Justice in Kelly country : the story of the cop who hunted Australia's most notorious bushrangers / Lachlan Strahan.
Publication details: Clayton, Victoria : Monash University Publishing, 2022.Description: xix, 327 pages : map ; 24 cmISBN:- 9781922633507 (paperback)
- Stahan, Anthony
- Kelly, Ned, 1855-1880 -- Friends and associates
- Kelly, Ned, 1855-1880
- Police -- Australia -- Victoria -- Biography
- Bushrangers -- Australia -- Victoria -- History
- Police murders -- Victoria -- History -- 19th century
- Bushrangers -- Victoria -- History
- Outlaws -- Australia -- History -- 19th century
- Police -- Victoria -- Biography
- Police -- Victoria -- History
- Australia -- History -- 1851-1901
- Victoria -- History -- 19th century
- Victoria -- History -- 1834-1900
- 364.15509994 23
Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item reserves | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Book | Melbourne Athenaeum Library | Biography | 364.155 STR | Available | 071459 |
Colour illustrations on endpapers.
"The biography of Anthony Strahan, a frontier cop who pursued Ned Kelly" --Page [4] of cover.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Part way through the Jerilderie Letter, Ned Kelly accused Senior Constable Anthony Strahan of threatening him: 'he would not ask me to stand he would shoot me first like a dog'. Those few fateful words have echoed through Australian history as the cause of much bloodshed and violence. They marked Anthony forever and ushered in a national myth: the legend of the Kelly Gang. Two days after Anthony allegedly made this threat, Ned and his gang shot dead several police in an act of brutality that became known as the Stringybark Creek killings. Ned's reason for opening fire? He said he had mistaken one cop for Strahan. Lachlan Strahan, Anthony's great-great-grandson, grew up with the familiar story of Ned Kelly, the egalitarian rebel, and his ancestor as the villainous cop who had threatened him. Yet as he began to probe into Anthony's life, he discovered that the truth -- and the Kelly legend it has given rise to -- was more complex than he believed. Anthony Strahan was a boy from County Kildare who joined the Victoria Police and embodied the thin blue line of law and order in the bush for nearly thirty-five years. He was also possessed of a fiery temper and a desire for justice, and was a major player in the hunt for Ned Kelly, though never recognised for it. Did he utter those incendiary words about Ned? Whose version of history do we believe? This is a tale about law enforcement -- about justice and retribution, character and morality.