He robbed those wealthy squatters,
Their flocks he did destroy,
The terror of Australia
Was the Wild Colonial Boy.
Thus sang thousands in the streets of Melbourne as they stood outside the city jail on Nov. 11, 1880. Inside, the ballad's hero, Bushranger Ned Kelly, stood silently as the hangman slipped the noose over his head, said with a shrug, "Such is life," and was dropped to his death. Ever since, the legend of Ned Kelly, the last of Australia's hell-for-leather desperadoes, has lingered on as Australia's private pride and public shame, celebrated in half a dozen movies...
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