NationStates Jolt Archive

I've long had an affection for Oz culture. One of my Aussie co-workers, when very drunk, is prone to singing a snatch of a song about Ned Kelly, that he never seems to recall when sober.

"It was the summer of '78 when the Kelly gang rode down,
"[something, something] they crossed the Murray [something, something, something]"

I haven't managed to get the whole song out of him, and haven't been able to find it online from that. Any chance anyone here can ID it?

Hadn't heard it, but did a bit of my own searching and found this:

http://www.deochandorais.de/misc/nedsong.htm (tis a collection of songs, this one is a few down in the list)

"It was in November Seventy Nine, the Kelly boys came down
After shooting sergeant Kennedy, they rode into Euroa town
To rob the bank of all its gold was their idea that day
Blood horses they was mounted on to make their getaway"

Similar. :)

Congrats, Daistallia. You've managed to find the most stereotypical Australian on the planet. :D

Congrats, Daistallia. You've managed to find the most stereotypical Australian on the planet. :D

I've been known to describe the fellow as "the finest gent Australia has to offer". And that's said in in all it's most complimenmtary and most insulting ways. I work with, and have worked with over the years, a lot of Aussies, and this bloke's is about as ocker as they come. Best of all, he's a Scotsman by birth... :D

Hadn't heard it, but did a bit of my own searching and found this:

http://www.deochandorais.de/misc/nedsong.htm (tis a collection of songs, this one is a few down in the list)

"It was in November Seventy Nine, the Kelly boys came down
After shooting sergeant Kennedy, they rode into Euroa town
To rob the bank of all its gold was their idea that day
Blood horses they was mounted on to make their getaway"

Similar. :)

Indeed.

Sad to say, the "Ned Kelly (Souvenir) Song" is the stand out there.

I will make it down there one of these days, but I'll make a point of not going to Alice Springs ort much to do w/ Ned Kelly. Much like when my folks lived within easy distance of Billy the Kid's grave, I refused to go.

I've been known to describe the fellow as "the finest gent Australia has to offer". And that's said in in all it's most complimenmtary and most insulting ways. I work with, and have worked with over the years, a lot of Aussies, and this bloke's is about as ocker as they come. Best of all, he's a Scotsman by birth... :D


Was Australia not a penal colony?
And "the finest gent" you know from there is a guy that wasn't born there but in Scotland? Where the guys wear a skirt?
I can't quite see a guy getting away with wearing a skirt in Australia, is that why he moved to Japan?

i'd go to the alice just to ride 'the ghan' if its still running.

i'm a train nut and if i were ever able to world travel that's what it'd be about.

=^^=
.../\...

Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of the Eureka Stockade, but why must we Australians glorify that murderer?

Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of the Eureka Stockade, but why must we Australians glorify that murderer?

WTF am I actually going to agree with something Andaras says? Yes it seems so I don't understand why we hold him up to be some Hero, I know the reasons why I just don't understand why. But what does the Eureka Stockade have to do with Ned Kelly

WTF am I actually going to agree with something Andaras says? Yes it seems so I don't understand why we hold him up to be some Hero, I know the reasons why I just don't understand why. But what does the Eureka Stockade have to do with Ned Kelly

Well alot of people equate the two, like Ned Kelly was some kind of colonial Robin Hood when he was in fact nothing of the kinda, he stole from the rich, poor, middle class and murdered indiscriminately.

He stood up to the Brits. He's a hero for all the reasons the Eureka Stockade is historic: an an average Joe Six-pack breaking free of his shackles and standing up to authority.

Australian culture doesn't take too kindly to people who "get too big for their boots" AKA Tall poppy syndrome, and the British overlords of the time were defiantly that.

Was Australia not a penal colony?
Some colonies started as penal settlements, some started as free settlements (SA and NT afaik).

i'd go to the alice just to ride 'the ghan' if its still running.

i'm a train nut and if i were ever able to world travel that's what it'd be about.

=^^=
.../\...

The Ghan is still running, in fact they upgraded it about 4 years ago: You can now go Adelaide-Darwin (about 3000km distance). That way you don't have to say that Alice Springs is your endpoint :p.

The Indian Pacific is longer, at approx. 4300km

Some colonies started as penal settlements, some started as free settlements (SA and NT afaik).
WA too till we need help and said we take some



The Ghan is still running, in fact they upgraded it about 4 years ago: You can now go Adelaide-Darwin (about 3000km distance). That way you don't have to say that Alice Springs is your endpoint :p.
indeed
The Indian Pacific is longer, at approx. 4300km

the train they keep running into things with


and all so i never knew there was a Ned Kelly song

the train they keep running into things with
Think of it as 'pre-emptive culling' :p.

Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of the Eureka Stockade, but why must we Australians glorify that murderer?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fgX-7ebLOdw When the government is corrupt and oppressive, the people put those who stand up to it on a pedestal. Even if he is just a murderous theif.

i'd go to the alice just to ride 'the ghan' if its still running.

i'm a train nut and if i were ever able to world travel that's what it'd be about.

=^^=
.../\...


The Ghan is still running, in fact they upgraded it about 4 years ago: You can now go Adelaide-Darwin (about 3000km distance). That way you don't have to say that Alice Springs is your endpoint :p.

Yeah, that'd work. :D (I probably would go to Alice Springs, just to fulfill a childhood wish when I discovered it on the map and decided I wanted to go there, but I don't know - it just sounds like it's one giant tourist trap these days... A smaller stop, somewhere like Kulgera or Marla, sounds more attractive.)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fgX-7ebLOdw When the government is corrupt and oppressive, the people put those who stand up to it on a pedestal. Even if he is just a murderous theif.

Much like Jesse James and Billy the Kid are in the US, the various British outlaws remembered in the Robin Hood legends, Rob Roy. Here in Japan, there's Nezumi Kozō. Most countries have outlaw folk hero legends and actual persons. (It's, not surprisingly, the subject of several studies, for example: http://www.bunker8.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/misc/socrime.html .)

PacificNations what a load of bull, you don't resist oppression by going round and randomly stealing and killing those being oppressed, that's just contrary to logic. Kelly was a common criminal, nuff said. Anyone who compares him with Eureka is wrong in the head.

Think of it as 'pre-emptive culling' :p.

lol

Lots of countries have idealised folk heroes who were nothing like the actual criminal they were based on.

Lots of countries have idealised folk heroes who were nothing like the actual criminal they were based on.

As I just pointed out above. (Is that what those two are going on about?)

Presumably.

Yeah, that'd work. :D (I probably would go to Alice Springs, just to fulfill a childhood wish when I discovered it on the map and decided I wanted to go there, but I don't know - it just sounds like it's one giant tourist trap these days... A smaller stop, somewhere like Kulgera or Marla, sounds more attractive.)

It does rely on tourism now, along with people employed in Pine Gap.

PacificNations what a load of bull, you don't resist oppression by going round and randomly stealing and killing those being oppressed, that's just contrary to logic. Kelly was a common criminal, nuff said. Anyone who compares him with Eureka is wrong in the head.

GPN doesn't say he agrees with it...