TRACKING A BUSHRANGER

IF YOU WANT TO FOLLOW THE TRAIL OF AUSTRALIA'S MOST NOTORIOUS BUSHRANGER, TAKE ON THIS ADVENTUROUS TOUR THROUGH NORTH-EAST VICTORIA

- GREG POWELL

A FEW decades back, there was a newspaper cartoon depicting a stylised Ned Kelly holding a gun on a bank clerk. Ned's speech bubble proclaimed, "You will thank me when tourism is invented!" Well, tourism has well and truly been invented and many towns in north-east Victoria and southern New South Wales certainly benefit from visiting tourists seeking bushranger history. The sites that now cater for visitors are well worth looking at, but it is still possible to get away from these popular places to get a true feel for the spirit of the life and times of the Kelly gang.

POWERS LOOKOUT - THE OLD FOX AND THE CUB, 1870

HARRY Power was transported to Tasmania from Ireland and later turned to crime. He escaped from Pentridge Prison in Melbourne in 1869 and turned to bushranging in the Beechworth area. A young Ned Kelly served as his assistant. In May 1870, three police officers acting on information captured Harry at his hideout near what is now Powers Lookout.

Roads from Mansfield, Benalla and Myrtleford provide scenic access to Powers Lookout. Parks Victoria has recently made big improvements to the tracks, steps, ladders and lookout platforms which provide visitors with spectacular escarpment views over the Upper King River Valley and the Alpine National Park. Picnic tables, fireplaces and toilets are available, but camping and dogs are not allowed. It is possible to seek out further trails and campsites in surrounding reserves, or camp at Stringybark Creek and drive across to Powers Lookout for the day.

GREAT BEGINNING AND ENDING, 1878-2013

NED lived with his mother, brothers and sisters at Greta, where he built his family a new slab house, not long before taking to the bush as a murderer and outlaw. It was in this house that on April 15, 1878, Constable Alex Fitzpatrick claims that he was shot in the wrist by Ned Kelly.