14/10/2026
BURNT REMAINS OF GLENROWAN INN, 1880
Made famous by the events that led to its destruction, the Glenrowan Inn was the site where Ned Kelly and his gang made their last stand. The tale is one of the most notorious in Australian history, retold in newspapers, pubs, books and classrooms for more than a century. Below is based on the newspaper reports of the time; the photo shows the aftermath.
In the early morning hours of June 28, after a failed attempt to derail and ambush a police train, the bushrangers took hostages and barricaded themselves into the Inn for what would prove to be a 12-hour siege.
Ned was captured at dawn, clad in his infamous metal armour. He had snuck out of the inn to fire upon the police from behind, who returned fire, aiming at his exposed extremities that the armour did not cover. He was injured and eventually captured by police, the only member of his gang to survive the confrontation. (This reprieve would prove temporary: he was hanged at Melbourne Gaol only a few months later on 11 November.)
With Ned stripped of his armour and locked in a guard’s van, the siege on the Inn continued. Gang member Joe Byrne was already dead, having taken been fatally wounded by a police bullet at about half-past five that morning. It was just Dan Kelly and Steve Hart, each wearing their distinctive homemade armoured suits, firing back at the policemen who had surrounded the building. At about 10am, they released their hostages (some of whom were immediately arrested for being Kelly gang sympathisers), but the two men remained inside, keeping up a volley of gunfire against the police.
The siege continued until nearly 3pm that afternoon, when the police set the Glenrowan Inn alight in a final attempt to flush out the gang. When the men failed to emerge from the burning building, a Catholic priest, Father Gibney, ventured into the flames where he found Dan Kelly and Steve Hart lying together deceased. It has never been known if they died by su***de, shot each other, or took bullets from the police.
From inside the burning building, Father Gibney rescued an injured hostage who had been unable to flee when the others were released and pulled him to safely where he administered last rites to the man as he died. The building was left to burn itself out.
On 29 June, the Argus newspaper published an article titled, "Destruction of the Kelly Gang" which included the following:
"All that was left standing of the hotel was the lamp-post and the signboard bearing the following device, which, in view of the carnage that had just been perpetrated within the walls of the hostelry, read strangely:—
THE GLENROWAN INN.
ANN JONES.
BEST ACCOMMODATION."
(Image: GS-EV-75. The Royal Historical Society of Victoria has more than 100,000 items in its archives. For a high-resolution copy of this image or others, contact Royal Historical Society of Victoria)
