PREMIUM

PRIZE OF THE WEEK

By Daneka Hill

Oct 21, 2021

Kate Kelly – The true story of Ned Kelly’s little sister

The book opens with this quote: “A Melbourne telegram states that the police are in a quandary about Kate Kelly. She has completely slipped through their fingers — Northern Argus, Friday, 20 June, 1879.”

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Australians aren’t big on our own history. The average Aussie knows more about the United States. But when we do get our collective national teeth into a historical figure or farce, it always tends to be the poorest, lowest, unluckiest person.

Gallipoli was a roaring defeat. Burke and Wills were a nightmare.

The story of Kate Kelly ticks all these boxes. Author Rebecca Wilson makes this clear when she starts her book off with Kate’s death in a lagoon outside Forbes. The sorry state of her life unfurls from there.

Wilson writes in good, working Australian English. It keeps your interest easily and doesn’t waste time smelling too many roses. Within three chapters, Benalla, the Strathbogie Ranges and Greta all star on the page.

Kate Kelly is a very digestible piece of Australian history. When it talks about the first settlers coming over the Blue Mountains to settle the land, Wilson spares only three sentences to dwell on the tree clearing — but it’s enough.

“Squeals could be heard as koalas’ homes were toppled while they were still in the canopies. If the animals were lucky, they hit the ground running, nursing their injuries and babies as they fled. Extraordinary numbers of koala were killed. Their lives intentionally taken and their sought-after skins harvested and sold.”

At one very entertaining point, the author is forced to write about her own family’s exploits as station owners, since they were the ones to first employ Kate Kelly when she assumed another name in Forbes.

This is a great insight into mid-1800s Australia, particularly in the Riverina and northern Victoria.

Kate Kelly – The true story of Ned Kelly’s little sister by Rebecca Wilson is published by Allen and Unwin, RRP $32.99.

HOW TO ENTER

For a chance to win a copy of this book, send your name, address, daytime phone number and the answer to this question: Who is in the front page photograph of today’s Country News? Send entries to: Country Life ‘Kate Kelly’ Competition, PO Box 8000, Shepparton, 3632 by Wednesday, November 10.