So Joe now an accomplice for the murder of these three police. Even though it's likely that he didn't kill any of them, he was still an accomplice.
He was now a wanted man.
And after that point you had Ned Kelly, Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and Joe Byrn as members of what is known as the Kelly Gang.
I'm Jen Kelly from The Herald's Son and this is in Black and White, a podcast about some of Australia's forgotten characters. When stories of the Kelly Gang are written, it's always their charismatic leader who grabs the spotlight. But Joe Burn lived his own very colorful life. Today we're chatting to Georgina Feelen, author of a new book called Joseph Byrne From Larikan to Outlaw. As the title suggests, Joe Byurn started out as a young Larrikan before he
became one of Australia's most notorious bushrangers. Also a bush poet who wrote stirring ballads about the Calligang's exploits. And he was a ladies man known by the nickname Sweet Birdie. As we'll hear today, Joe Byrn was also the strategist of the Calligang, and also sent threatening letters to the Victorian police and designed mock reward posters for the apprehension of police members. Georgina joins us now with the story.
Welcome to the podcast, Georgina, thank you. Now, there's been an awful lot written about the Kelly Gang and Ned Kelly over the decades, But I'm curious, is this the first time that someone has taken such a detailed look specifically at the life of Joe Byrn.
Yes, it is, so this is a first book that focuses solely on his life.
Okay, Now, of all the Kelly Gang members, why did you choose to write a book specifically about Joe Byrn?
Because his story had never been told in detail before. He'd always been kind of just a side character in other people's stories, and so I just felt that it was time to bring him out of the shadow of Ned Kelly.
And after all this time, one hundred and fifty years, you've actually been able to dig up new historical information to flesh out his story for the public record.
Yes, yes, I have. So there's information about Joe's personal life, about his health incidents that he was involved in, that have not been previously written about.
Okay, now, and is it also true that Joe Byrne is supposedly the one who designed the Kelly armor.
That's been a long held belief.
However, Joe, in his own words, was against the armor, so I don't believe that it was his idea.
No, Okay, we'll hear more about that, of course later in the story. Where does Joe Byrn's story begin?
Joe Byrne's story begins in the mining township of Sebastopol. He was born in eighteen fifty six. He lost his father when he was only thirteen, and he was forced to become the man of the house. He was one of seven children, and in order to support his family, who were now fatherless, he worked a variety of jobs to support and provide.
Now, one of the interesting things that I didn't know about Joe Byurrn is that he actually spoke his second language. Can you tell us about that?
Ah?
Yes, so Sebastopol obviously, because it was a mining town. Minus from all over the world had flocked to Sebastopol to try their luck, and many of these miners were Chinese, and Joe learned how he learned to converse in Cantonese with them, and he learned many of their customs and their habits as well.
And that was really unusual, wasn't it. I mean, there weren't many people who were going to the effort at that time to learn Cantonese. It was a time when racism was pretty ripe, it was.
Yes, it speaks a lot for Joe's character that he would go against that racism to actually show them their respect of learning their language and you know, getting to know them and befriending them. Yeah.
Now, your book is called Joseph Berne from Larikan to Outlaw. We've obviously heard plenty about the outlaw side over the years. Tell us more about the Alarican side of him, especially in his childhood.
Yeah.
So, Joe, even though he tried initially to work hard and support his family, like many young men, he kind of drifted away, and so he began with his mate Aaron Sherrett. They would borrow horses, which means that they would take them for joy rides and then put them back in the owner's paddock or knocked up and exhausted. But apart from this, if they came across a stray philly or a calf. They would take it up to a disused yard and they would put their own brand
on it. And one of the news one of the newsmen at the time stated that Joe Byurn was better known to the police than to the school master.
And when did he really start to get into too serious trouble with the law? I mean, when did he first go to jail for example?
Well, he first went to jail in June of eighteen seventy six, So up to that time the crimes that he was committing were fairly minor. But I suppose him he was kind of testing how far he could push things. So in May of eighteen seventy six, he and Aaron stole and butchered the local school cow.
And while they.
Were in the act of butchering it, a nosy neighbor spotted them and went all the way into Beechworth to report it, and the next day Aaron and Joe were arrested and sentenced to six months hard labor in Beechworth jail.
It seems like such a harsh sentence for stealing and butchering a cow, doesn't it six months hard labor?
It was definitely, however, keeping in mind that this was not Joe's first brush with the law. Both him and Aaron had been in trouble before, mainly for their love of riding other people's horses. So the judge kind of, you know that he wanted to make an example out of them.
So how old was Joe when he went to jail?
Joe was nineteen nineteen, Okay, so.
He's released from jail. Has he met Ned Kelly yet?
No, he hasn't.
And how did they meet?
So in eighteen seventy seven, Joe was in the beach Reord lockup waiting for his trial for grievously wounding a Chinese man.
Oh, how did that happen? What was the tell us the details of that?
So there was a dam next to where the Burn family lived. This was a dam that was open to use. However, there was one Chinese man named On who would claim that it was for his own use. And one hot summer day, Joe Byrne, along with Aaron Sherritt, decided that they wanted to go for a swim, and On came down.
To fetch some water for his vegetable garden, and he was not happy.
When he saw Aaron and Joe bathing in the dam, so he told them to get out. Words were kind of exchanged, heated words. Joe and Aaron decided, as two young Americans, that they would kind of pester these a little bit. And On and his mates took up bamboos and they chased, they chased Aaron and Joe, and Aaron picked up a stone to kind of defend himself, and he threw the rock and it kind of smashed into our n's temple, almost killing him. It was very serious,
but miraculously they were discharged. So when they were in the lock up awaiting the trial, there was a young sixteen year old boy named Daniel Kelly who was in there for saddle stealing and he was the brother of Ned Kelly.
So, just before we go on with what happened next, I'm curious about what the difference is in the sentence, given that Joe got six months for stealing and butchering a cow, I'm curious to know what the eventual sentence was for this terrible crime where he nearly killed this man.
Well, you see, he actually it was Aaron who threw the stone, So Joe was I suppose he could have been tried as an accomplice but in actual injury are On he wasn't a part of it, so he was chased in a completely different direction to Aaron, so he didn't actually see any of what happened. But at the time people were very angry that Aaron especially had been
let off because it was a serious crime. And On had actually spent quite a bit of time in hospital and he had to actually have a piece of bone removed from his cheek because the injuries that he had sustained were that bad.
Just awful. And so Joe Byrne has met Dan Kelly. And is that how you suspects that Joe has ultimately metten It.
Yes, so that's I suppose that's the first recorded time that Joe byrn and a Kelly were noted as being in the same place.
And then Joe has become pretty tight with both the Kelly brothers.
Yeah, so in late eighteen seventy seven we next see Joe. He's actually living at the Kelly house and he is using an alias Billy King, and so, yeah, we have no idea how he met Ned Kelly. All we know is that they met some place, probably no doubt through Dan and Joe is now living at the Kelly house, and yeah, his life of crime escalates from there.
And Georgina, can you tell it? Take us forward now to the events at Stringybuck Creek and especially Joe Burns role that day.
Ah.
Yes, So Joe had been with the Kelly brothers at their heart at Bullet Creek. He was helping them to procure funds for a retrial for their mother Ellen. And there was a warrant that was out for the arrest of Ned Kelly for the wounding of Constable Fitzpatrick in April eighteen seventy eight. Now Ned denied that he had anything to do with it, that he had actually been two hundred miles away. So there is a lot of speculation about whether he did wound Constable Fitzpatrick or not.
No one really knows.
However, Joe, being loyal, he was with the Kelly brothers. They were distilling whiskey and digging for gold because Ned was under the belief that if he procured enough funds he could get a retrial for his mother. So you
had two police parties who were looking for net. He was aware of this, and they were because they were so close to where Ned and Dan Joe and Dan's mate Steve hartware Ned decided that in order to survive, he wanted to bail up the police, take their horses, their guns, and whatever food they had so he could be kind of one step ahead of them. However, as most people know, that's not how it eventuated, and three policemen lost their lives.
And what happened afterwards, So.
Joe now an accomplice for the murder of these three police, even though it's likely that he didn't kill any of them, he was still an accomplice. He was now a wanted man. And after that point you had Ned Kelly, Dan, Kelly, Steve Hart, and Joe Byrne as members of what is known as the Kelly Gang. So as wanted men, they were on the run. It was an exhausting few weeks of just trying to keep one step ahead of the police.
So was Joe Byrn able to go around in public at that point or was he very much on the run as well?
So he was very much on the run, but because he was not identified, that gave him a little bit more freedom to continue to get supplies, and he actually was seen in several hotels, but there was still that element that you know, he could be shot and captured. But because he hadn't been officially identified, he had that freedom to move around more than what Ned and Dan Kelly had.
Okay, So Ned and Dan had been identified, but Joe and Steve Hart had not. Yeah, that's right, Okay, So those two were able to go and get supplies, and they were also able to go and gather information. What sort of information were they trying to gather?
So they would have been trying to gather information about the police parties and where they were and just yeah, just so they could keep one step ahead of the police.
And how long did the gang lie low for before they risked committing crimes again?
So the events at stringer Back qreak occurred in October, late October eighteen seventy eight, and they robbed the bank at Euroa on the tenth of December, so.
Not long at all.
Ned and Joe, Joe being the strategist, knew that in order for their continued survival, they needed money for themselves to survive, but also to pay sympathizers and you know, to kind of keep people on side. So even though not a short time at all, but they had to you know, strike and procure funds.
Now, Joe Burn's childhood friend, Aaron Sherrick comes back into the story at this point in a big way, doesn't he.
Yes, So, after it was surmised or believed by the police that Joe Burn was one of the four members of the g the police had approached Aaron to give information or you know, to give him up, and so
Aaron he agreed only if Joe's life could be spared. Now, after that interview or meeting with Commissioner Standish, he went back to Joe and he told him of what the police had offered him and told him and the gang realized that they could use this to their advantage because they could have Aaron pretending to work with the police and to kind of lead them off on wild goose chasers, and the gang would be, you know, many miles away somewhere else.
Now, there's some you mentioned before that Joe Burn was the strategist of the gang. There's some good examples at this point of how he did that. Can you tell us more about that?
Yes, So, Joe he's been described as the brains of the gang, so he would often be the person to go over the plans with Ned and to make sure that everything went as smoothly as possible. He also kept a diary where he would write down their ideas and where you know, he could plan every detail.
So as well as planning for the raids.
Joe was also a prolific letter writer and he wrote many threatening letters to members of the Victoria Police who he disliked. One notable person was Detective Michael Ward, who had been the arresting officer on many occasions during Joe's youth, and as well as threatening letters, he would also write
out mock reward posters. So wherever there was reward posters placed up the gang, Joe would get one of his friends to place one of his own mock reward posters for the you know, the apprehension and delivery up into the ranges of certain members of the police, and these he would place near or beside where an official reward poster was. As well as mock reward posters, Joe would
also draw caricatures and send those the police. These included caricatures of the gang shooting the police, as well as on one notable occasion, he sent Detective Word and illustration of a coffin, and he also included a piece of black crape.
And again it really shows that Larkin side to his personality, doesn't it.
Oh? It does.
And because Joe was such a lover of writing and of words, this is kind of what set him apart from people like net because Joe he was a little bit more creative in the way that he thought. And the fact that yeah, he was, you know, writing to the police and sending in drawings. It's just yet it's very unlike anyone else.
We'll be back soon to hear more about Joe Burns, so stay with us. Now you've written about how he wrote ballads of the gang's exploits. Do you do you have copies of any of those? Have you got any of those lyrics that you could read to us?
So one of Joe's well known ballads is the Ballad of the Kelly Gang, which was sung to the tune of the Bold Soldier Boy, which was a Civil War song.
Oh there's not a.
Dodge worth knowing or showing that's going. But you'll learn this isn't blowing from the Bold Kelly Gang. We have mates wherever we go that somehow let us know the approach of every foe to the Bold Kelly Gang. There's not appeal of writing one bat ranger's heel or sighting, but would rather be for hiding though. I'd like to see us hang within their ranks. We rub their banks and say no thanks for what we do. Oh, the
terror of the camp is the Bold Kelly Gang. Then if you want to spree, come with me and you'll see how grand it is to be in the Bold Kelly Gang.
Okay? And did he send off these ballads to be published in any of the newspapers for example?
He didn't do that.
However, he did want to have them published, but this was never kind of eventuated. But they were because they were so well known. If you're walking past a hotel or a pub, you would often hear people singing Joe's ballads.
So I wonder so that the words were just passed on from person to person. They weren't published anywhere. No people would sing them to each other, and that's how they learned the words. That's fascinating.
Yeah, just like many of the folk songs from that time.
Amazing.
Now.
One of the other interesting sides to Joe Burn's personality is that he was a real ladies man. Can you tell us about that side to him.
Yes, So one of the more interesting facets of Joe's personality was exactly right that he was a ladies man. Many of the bar maids that he flirted with would call him either sweet Birdie or Sugar, which they said was because he was so sweet, and it was also reported in the newspapers that he was the idol of the girls of the district.
I wonder if it was just the bar maids that were calling him sweet Birdie and sugar, because I'm just imagining Ned Kelly and Dan Kelly calling him sweet Birdie and Sugar. I love the idea, but I find it hard to believe.
I'm sure if they knew, they probably would have teased him about it.
Yeah, and he did have various girlfriends, didn't he.
Yes, he did so.
Being so sweet Joe had He had a girlfriend called Maggie who lived in beach who worked in Beachworth, and despite the price on his head and the danger, every Saturday night, Joe would ride into Beechworth to spend time
with her. As well as this, he also had an old sweetheart called Ellen Barron who lived near Chiltern, and he would see her often as well, where she would provide him with a home cooked meal and provisions and intelligence, which is just yeah, it's pretty remarkable that despite the danger that it brought, Joe was still going off to see these women who meant so much to him.
Now, I'd love you to take us forward to February eighteen seventy nine when the Kelli gang raided the New South Wales River in a town of Jerildery. Because Joe Byurn was a key player in those in stable events, wasn't he.
Yes, So, as well as the meticulous planning that went into the raid, Joe was also like a key figure in the robbery and the events that occurred. There'd been a newspaper report saying that, you know, there needed to be more police sent to Jiudary in case the gang happened to make a raid on the town. Now we don't know whether Ned read this and thought, oh, this
is my chance. But when the gang when they arrived into town, they locked the two policemen in the cells, they took their uniform their uniforms and they kind of paraded around town as the new police officers and the same journalists who had written about the lack of policemen in Girruldary. When he saw these four uniforms men, he commented that they were the kind to catch the Kellies.
So when Ned and Joe first, when they arrived first into Derudary, they went to the Wallpack Inn, which was just on the outskirts of the town.
Now Here there was.
A lady who were a barmaid who worked and her name was Mary the Alarakin.
Oh, Mary the alarikin so a perfect match for Joe exactly.
So her real name was Mary Jordan.
However, she'd earned the nickname Mary the Alarakin apparently because she was just such a lover of jokes and you know, just such alarican. Now Ned remembered her, so he'd obviously made a visit previously and got to know Mary.
Joe. However, you know, he was just absolutely taken with her instantly.
In fact, during the night when Ned was there with him, Ned had to kind of pay Mary to stop serving alcohol simply because one he was getting so drunk, but two he was just so besotted with Mary's personality. So the next night, against Ned's orders, Joe rides back to the wall back in alone to spend an evening with Mary. Now we don't know what occurred. All that is known is that when Joe left at midnight, he had to
be helped onto his horse because he was just so drunk. Now, when he rode back to the police station where the gang were and Ned apparently flew into quite a rage and he told Joe, you know you're going to ruin all our plans. And in fact, the next morning when the gang robbed the bank, Joe had a mighty hangover, and he had actually gone across the road to the Royal Male Hotel.
To have a little hair of the dog.
And in fact, when Joe bailed up the bank teller mister living he described Joe as looking drunk, but.
He was still able to help rob the bank. Yes, despite his terrible hangover. Yeah, oh my goodness. So even while Joe Byrne was riding around with the Kelly Gang as an outlaw, he was still returning home to visit his mum pretty regularly, wasn't he.
Yes, he was.
This is something that I believe kind of sets you apart from some others is the fact that despite that there was a party of police that were watching his mother's house at Sebastopol. Now Aaron, who was working with the police but also not working with them, told them to watch the house from the back. So Joe he would utilize a mining race where he would creep along and he wouldn't be seen from where the police were,
So this enabled him to continue his visits. However, one night, possibly he might have been drunk, I don't know, Joe had decided that he was going to visit his mother's from the side where the police were watching, and he actually stepped over a superintendent Hair. Now at the time, Head didn't do anything because he believed that if it was Joe Byrn, Aaron would tell them. But of course
Aaron didn't tell them. But I just, yeah, I find it very funny that, you know, he is Joe Byurn with you know, such a high price on his head and he steps over the superintendent.
Now let's go back to the Kelly Gang armor. So what was his role with the armor?
As far as you believe, well, Ned had a plan that he wanted to derail a train full of police, either kill them or use them as hostages for the release of his mother, who at that time was serving a sentence of three years hard labor in Melbourne Jail, and from there he was going to, in full armor, take possession of one of the Banilla banks. Now, Ned believed that wearing the armor would mean that, you know,
there wouldn't be any risk of them being shot. Joe, however, he wasn't a fan of this plan, and in fact he had devised his own plan, which was to rob one of the Beachworth banks. However, Ned, being the leader, he wasn't going to listen to Joe's idea. So Joe had told Ned probably many times that he believed that the armor would bring them to grief, despite Joe's like a faith in the armor. Ironically, his was the best mate suit, which probably just speaks more about you know,
just in Joe than anything else. But some people have argued that it was Japanese samurai Ama that Joe had seen in one of the Chinese parades in Beachworth that inspired him to make the armor, But given that Joe had such little faith in it, I find this very unlikely and kind of hard to believe.
Now, by eighteen eighty, what was going on with Joe and Aaron's friendship.
So by eighteen eighty, the friendship between Joe and Aaron was very strained due to Aaron working with the police, even though he wasn't giving the police any true information about the gang, many sympathizers began to question his true motives, and there was a lot of kind of miscommunication and uncertainty around what Aaron was doing, and this kind of began to feed more into Joe's paranoia, I suppose, of starting to question whether he could actually trust his mate.
And this was made even worse by the fact that a police party had been installed in Aaron's hut, which was observed by Joe's own brothers and possibly Joe himself. And yeah, because there was so much miscommunication and uncertainty, things just became very fractured, and Joe began to kind of believe what he was being told by the sympathizers and maybe even Ned or Daniel, Steve and Georgina.
This obviously all led to a terrible climax to the story. Can you tell us what happened?
Yes, So, on the twenty sixth of June eighteen eighty, Joe, believing now that Aaron was a trader, shot and killed Aaron in front horrifically in front of his wife and mother in law. After this tragic event which would have just traumatized all involved, Joe Byrn and Dan Kelly rode on to Glenrowan where Steve Hart and Ed Kelly had the town of glenro And bailed up and the train line torn up in preparation for the special train heading
up to Beechworth after Aaron's murder. There was a long wait for the train and when the police arrived, the gang were kind of taken unawares, mainly because at that stage there had been a lot of alcohol consumed and the famous siege took place with the police. Joe Byrne was badly worned dead in their calf and later on he was killed when a stray bullet ripped into his groin, severing his femoral artery.
Now his body was actually rescued from the glen row wan in, wasn't it ah?
Yeah, So before the fire could fully take hold, Joe's body was dragged out. Then later that day it was taken to Banella and the next day it was put on display outside the Banella lock up for the purpose of photos to be taken.
And that was for the press, wasn't it yeah?
Yeah.
And is it true that that photo of Joe Burn's body propped against the wall of the police station is recognized as Australia's first ever press photograph.
Yes, yes it is.
It's amazing. And then where was Joe Byurn buried?
So Joe Burn after the post mortem and and wax cast taken of his face in his hands for the purpose of a figure in the Chamber of Horrors in the.
Melbourne wax Works.
Joe was buried in a paupoise grave in Banilla Cemetery. The only people in attendance were the undertaker and a police officer, who made it very clear that he was only there because he had to be Oh my goodness, yeah, very sad. We mentioned at the start of the interview that you've been able to find quite a lot of new information about Joe Burn. Is there something in particular that you found of interest, Georgina. Yes. So the biggest thing that I found is just how wide spread the
support was for Joe from the Chinese community. I'd kind of always known that he had support among the Chinese in Sebastopol, where he'd grown up, but you know, he was kind of he had so much support in the wider Chinese cammunity in the in the different towns, and they were some of his strongest and most loyal sympathizers.
In fact, Superintendent Nicholson he was just blindsided by the amount of support that Joe received from the Chinese, and he believed foolishly that the only reason Joe garnered so much support was because the Chinese there was no reward posters in their language, so he had Chinese reward like reward posters written up in Chinese and placed around different towns,
which is fairly ignorant. Really, you know, the reason why Joe had so much Chinese support was because he was respectful and he had many friends that in that community and that served him really well as an outlaw.
And just finally, how would you sum up the story of Joe Burn.
It's one of great complexity. You've got a young man who was Alarican, but he's also a bush poet. He's a you know, he's one of Australia's most notorious outlaws, but he's also someone who could be very you know, sweet and mild mannered. Yeah, he's a he's just so complex.
Well, thank you so much for sharing the story. With us today. Georgina, thank you.
So much for having me and allowing me to talk about Joe.
Thanks for listening. This has been In Black and White, a podcast about some of Australia's forgotten characters, written and hosted by me Jen Kelly, edited by Nina Young and produced by John ty Burton. You can find all the stories and photos associated with our episodes at Heraldsun dot com dot au, slash iv a w. If you've enjoyed this podcast, we'd love you to leave a five star rating on Apple Podcasts. Even better, leave a review. Any comments or questions please email me at In Black and
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