OPINION
He’s one of the most iconic images in Australian history. The towering, iron-clad figure emerging from the bush dawn in a haze of gunsmoke. Depending on your viewpoint, he was either an anti-Establishment rebel or a murderous Irish horse-thief with delusions of grandeur.
Either way, the Ned Kelly legend has dominated Australian popular culture for over 120 years. The world’s first feature-length cinema was the 1906 The Story of the Kelly Gang (released just a quarter of a century after the bushranger’s death). The outlaw has been played by everyone from Heath Ledger and John Jarrett (most famous as another, semi-fictional, Australian killer, Mick Taylor from Wolf Creek) to, excruciatingly, Mick Jagger.
Now, though, an effort is underway to bring greater public attention and honour to a mostly forgotten, yet crucial, figure in the Kelly Gang’s legendary last stand.
Constable Hugh Bracken was a Victorian police officer stationed at Glenrowan on that fateful June of 1880.
The Kelly Gang had taken over the town and laid an elaborate trap for the police, including destroying part of the rail line, hoping to derail the train carrying reinforcements from Melbourne. The gang, it was planned, would then ambush the survivors.
Meanwhile, the townspeople were forced into the Glenrowan Inn at gunpoint. Among the hostages was Constable Hugh Bracken.
While local schoolteacher Thomas Curnow managed to flag down the train and warn the police of the ambush, Bracken also escaped. He joined his police comrades for the famous siege – and was instrumental in saving Ned’s life.
Now, two cemetery trusts and the Victoria Police Historical Graves Committee are working to get Constable Bracken’s contributions recognised.
The Greta Cemetery Trust’s Noeleen Lloyd is the great-grand-niece of gang member Steve Hart and the great-granddaughter of Thomas Lloyd Junior, an associate of Kelly and his men.
She is also part of a crowdfunding campaign to have Constable Bracken recognised with a plaque and a storyboard at Wallan Cemetery.
The Victoria Police Historical Society, led by Ralph Stavely, has been working with Ms Lloyd and the Wallan Cemetery Trust to piece together Constable Bracken’s story.
Bracken was a veteran police officer, who had been on the force twice. He signed up for a third time after the infamous Stringybark Creek Massacre, where the Kelly gang gunned down three encamped policemen.
“In 1878, he wrote to the Victorian police and practically begged to rejoin, saying that he had all these skills and knowledge, and asked to be a part of the search,” she said.
Constable Bracken’s request was granted and he spent the next two years trying to track the men while they were on the run in the state’s north-east.
That was when he found himself caught in the Glenrowan siege.
While Dan Kelly and Steve Hart made a diversion, Ned escaped into the bush behind the inn, where he donned his iconic armour and attempted to outflank the police at dawn. Although his armour protected his head and chest, police soon shot him in the legs and brought him down.
At this point, outraged police apparently wanted to execute the wounded outlaw on the spot.
According to the Greta Cemetery Trust’s historical account, Bracken was shunned by the police force after the siege for preventing his superior officer from killing Kelly.
“[Bracken] said, ‘If you shoot him, I’ll shoot you,’” Ms Lloyd said.
“He came to his superiors asking to leave Glenrowan because he felt that his life was in danger … not only [from] his comrades, but also the Kelly sympathisers.”
Ned was ultimately hanged a few months later.
Two decades later, the then-60 year old Bracken took his own life.
Constable Bracken has no direct living descendants – his only grandchild died in the 1960s and his eldest son, despite surviving the Gallipoli campaign in World War I, was killed days before the armistice was signed in 1918.
There are bureaucratic hurdles, though, to giving Bracken the posthumous recognition he deserves. A memorial would not not qualify for funding from the Victoria Police Historical Graves Committee because, not having died on duty, he is not on the police honour roll.
But Victoria Police’s veterans and historical organisations are in full support of having Constable Bracken recognised.
“We’re keen to get behind the Historical Society and help them get the funding and recognition that’s deserved for our long-departed veteran members,” Police Veterans Victoria chief executive David McGowan said.
Between the Graves Committee, Greta’s Cemetery Trust and their counterparts in Wallan, the target of $7,500 is well on its way to being met.
“We certainly have enough money to get a memorial plaque there – we’re pushing to get the storyboard there too,” Mrs Lloyd said.
ABC Australia
The groups hope to have a plaque commemorating Bracken unveiled next year, the 125th anniversary of his death.