Recently Renée and I met some descendents of the Kelly saga. They had asked to be shown the site where we believe, Ned had his whisky still. It was the first time we'd been there since my book was published. I was surprised how different much of it looked with the weeds and undergrowth sprouting up everywhere. Some previously recognisable locations were harder to distinguish.
It was pleasing to see that officials have acknowledged the police campsite was on the east side of Stringybark Creek. The distilling site looks very much as before and is still free from weeds. It would be nice to think that anyone visiting there would help to preserve it.
Quite a few years ago I learnt a valuable lesson in history reporting that I would like to relate. While we were in the USA I happened to see a writers' conference. The topic of the day was the battle of the Alamo. A number of historian-writers, like myself, came along to speak about their favourite topic; show off their books, and talk about their research. More or less they all told the following:
About 1880 there was trouble along the border between the USA and Mexico. A piece of propaganda emerged for the Americans about a battle that had been gallantly fought at 'the Alamo' about 45 years previously. By 1880 the actual battle had been all but forgotten and its location not exactly known. This seemed strange as all other American battlefields had been preserved and regarded as hallowed ground. The story that emerged was written by someone who claimed to have escaped at the height of the battle, and what he wrote was pretty much the story we know from movies and television. Researchers who studied the man's life and story believe he was never at the battle. The line drawn in the sand he may have taken from a South American legend.
When researchers asked what then was factually known about the battle at the Alamo, the answer, at the time, was surprisingly, very little. They then turned to Mexican accounts to throw some light on it. From memory, I think there were about 27 different accounts of how Davie Crockett was killed, but the gist of what happened was as follows:
The tejanos and texians (plus some women, children and slaves) were held up at the old 'Alamo' Mission waiting/hoping for the newly formed Texas army to protect them from the Mexicans that had surrounded them. Those inside were dressed in either military uniform or top hat and suit, and not expecting what was to follow. In the early hours of the morning, while it was still dark, the Mexicans under General Santa Anna started scaling the walls. There were no cannons fired, just hand-to-hand fighting in the dark. Some tried to flee to the open ground outside the mission and were shot down with musket fire. Most were killed in the hand-to-hand fighting. The rest surrendered only to be executed soon afterwards. The whole battle lasted about an hour and was over by daylight. One of the first feature films ever made after 'Ned Kelly' was 'The Alamo', and when it screened in San Antonio, they believed it was possible some of the original Mexican soldiers could have been in the audience.
The lesson to be learnt was that you can never take for granted what you to believe to be factual, is actually true. I believe there are similarities in the Kelly story, and for those of us who are not satisfied with getting a "Disney" version of history, we need to whittle away the information that can't be backed up with logic or be shown to be accurately recorded. Any information that was passed on as oral history must not be regarded as factual unless it is supported by other evidence.
As a matter of interest many of the Kelly enthusiasts I have spoken to, believe that Constable McIntyre has been unfairly treated. He no doubt suffered from what we refer to today as post-traumatic stress disorder. He was unable to do any more than he did, but his reputation still has not been treated kindly.
Stephen A McCarthy 17 May 2011