension Act, which made it possible for anyone to shoot the Kelly gang, to Ned’s appearance in his now-famous armour, prompting the shocked and bewildered police to exclaim ‘He is the devil!’ and ‘He is the bunyip!’, FitzSimons brings the history of Ned Kelly and his gang exuberantly to life, weighing in on all of the myths, legends and controversies generated by this compelling and divisive Irish-Australian rebel.

For centuries before the arrival in Australia of Captain Cook and the so-called First Fleet in 1788, intrepid seafaring explorers had been searching, with varied results, for the fabled “Great Southland.” In this enthralling history of early discovery, Graham Seal offers breathtaking tales of shipwrecks, perilous landings, and Aboriginal encounters with the more than three hundred Europeans who washed up on these distant shores long before the land was claimed by Cook for England. The author relates dramatic, previously untold legends of survival gleaned from the centuries of Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Indonesian voyages to Australia, and debunks commonly held misconceptions about the earliest European settlements: ships of the Dutch East Indies Company were already active in the region by the early seventeenth century, and the Dutch, rather than the English, were probably the first European settlers on the continent.

This controversial book re-examines the story of the Kelly Gang in fascinating detail and with many new insights. The mythology created by pro-Kelly writers is critically explored, unravelled, and often found wanting. Many missing official documents have been identified for the first time.

Produced in partnership with the National Museum of Australia, The Story of Australia is an accessible, essential history resource for every home How did Australia's earliest human inhabitants reach the island continent? Which discovery ushered in a new era of immigration, prosperity and technological advancement? How did a far-flung colony and military outpost transform into one of the wealthiest and most peaceful nations in the modern world? Dip into the pages to discover these answers and more ... This detailed illustrated history of Australia journeys from the formation of the continent to the growth of a modern, thriving nation. Clear, accessible text offers explanations of key events and the people behind them. From the enduring cultures of Australia's Indigenous people, European exploration and colonisation, and the tragic impacts of two world wars, The Story of Australia concludes with the exciting fast-paced development of the last decades of the 20th century. Produced in partnership with the National Museum of Australia, The Story of Australia draws on the museum's rich collection of objects, photographs and artefacts. Entertaining, colourful and inviting, The Story of Australia is the essential history resource for every home and library.