Justice in Kelly Country

The biography of Anthony Strahan, a frontier cop who pursued Ned Kelly

Partway through the Jerilderie Letter, Ned Kelly accused Senior Constable Anthony Strahan of threatening to shoot him ‘like a dog’. Those few fateful words have ricocheted through Australian history. Many have blamed Anthony Strahan for the turmoil and bloodshed that unfolded during the Kelly Outbreak. For, two days after Anthony reputedly made his threat, Ned and his gang shot dead three policemen at Stringybark Creek. Ned’s reason for opening fire? He thought one of the cops was Anthony.

Lachlan Strahan, Anthony’s great-great-grandson, grew up believing Ned Kelly was a heroic outlaw and Anthony the ruthless cop who pursued him. Yet as he combed through letters, police reports, court transcripts, newspaper articles and family histories, Lachlan pieced together a different story about the life of his ancestor – a fiery Irish immigrant who embodied the thin blue line in the bush for 32 years. Bent on justice, Anthony Strahan apprehended all manner of criminals, from brazen fraudsters and wily horse thieves to murderous husbands and the bushrangers who perpetrated the Wooragee Outrage. Yet his legacy was forever ensnared in the Kelly legend. Did Anthony utter those incendiary words about Ned? Whose version of history do we believe?

This is a tale about justice and retribution, morality and character, and making a life against the odds in a frontier society. It is also a story of inheritance: of the words passed from father to son, and the tales we choose to preserve and retell.

“'This is a fascinating and original history, taut and suspenseful, written with subtlety and flair.' --Tom Griffiths 'Lachlan Strahan brings to life a lost world of rural Victoria in the era of gold-seeking, free selection and bushranging.' --Frank Bongiorno”

A brilliant and original window into the Kelly outbreak – of the hunter rather than just the hunted.

This compelling and intimate history offers a new perspective on a national legend – the infamous Kelly Gang – and a vivid picture of the life of a policeman on the colonial Victorian frontier. Strahan’s career takes us constantly into the dark side of the colonial world, into the rough, vain and violent underside of a frontier society. Through the unfolding stories of individual cases and court dramas, we examine Constable Strahan’s character in action – and it is character that goes to the heart of the book’s defining scene, the conversation near Greta during the Kelly Outbreak. The story moves towards and away from that pivotal moment, showing how it framed a life and, perhaps, precipitated a tragedy. The book is also a beautiful meditation on history and memory and the power of family storytelling. This is a fascinating and original history, taut and suspenseful, written with subtlety and flair.

In this story of his ancestor, Senior Constable Anthony Strahan, Lachlan Strahan brings to life a lost world of rural Victoria in the era of gold-seeking, free selection and bushranging. The book climaxes in the pursuit of the Kelly Gang, the moment when Anthony steps briefly into national history, but this is above all the story of an Irish migrant who makes his way in colonial Victoria by pursuing the hard life of a country policeman. It is also a family history: in tracing the life and times of Anthony, Lachlan is also learning something more about his own father, Frank, an archivist, historian and radical who admired the rebel and folk hero – Ned Kelly – and despised a man of the law, his own relative, who had helped bring a killer to justice.

This is a fascinating and original history, taut and suspenseful, written with subtlety and flair.

Lachlan Strahan brings to life a lost world of rural Victoria in the era of gold-seeking, free selection and bushranging.

Lachlan Strahan was the Australian High Commissioner to Solomon Islands. His first book, Australia’s China, has become one of the standard works on Australia–China relations. His second, Day of Reckoning, traced a series of crimes in Papua New Guinea after World War II and was shortlisted for the 2006 NSW Premier’s Australian History Prize.

Part way through the Jerilderie Letter, Ned Kelly accused Senior Constable Anthony Strahan of threatening him: 'he would not ask me to stand he would shoot me first like a dog'. Those few fateful words have echoed through Australian history as the cause of much bloodshed and violence. They marked Anthony forever and ushered in a national myth: the legend of the Kelly Gang. Two days after Anthony allegedly made this threat, Ned and his gang shot dead several police in an act of brutality that became known as the Stringybark Creek killings. Ned's reason for opening fire? He said he had mistaken one cop for Strahan. Lachlan Strahan, Anthony's great-great-grandson, grew up with the familiar story of Ned Kelly, the egalitarian rebel, and his ancestor as the villainous cop who had threatened him. Yet as he began to probe into Anthony's life, he discovered that the truth -- and the Kelly legend it has given rise to -- was more complex than he believed. Anthony Strahan was a boy from County Kildare who joined the Victoria Police and embodied the thin blue line of law and order in the bush for nearly thirty-five years. He was also possessed of a fiery temper and a desire for justice, and was a major player in the hunt for Ned Kelly, though never recognised for it. Did he utter those incendiary words about Ned? Whose version of history do we believe? This is a tale about law enforcement -- about justice and retribution, character and morality. It is also about making a life against the odds in a wild frontier society, race relations, intergenerational shame and anger. Readers will learn more about the Kelly Gang, the Wooragee Outrage, Saucy Jack, a game called Swindle, the Pender Affair and many other criminals, some petty and some villainous. They will strap in for a damn good ride.

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