Kate Kelly sister and staunch supporter of bushranger Ned Kelly. Popular celebrity in the days of colonial Melbourne and star of touring wild west shows. 1863-1898
Kate was just 15 years old when dastardly Constable Fitzpatrick arrived drunk at the family homestead to arrest her brother, Dan Kelly. Fitzpatrick with a child to one young girl, had a second girl ‘in the family way‘. The cad made unwanted advances towards Kate and a scuffle broke out. Mum, Ellen Kelly, whacked him in the head with a fire shovel, his own gun went off and he scratched his wrist. But the story he told back at the station was greatly exaggerated. As a result, three people, including Mum Ellen, were sent to prison for attempted murder. The incident and injustice of the situation ignited an unbound fury in Ned Kelly, and the most notorious outlaw gang in Australian history was born.
From their hideout in the Wombat Ranges, the Kelly gang plotted and rampaged. Mum Ellen sat in prison while Kate and her sister Maggie cared for the farm and the younger children.
The wily teenager Kate used her remarkable horsemanship and bush skills to constantly outsmart police and provide the gang with supplies of ammunition, information and food. Stories of her wit and bravado in dealing with the lawmen spread throughout the land and her fame began to grow.
On the train back from Melbourne one time, police boarded the carriage at a small town station. Kate sharply protested as they seized a large bag she was carrying. After they had left the carriage to go and search the bag (in which they found only ladies clothes), Kate whistled out the widow to a young man on the platform. He took from her a hidden package of ammunition for the Kelly Gang and lit off into the bush to deliver the parcel.
After two years on the run, the Kelly Gang made their fiery last stand at the siege of Glenrowan. Dan was killed. Ned, wounded but alive, was taken to prison.
The Melbourne newspapers followed Kate’s every move as she campaigned to have Ned spared the death penalty. Just as happens with young celebs of today, the yesteryear paparazzi reported on everything from where Kate went and who she was with, to what she said and the clothes she wore.
After Ned was hanged in November of 1880, Kate, still a teenager, was lead into showbiz. She rode as the star of a Wild West show that was shut down by police in Melbourne and then again in Sydney. Kate had changed her name by the time she opened in a new show in Adelaide, but this life was short lived as she became ill and unable to ride.
From that time on, Kate, now known as ‘Ada’ attempted to reinvent herself as a regular girl living a regular life. After successful employment in a string of domestic positions, at the ripe old age of 25, she married William Forster.
Far from living out a serene country life, it seems the heady days of a violent rebellious youth gradually took their toll on Kate. Five weeks after giving birth to her sixth child, she handed the babe to a neighbour and disappeared. Over a week later, poor Kate’s body was found floating in a lagoon with no suspicion of foul play.
The Kelly sisters showed brave, unwavering support to their family in troubled times. Kate can take her place in history as a teen rebel with a cause.
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