Ned Kelly: Selectors, Squatters and Stock Thieves

Doug Morrissey’s acclaimed book Ned Kelly: A Lawless Life (2015) was shortlisted for the prestigious Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Australian History in 2016. This his second book in a trilogy of historical works dealing with Ned’s life and times, shines a much-needed light on the bushranger’s pioneer community. The lives of selectors, squatters, and stock thieves are examined revealing a complex community, significantly different from the Kelly myth fiction of squatter tyranny, police oppression and selector poverty and despair. Morrissey’s book holds the key to understanding the Kelly Outbreak, Ned and his Sympathisers and the neglected ‘silent’ majority of respectable, law-abiding residents. It reveals the collaborative fulcrum on which community life turned, based on cooperation not conflict. Settling the land is discussed as a successful pioneering endeavor rather than the usual depressing tale of woe. Cultural beliefs, shared values, community goals and how people conducted and expressed themselves in their daily lives, are at the center of this groundbreaking book. Those writing about the bushranger’s life and times from now on, will need to reference Morrissey’s evidence-based research or their writings will not be taken seriously.