Victoria Attractions

Venue: Ned Kelly Memorial Museum & Homestead    When: Daily

Ned Kelly is Australia's most renowned outlaw and popular icon, a 19th-century Robin Hood figure who lived much of his life in Glenrowan West (Greta). Today there is a memorial museum dedicated to him, along with a replica of the Kelly homestead where he lived with his family.

Inside the museum, Kelly's life unfolds through displays of objects, papers and photographs as well as a suit of armour similar to the one he wore when the police finally came to get him. Beyond the museum is the replica of the homestead. Complete with a bark roof, this is also known as Kate's cottage, named after his sister.

Today only the rubble of the chimneys remain on the original site, which is private land and not open to public viewing. The replica can be seen, however, with a main room (kitchen/dining room) complete with implements and period furniture (from 1870-1890) and newspaper-lined walls of the bedroom where various siblings shared one bed.

Born in Beveridge, Victoria in 1854, Ned Kelly was just 12 when his ex-convict father John "Red" Kelly died and his mother moved them to the lawless outpost of Greta where her own family, the Quinns, were squatters. As the oldest child, Ned became the main breadwinner. He served under notorious bushranger Harry Power before forming his own gang (Kelly, his brother Dan and mates Joe Byrne and Steve Hart) and fleeing to the bush. After they shot dead three policemen sent to capture them, the biggest manhunt in Australia's history was mounted.

After various skirmishes with the police, the Kelly gang had their last stand, Kelly himself dressed in a 90-pound suit of armour. He escaped to the bush whilst Dan Kelly, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart were killed, but when he returned for his brother the police captured him. He was hanged on 11 November 1880 in Melbourne, aged just 25.