Our Aussie Blog

[Blog Post] Ned Kelly - Outlaw or Legend?

We have had a number of bushrangers during the short history of Australia but none have stirred Australians more than Ned Kelly and the “Kelly Gang”. Love him or hate him, there seems to be no middle ground when it comes to opinions of our most infamous bushranger.

Who is Edward ‘Ned’ Kelly?

Ned was the eldest son of John Kelly (ex-convict who was transported from Ireland) and Ellen Quinn (a free immigrant from Ireland). There is much debate over when he was actually born as there are no records of his Catholic Baptism but evidence suggests that it’s likely to have been sometime between late 1854 and June 1855.

When Ned’s father died in 1866, Ned was 11 years old and was the eldest child of 7 children at the time. His mother moved with the children to be nearer to family and get on with their lives as best as they could in those tough times.

Bushranger beginnings?

When Ned was 16 years old, a well known bushranger, Harry Power (who had escaped from prison at the time) came along and asked Ned to join him as his offsider. Needing the money to help his mother he went along. It’s most likely that during his time with Harry Power that he learnt a lot of his bush-skills.

His time with Power was short-lived with him being arrested and Power eventually being caught. When Power was brought in, it was made to look as though Ned was the informer but in fact it was Ned’s uncle who had turned him in.

From his release there were various charges against Ned Kelly and at one time during the lead up to the Kelly Gang, Ned was sentenced to hard labour for 3 years.

Trouble with the Law

In 1878 there was an incident with a Constable Fitzpatrick while attempting to arrest Dan Kelly. Ned and Dan decided it would be better for everyone if they got out of the way and went out in the bush to hide out.

Warrants were issued for their arrest for “attempted murder” of Constable Fitzpatrick with a £100 reward. Their mother was arrested and sentenced to 3 years in gaol with hard labour for attempted murder of Constable Fitzpatrick.

Kelly Gang Formed

Shortly after this a police party of four went in search of the two Kelly’s in the Wombat Ranges. It is often reported that Ned Kelly (along with Dan, and their friends Joe Byrne and Steve Hart) just wanted to disarm the officers and take their horses but things didn’t go to plan.

At Stringybark Creek on the 26th of October police officers Sgt Kennedy and Constables Lonigan and Scanlon were shot dead. Perhaps a kill or be killed situation? Constable McIntyre was the only one to survive and he raised the alarm about the other officers.

On October 29th the government issued a notice of a reward of £800 for the arrest and conviction of all four, now known as the ‘Kelly Gang’. In November this was changed to £2,000 (£500 for each offender) and they were legally declared Outlaws which meant any civilian could legally shoot any of the gang members on sight.

Following this, the Kelly gang robbed a bank in Euroa as well as holding hostages at nearby Faithfull’s Creek in North-East Victoria.

A lot of the Kelly Gang’s friends and sympathisers were arrested and were able to be held up to 3 months to stop them from assisting the outlaws in evading capture. This only increased their numbers of supporters who were starting to resent the government and the police of the state.

In early February of 1879, the gang held up the town of Jerilderie in NSW and robbed its bank. It’s during this time that Ned Kelly wrote his famous ‘Jerilderie Letter’ where he explained his version of events and asked for leniency for their families, friends and supporters who had done no wrong. The reward for the gang had risen to £8,000 – £2,000 per outlaw.

Last Stand

It all came to a head in Glenrowan during a siege between 26th and 28th of June. Clad in the famous armour that has become a symbol of the Kelly Gang they had a shoot-out with the police which brought the gang undone.

Joe Byrne was shot and died from blood loss; his body was taken away and strung up for spectators and photographers. Daniel Kelly and Steve Hart died inside the Inn they were holed up in. Ned Kelly was shot and badly injured but escaped, then came back to try and rescue Dan and Steve. He came upon the police line from the rear and boldly took them on single-handedly, known as Ned Kelly’s ‘last stand’.

He was shot and captured, the only surviving Kelly gang member, he was taken to Melbourne to await trial and his fate.

Ned Kelly was found guilty of wilful murder and sentenced to execution by hanging. When Judge Barry declared the sentence, Ned responded, “I will go a little further than that and say I will see you there where I go”.

There was a petition for a reprieve organised with over 30,000 signatures but it did no good. Meanwhile Ned continued to write letters to explain his version of events and to ask for his mother’s release from gaol but nothing came of it.

November 11th 1880, Ned Kelly was executed by hanging at Melbourne Gaol; his last words were “Such is Life!”

One interesting fact is that 12 days later, the judge who sentenced him to death died also.

In 1881 there was a Royal Commission into the Kelly Outbreak which painted the police involved in the lead up to them being declared as outlaws in an unfavourable light though it didn’t excuse or condone the actions of the Kelly gang either! Regardless, it brought about major changes to the Victorian Police force which are still in effect today.

There has been much speculation about Ned Kelly and the Kelly gang over the years; even today they still make news headlines!

• Where are the remains of Ned Kelly and will he be given a proper burial?
• Where is Ned Kelly’s skull?
• Did Steve Hart and Dan Kelly actually escape?
• Did Ned Kelly get married?

Ned Kelly is firmly lodged in our psyche – love him or hate him, he will live on in one way or another as an outlaw but also a legend!

For me personally, I am a supporter. I certainly do not condone their actions BUT looking at the way events played out back then (or what we know of them) I believe Ned Kelly was mostly misunderstood. Circumstances beyond his control seemed to force his hand. No matter what wrong doings the Kelly Gang did, we also need to look at the Police of the time and see their part in the whole drama too.

Ned Kelly has been much written about over the years and of course there have been movies made about him, the first one made in 1905. Another one made in 1970 starred Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones as Ned and in 2003 Heath Ledger starred as Ned Kelly in the film of the same name. It’s been knocked by Kelly fans for being little more than a romanticised Hollywood attempt at history and inaccurate in parts, I couldn’t say as I haven’t seen it. My personal favourite was the 1980 mini-series ‘The Last Outlaw’ which seems to be the most accurately portrayed (as best as can be) version of events.

At Australian Native T-Shirts we have many fantastic Ned Kelly t-shirts, pewter figurines and buckles, stubby holders and other merchandise. These make great gifts for those admire Ned Kelly – the Legend!

Read more →

[Blog Post] 10 More Ways To Tell If You’re Australian..

We posted 10 ways to tell if you’re Australian earlier in the blog and here are another 10 – how many apply to you? We have also added brief explanations to the end for our visitors from across the sea!

You know you’re Australian when:

1. You know the difference between thongs and a G-banger (thongs go on your feet, a G-banger is what others may call thong underwear!).
2. You know that while we call our friends ‘Mates’, we don’t use terms like ‘Sheila’ and ‘Shrimp on the Barbie’, contrary to popular belief (it’s true, we really don’t say that – advertising has a lot to answer for!).
3. You’re familiar with Neighbours, Home and Away, Playschool, A Country Practice, Norman Gunston, Barry Humphries, Blue Heelers, Ray Martin, Bert Newton, Lisa McCune, Jon Burgess, Number 96, Molly Meldrum, Kerry O’Brien etc (TV shows, characters and well known Australians – a bit of an institution really!).
4. You drive on the left-hand side of the road (and sit in the right hand side of the car to drive!).
5. You know that you can’t eat Fantales alone… Otherwise who will you play the “Who am I…” game with when you’re reading the wrapper? (Fantales are a yummy confection with celebrity bios and trivia written all over the wrappers).
6. You feel obliged to spread salty black stuff that looks like congealed motor oil on bread… and actually grow to like it. You’ve also squeezed Vegemite through Vita Wheats to make little Vegemite worms (think of two thin wheat crisps with little holes, spread your margarine and vegemite on top, put two together and squeeze – little wormy shapes of spread come out all the holes – done it!).
7. You have the ability to compress several words into one – ie ‘g’day’ and ‘d’reckn?’ (why use a whole bunch of words when one word will get the message across?).
8. You know what fairy bread tastes like, and you can’t imagine your childhood without it (fairy bread is buttered bread covered in 100s of little coloured sprinkles – in Australia they are known as hundreds and thousands).
9. Sausage rolls and meat pies. End of story (a must have snack food at all childrens parties, school lunch, pub lunch, pretty much anytime actually!).
10. The private lives of footy and cricket players become more important than local and national news stories (Australians really love their sport and sporting heroes – what else can we say?).

Read more →

[Blog Post] Australian Animal Facts – The Bilby

Continuing in our series of Australian native animal facts, this page contains information and interesting facts about the bilby!

1. The bilby is a desert living marsupial.
2. There were originally two species of bilby, but one became extinct in the 1950s.
3. The name bilby is an Aboriginal word meaning long-nosed rat.
4. It is an endangered animal due to habitat loss and competition between them and other animals.
5. Bilbies have a long muzzle and very long ears – apparently hearing is not an issue!
6. They are burrowers and can build tunnels with their strong limbs and claws.
7. The female bilby has a pouch which faces backwards so her pouch does not get filled when she is digging.
8. Bilbies are nocturnal omnivores that do not need to drink water – they get all the moisture they need from their food, which includes insects and their larvae, seeds, spiders, bulbs, fruit, fungi and other very small animals.
9. Bilbies are only pregnant for 12 to 14 days, one of the shortest of all mammals.
10. The bilby also has a long tongue which helps it find/reach food.
11. There was a movement to have the Easter bilby replace the Easter bunny in Australia with some of the sales raising money for the protection of these unique little native animals.
12. There is a national recovery plan to help revive the bilby population which sees bilbies being bred in captivity and introducing them back to areas where bilbies once lived.
13. Bilbies are closely related to the bandicoot.

Check out our products featuring the Australian bilby.

Read more →

[Blog Post] Aboriginal Art Information

One of our most famous Aboriginal artists would be Albert Namatjira who is best known for his water-colour landscapes of the Macdonnell Ranges and the nearby regions of Central Australia. His painting style was more of a conventional approach to art unlike some of the Aboriginal art we see but his paintings do capture something special in them.

Aboriginal art has existed for many thousands of years. Some of the rock carvings and aboriginal paintings are 30,000 years old. These painting and carvings narrate the stories of the painter or sculptor.

The colours used in ancient Aboriginal art were natural shades of earth colours such as red, brown and yellow. The other colours used were white made from pipe clay and charcoal made by burning wood.

One of the traditional visual art forms of the Aboriginals is known as “Dot painting”. In dot painting, minute dots are used to create symbols and patterns on canvas. Traditional dot painters still use natural pigments derived from plants and seeds but some contemporary artists now use acrylic paints on canvas instead of natural earth colours.

At Australian Native T-Shirts we have quite a selection of Aboriginal art on t-shirts, ladies clothing, gift items, prints and wallhangings.

Read more →

[Blog Post] Learn the Lingo – Names for Types of People

Just something a little different in this Learn the Lingo post, these are the names we call people or how they are perceived to us in Australia.

• Ankle biter – toddler or small child
• Bloke – a man or guy
• Bludger – generally someone who relies on other people to do things for them; lazy
• Bogan – person with little pride in their appearance
• Bushie – Someone who lives in the bush
• Cobber – a friend
• Dag – a funny person or a bit of a goof
• Dill – an idiot – but not meant in a nasty way
• Dipstick – an idiot or loser
• Dole bludger – someone who is on welfare and doing nothing to change it
• Drongo – stupid person
• Dropkick – an idiot or loser
• Fruit loop – fool
• Galah – fool or silly person
• Hoon – refers to a hooligan, especially driving unsafely, too fast, wrecklessly
• Mate – a friend, and often something to call a person when you can’t remember their name!
• Mongrel – despicable person
• Mug –  gullible person or friendly insult
• Nipper – young surf lifesaver
• No-hoper – someone who will never do well.
• Ocker – an unsophisticated person
• Oldies – parents
• Postie – postman or mailman
• Rellie or relo – a relative
• Sheila – a woman (though rarely used in Australia except if it’s someone’s actual name)
• Sook – cry baby
• Stickybeak – a nosy person
• Tall poppies – someone successful
• True blue – patriotic
• Vego – a vegetarian
• Yobbo – an uncouth person

I’m definitely a dag at times, and always a good mate!

Read more →

[Blog Post] Cute Picture of Australian Animal Road Sign

I just wanted to share a picture taken by one of our visitors of a real Australian road sign designed to protect the native animals from cars. Isn’t it sweet?

At Australian Native T-Shirts, we carry a lot of native Australian animal road sign gifts – take a look.

Read more →

[Blog Post] Learn the Lingo - Aussie Food Slang Terms

Learn some Aussie slang terms to help you speak ‘Orstralian in no time. I hope you have fun with these:

• Avo or avos – Avocados
• Bikkie – a biscuit or cookie
• Chewie – chewing gum
• Chokkie – chocolate 
• Fairy floss – cotton candy or candy floss
• Flake – shark meat usually bought at a fish and chip shop
• Icy pole, ice block – Popsicle or lollypop
• Mystery bag – often refers to a sausage
• Sanger – a sandwich
• Tucker – food!
• Veges – vegetables

So, let’s try and put that lot into a few words….

I was starving so I spat my chewie out and had a bikkie but I was still hungry. I had some left over chokkie so wolfed that down followed by some fairy floss I got at the local show on the weekend. I didn’t want to have a sanger as I’d had one at lunch! Still hungry after that, so I got a piece of flake from the fish and chip shop, cooked up a mystery bag and some veges and threw some avo on top. Talk about great tucker! Then to finish off, I had an icy pole.

Haha we tried! It’s not easy “trying” to speak the lingo even as a native without totally confusing you with other words we could throw in.

Read more →

[Blog Post] Australian Lamington Recipe

Cooking Time for This Yummy Aussie Treat is approx. 30 Minutes with 15 Minutes Prep Time.

Main Ingredients (for lamingtons that serve 15)

Melted butter to grease the pan

75g (1/2 cup) self-raising flour

75g (1/2 cup) plain flour

70g (1/2 cup) cornflour

6 eggs at room temperature

215g (1 cup) caster sugar

1 tablespoon boiling water

170g (2 cups) desiccated coconut

Chocolate Icing Ingredients

300g (2 cups) icing sugar mixture

35g (1/3 cup) cocoa powder

60ml (1/4 cup) milk

60ml (1/4 cup) boiling water

Cooking Method

Preheat your oven to 160°C. Brush a 20 x 30cm lamington pan with melted butter to lightly grease. Line the base and sides of the tray with nonstick baking paper, allowing it to overhang a little.

Sift the combined flours together into a large bowl – repeat this twice.

Use an electric beater to whisk the eggs in a large, dry bowl until thick and pale. Gradually add the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking well each time until mixture is thick and sugar dissolves.

Sift the combined flours over the egg mixture. Pour the boiling water down the side of the bowl and use a large metal spoon to gently fold until just combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and use the back of a spoon to smooth the surface.

Bake in your oven for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Turn the cake onto a wire rack, cover with a clean tea towel and set it aside overnight to cool.

Trim the edges off the cake and cut it into 15 squares.

To make the chocolate icing, sift the icing sugar and cocoa powder into a medium bowl. Add the milk and water and stir until it’s smooth.

Spread the desiccated coconut over a plate. Use two forks to dip one cake square into the warm icing to evenly coat and then allow any excess icing to drip off. Use your fingers to roll the cake in the coconut to evenly coat, then place on a wire rack.

Repeat this method with the remaining cake squares in the icing and coconut and then set aside for 1 hour or until the icing sets.

Read more →

[Blog Post] Anzac Biscuits Recipe

Ingredients:

125g Flour
150g Sugar
1 Cup Coconut
1 Cup Rolled Oats
100g Butter
1 Tbsp. Golden Syrup
1/2 tsp. Bicarb Soda
2 Tbsp. Boiling Water

Method:

Mix together flour, sugar, coconut and rolled oats. Melt butter and golden syrup, dissolve Bicarb Soda in the boiling water and add to butter and golden syrup.

Make a well in the centre of the flour, stir in liquid.

Place in spoonfuls on greased trays and bake 15 to 20 mins at 180°C

Read more →