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THE KELLY GANG'S IPSWICH CONNECTION - A PAUPER'S GRAVE AT ROW 2, GRAVE 27
"TELL 'EM, I DIED GAME" - IN IPSWICH!
It is widely speculated that the Ipswich General Cemetery is the final resting-place of a member of perhaps the most notorious Australian family - the Kelly Gang.
Paul Tully inspects the grave site at the
Ipswich General Cemetery of the reputed
final resting place of bushranger Dan Kelly,
brother of Ned Kelly.
Records show that in 1933, an elderly man (pictured at right) known as James Ryan, claimed to Brisbane's Truth newspaper that he was, in fact, Dan Kelly, the brother of Ned Kelly.
An article which appeared on the front page of Brisbane's Truth newspaper dated 13 August 1933 bore the headline:
"I am Dan Kelly, Declares Aged Bushman - Thrilling Confession of Days When Hold Up Terror Reigned".
The article recounted in graphic detail the adventures of the Kelly gang as told by James Ryan, or Dan Kelly.
According to this and other articles which appeared in the newspaper, James Ryan, or Dan Kelly, escaped along with Steve Hart from the siege in the burning hotel at Glenrowan on 28 June 1880 and headed to Queensland with nothing but a new identity.
The supposed bodies of Dan Kelly and Steve Hart were reduced to charcoal in the intense fire and were never positively identified. The body of gang member Joe Byrne was retrieved and strung up outside the Benalla Police Lockup.
Speculation has been rife for over a century that Dan Kelly and Steve Hart managed to escape during the smoke, fire and commotion as Ann Jones' hotel burnt to the ground, probably assisted by a deliberately wrong "positive identification" by visiting Catholic Priest Father Gibney.
The Truth newspaper reported that hundreds of historians from all over the country and even those who had associations with the Kelly's could not disprove that James Ryan was truly Dan Kelly.
The alleged Dan Kelly travelled throughout Queensland eventually moving from Longreach to Brisbane, reputedly having served in the Boer War. For a time, he lived under the old Toombul Railway bridge in Brisbane where the Clayfield Police kept a close eye on him.
In 1934, he appeared in a Sideshow at the Brisbane Exhibition and recounted the tales of the Kelly Gang with an intimate knowledge of the Kelly family history. No one was ever able to successfully refute his claim that he was a member of the Kelly Gang.
He had came forward to the Truth newspaper in 1933 - more than 50 years after the famous shootout - wrongly believing that the Statute of Limitations legally prevented any prosecution for murder after more than half a century.
He eventually settled in a small hut at Fairney View near Fernvale (between Ipswich and Esk), 40km north-west of Brisbane and was well-known in the local district.
Former Moreton Shire Deputy Chairman John Harris recalls sitting on Dan Kelly's lap as a boy and being shown the deep burn scars on the man's back which he claimed he received in the Glenrowan fire when he was pinned by a burning beam.
He had the initials "D.K." branded on his buttocks.
John Harris was scared of the man and truly believes that he was sitting in the lap of the real Dan Kelly.
On 29 July 1948 Dan Kelly, also known as James Ryan, was released from the Brisbane General Hospital (now known as the Royal Brisbane Hospital) after a short illness and made his way to Ipswich that afternoon.
At 9.00pm, he was walking along the main Ipswich-Brisbane railway line at the end of Wharf Street in Ipswich when he was struck by a coal train and decapitated.
He was carrying a small suitcase with all his earthly possessions and ten pounds was found in his pockets which went towards his burial costs.
He was buried as a Roman Catholic in a pauper's grave at the Ipswich General Cemetery on 31 July 1948 under the name "J. Ryan" with Reverend Bergin officiating in the presence of only the cemetery sexton and the undertaker.
The Truth newspaper of 1 August 1948 front-page story reported:
"LAST OF AUSTRALIA'S KELLY GANG DIES IN ACCIDENT: SENSATIONAL CLAIM".
On 11 November 1998, a memorial was erected on the site of the old pauper's grave in the Ipswich General Cemetery which now stands as a silent tribute to what may be the final resting place of one of Australia's most notorious bushrangers.
We may never know who the character known in Ipswich as "James Ryan" really was.
But one thing is certain, in the end, the death in Ipswich of James Ryan on 29 July 1948 closed another chapter on the legend of Dan Kelly and his involvement in the infamous Kelly Gang.
Debonair Dan Kelly at the age of 16.
Do you remember the man Dan Kelly in Queensland in the 1930s or 1940s?
Do you know of some untold or unusual aspect of Queensland History?
Email History Queensland with full information and any historic pictures.
Or post to: History Queensland, PO Box 1, Goodna Qld 4300
THE HUMBLE AUSSIE LAMINGTON - THE WORLD-FAMOUS AUSTRALIAN
CULINARY ICON NAMED AFTER THE 8TH GOVERNOR OF QUEENSLAND
MEDIA ENQUIRIES: PAGE PAUL TULLY VIA EMAIL - Paul Tully Pager
The world-famous Australian lamington was 100 years old on 19 December 2001.
Despite some dubious claims from New Zealand, the lamington is as Australian as meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars, ranking alongside the other true Australian icons of the pavlova, peach melba and Vegemite.
This Australian culinary icon, which consists of sponge cake dipped in chocolate and liberally sprinkled with fine desiccated coconut, was created through an accident at work by a maid-servant to Lord Lamington, the thoroughly-British eighth Governor of Queensland.
The maid-servant was working at Government House in Brisbane when she accidentally dropped the Governor's favourite sponge cake into some melted chocolate. Lord Lamington was not a person of wasteful habits and suggested that it be dipped in coconut to cover the chocolate to avoid messy fingers.
Lord Lamington devoured this new taste sensation with great delight and the maid-servant's error was proclaimed a magnificent success by all!
Lord Lamington was born in London, England on 29 July 1860 as Charles Wallace Alexander Napier COCHRANE-BAILLIE later holding the aristocratic title of Baron Lamington.
He was Governor of Queensland from 9 April 1896 to 19 December 1901.
After leaving Queensland, he went on to become the Governor of Bombay in India for 4 years.
He died at Lamington House, Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1940.
According to Hansard at the Australian Constitutional Convention in Canberra on 11 February 1998, Cr Paul Tully, an elected delegate representing 
Queenslanders for a Republic suggested that his extensive research of the Governors of the 6 Australian colonies and states had produced evidence of only "one, single, solitary, positive achievement of any Governor since the First Fleet arrived in 1788".
And that was Lord Lamington's contribution to the culinary delights of the Australian nation!
Paul Tully celebrates the 100th anniversary of the world renowned Australian lamington on 19 December 2001.
Lord Lamington served
Queensland for 5 years
but despite all of his colonial,
aristocratic pomp and ceremony,
the only thing which Charles Wallace
Alexander Napier COCHRANE-BAILLIE
will ever be remembered for in Australia
is the creation of the world-famous lamington.
PAUL TULLY'S TRUE-BLUE DELICIOUS AUSSIE LAMINGTON RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup castor sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup self-raising flour 1/2 cup milk.
Beat the eggs well, gradually adding the sugar until dissolved. Add the milk and vanilla essence and then stir in the self raising flour and whip the butter into the mixture. Pour the mixture into a cake tin or lamington baking dish and bake in a moderate oven of 180 degrees Celsius for 35 minutes. Allow the cake to cool for at least 10 minutes and then stand for 24 hours preferably in the refrigerator, before applying the icing.
THE CHOCOLATE ICING
4 cups icing sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup milk
4 tablespoons boiling water
3 cups desiccated coconut.
Stir the cocoa and icing sugar vigorously in a large bowl, adding the milk, butter and boiling water, warming the chocolate mixture over a very low heat until it has a smooth creamy texture. Cut the sponge cake into equal squares about 5cm x 5cm and, using a fork or thin skewer, dip each piece into the chocolate mixture ensuring that the mixture is liberally and evenly applied. Dip each piece into the desiccated coconut, allowing the lamingtons to cool on a wire tray for several hours.
THEN SIT BACK, RELAX AND SAVOUR THE DELIGHTS OF YESTERYEAR COURTESY OF LORD LAMINGTON'S ABSENT-MINDED MAID-SERVANT!
THANK GOD, THE LAMINGTON WAS NOT CHRISTENED THE "COCHRANE-BAILLIE".
IMAGINE ASKING FOR A "COCHRANE-BAILLIE" IN A CAKE SHOP!
HOW YOU CAN HELP.
Do you have an interesting historical anecdote about the Australian lamington?Do you know of some untold or unusual aspect of Queensland History?
Email History Queensland with full information and any historic pictures.
Or post to: History Queensland, PO Box 1, Goodna Qld 4300
THE ONLY PUB IN AUSTRALIA EVER SAVED BY THE HIGH COURT
Slim Dusty's 1957 smash hit the "Pub with No Beer" could have been the "Pub with No Licence" except for a long forgotten decision of the High Court of Australia.
Since 1887, Toowong's heritage-listed Regatta Hotel has been a favourite meeting place for Brisbane residents and in later years for politicians, lawyers and television personalities.
It boasted wild parties after the GPS Head of the River in the 50s and 60s.
It was the scene of the famous 1965 challenge by Merle Thornton and Rosalie Bognor who chained themselves to the foot rail of the public bar protesting against antiquated laws stopping women entering public bars in Queensland.
But nothing in the pub's colorful history can beat its fight to remain open which had 7 High Court judges pondering its future after World War 1 and making one of the oddest judicial rulings since the English rule of law arrived in Australia in 1788.
Merle Thornton (right) and Rosalie Bognor chain themselves to the footrail of the public bar at the Regatta Hotel Toowong on 31 March 1965, in protest at Queensland's antiquated laws which made it illegal for women to be served alcohol in public bars. The conservative Queensland Government quickly changed the law after one of Australia's most-successful protests.
University of Queensland law graduate and now Ipswich Councillor for the past 29 years Paul Tully came across the long-forgotten decision in a dusty law book during his legal research as a migration agent.
Cr Tully was well-known at the pub in the early 1970s when he was editor of the University student newspaper Semper Floreat.
In 1917, the Liquor Act 1912 gave wowser groups the power to close any pub through a local option poll of electors living with a 3-mile radius of an hotel.
On 5 May 1917, the people of Toowong voted to close their local pub forever.
The pub's owner Sarah Ann DANIELL and the licensee James Patrick GLEESON immediately ordered their lawyers to find a way to overturn the poll.
Section 109 of the Australian Constitution provides that where there is an inconsistency between a Commonwealth law and a State law, the Commonwealth law prevails.
The Commonwealth Parliament had enacted the Commonwealth Electoral (War-time) Act 1917 to prevent State polls on the same day as a Commonwealth election.
With that in mind, the lawyers for the Regatta Hotel seized on the fact that the Toowong local option poll had been held on the same day as a Senate election.
They tried this argument before the Brisbane Licensing Court which tossed it out as legal bunkum.
An official notice then appeared in the Queensland Government Gazette on 8 September 1917 declaring that the pub must close by 31 December 1919.
The next port of call for the lawyers was the Supreme Court of Queensland which showed some sympathy for the cause as public opinion slowly turned in favour of retaining the pub.
On 3 December 1919, the Supreme Court ordered that the decision of the Brisbane Licensing Court be referred to the High Court of Australia.
On 22 March 1920, the parties put impassioned arguments to the 7 High Court judges sitting in Sydney headed by Chief Justice Knox.
It was claimed that the voters of Toowong had been part of an unlawful ballot as it had been conducted on the same day as the 1917 Senate election.
The counter argument was that it was only a technical breach of the Constitution.
One month later on 22 April 1920, the High Court announced its decision.
By a majority of 6 to 1, the court ruled that section 109 of the Australian constitution had been breached and that the State law which allowed local option polls on the same day as a Commonwealth election was void to the extent of the inconsistency.
There were free shouts and hearty cheers all round at the Regatta Hotel that night, as news of the High Court decision was received from Sydney by telegram.
And almost 90 years later, the Regatta Hotel still stands as one of Queensland's most recognised icons thanks to the 6 judges of the High Court of Australia and an obscure provision of the Australian constitution which the nation's founders would scarcely have thought would be the saviour of one of Australia's most historic pubs.
The historic Regatta Hotel in its current glory.
Do you know of some untold or unusual aspect of Queensland History?
Email History Queensland with full information and any historic pictures.
Or post to: History Queensland, PO Box 1, Goodna Qld 4300
Records show that in 1933, an elderly man (pictured at right) known as James Ryan, claimed to Brisbane's Truth newspaper that he was, in fact, Dan Kelly, the brother of Ned Kelly.
On 11 November 1998, a memorial was erected on the site of the old pauper's grave in the Ipswich General Cemetery which now stands as a silent tribute to what may be the final resting place of one of Australia's most notorious bushrangers.
