Journal

From the record, and from the making of KENNEDY.

From the record

Faded carte de visite of a bearded man in a light hat, with handwriting beneath the oval photograph.
Constable Thomas Lonigan. The inscription reads "Const. Lonigan". Carte de visite, photographer unknown, 1870s. Victoria Police Museum.

4 minute read

Four goodbyes on the Violet Town road

Thomas Lonigan turned his horse back four times before he could leave his family. This is what the record says about the constable the Kellys already knew.

Nineteenth century engraving of armed men in long grass aiming at two mounted police, with a body lying beside a log.
The attack on the police at Stringybark Creek as drawn for Melbourne readers within weeks of the event.Samuel Calvert, wood engraving, Illustrated Australian News, November 1878. State Library Victoria.

3 minute read

Three revolvers and a borrowed shotgun

What a Victorian constable was paid, what he had to buy, and what four men could scrape together in a day.

Portrait photograph of a young man with dark hair and a thick dark beard, in a jacket and tie.
Constable Michael Scanlan.Photographer unknown, 1870s. Victoria Police Museum.

4 minute read

The two Michaels

Kennedy and Scanlan rode five hundred miles a month together. They died within minutes of each other.

Oval portrait photograph of a man with a long beard and hair combed upward, in a dark coat and tie.
Constable Thomas McIntyre, the only survivor of the party.Photographer unknown, c1878. Victoria Police Museum.

5 minute read

The witness

Thomas McIntyre wrote it down within twenty four hours and was still answering for it at a Royal Commission three years later.

Sepia photograph of two men standing either side of a large tree with a covered body on the ground between them.
Members of the search party re enact the finding of Sergeant Kennedy's body for Burman's camera. A blanket stands in for the coat.A.W. Burman, Finding of Kennedy's Body, carte de visite, 1878. Victoria Police Museum.

5 minute read

What the doctor found

Mansfield went back into the ranges three times in five days. Dr Reynolds wrote down what they brought home.

Front page of the Australasian Sketcher with six engraved portraits of bearded men.
How Melbourne first saw the men. The Australasian Sketcher, 23 November 1878.The bushranging tragedy, Australasian Sketcher, 23 November 1878. State Library Victoria, A/S23/11/78/129.

5 minute read

The Royal Commission of 1881

Sixty six sittings, sixty two witnesses and a report that ended careers. What the inquiry said about the police, the Kellys and Stringybark Creek.

Sepia photograph of a forest clearing with fallen logs, a man seated on a log at left and another standing at right.
The police camp at Stringybark Creek, photographed by A.W. Burman weeks after the killings.A.W. Burman, Scene of the Wombat police murders at Stringybark Creek, c1878. State Library Victoria, H2894.

4 minute read

Two hundred people in the rain

Mansfield buried its sergeant on 1 November 1878 and raised a monument eighteen months later. The graves have needed defending since.

Studio portrait of a man with swept back hair and a full beard, wearing a dark jacket.
Sergeant Michael Kennedy, photographed shortly before his death.Photographer unknown, c1878. Victoria Police Museum.

4 minute read

Bridget Kennedy: the petition, the shop and the watch

There was no pension for a police widow in 1878. This is what the record shows about how one arrived, and what Bridget did with the forty six years that followed.

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