The Jerilderie Letter is a handwritten document composed by Australian bushranger and outlaw Ned Kelly in 1879. Described as "part autobiography, part manifesto","Ned Kelly, Jerilderie Letter, the Original John Hanlon Transcription", Christie's. Retrieved 12 September 2026. it is traditionally understood to have been dictated by Kelly to fellow gang member Joe Byrne, who may also have contributed to its composition. The letter is named after the town of Jerilderie, New South Wales, where the Kelly gang carried out an armed bank robbery in February 1879 and where Kelly tried to have the document published as a pamphlet.
The letter comprises 56 pages and 7,391 words. In it, Kelly traces his path to outlawry and justifies his actions, including the killings of three policemen at Stringybark Creek in October 1878, which he portrays as an act of self-defence. Expressing hostility towards the police throughout the letter, Kelly alleges corruption, perjury and mistreatment of his family and other poor rural settlers in north-eastern Victoria, while also attacking wealthy landholders, the Victorian Government and the colonial justice system. The letter contains broader political and sectarian themes, including anti-English sentiments and a critique of British rule, drawing on Irish nationalist grievances and the Australian convict tradition of resistance. The letter concludes with calls for fairer treatment of the poor, alongside threats of widespread further violence against police, informants and civilians who assist or harbour them.
One of only two original Kelly letters known to have survived, it is a longer and more detailed version of the Cameron Letter, copies of which Kelly sent to a Victorian parliamentarian and the police following the gang's raid on Euroa, Victoria, in December 1878. Two copies were made of the Jerilderie Letter during Kelly's lifetime, one by publican John Hanlon and one by a government clerk. Due to political suppression, only summaries of its contents were published in the press; it was not published in full until 1930. Since then, the letter has been appraised as a significant work of Australian literature, with scholars noting its distinctive vernacular, rhetorical and poetic qualities. Its influence has extended into the arts, notably informing painter Sidney Nolan's 1946–47 Ned Kelly series and author Peter Carey's Booker Prize-winning novel True History of the Kelly Gang (2000). The original letter is held at the State Library Victoria in Melbourne.
Background Edward Kelly was born in the Colony of Victoria, Australia, around 1854 to Irish-born parents, John, a transported convict, and Ellen (née Quinn). The Kellys lived on selections (small farms) in north-eastern Victoria, where they struggled financially and formed part of a large extended family, several members of which were involved in livestock theft. Kelly received little formal education and became familiar with the bush from an early age.
Kelly first became involved in bushranging in 1869, aged about 14, as an associate of Harry Power. He was subsequently imprisoned for offences including assault and receiving a stolen horse and became increasingly hostile towards the police. By 1877, he was associated with the "Greta Mob" of bush larrikins, which included his younger brother Dan, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart.
In April 1878, a violent confrontation occurred at the Kelly home in Greta when Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick attempted to arrest Dan Kelly. Fitzpatrick claimed that Ned shot and wounded him, and Ellen Kelly and two others were later convicted of aiding and abetting attempted murder. Ned and Dan fled into remote bushland in the Wombat Ranges, where they were joined by Byrne and Hart.
On 26 October 1878, the gang engaged four policemen in a gunfight at Stringybark Creek. Three policemen—Thomas Lonigan, Michael Scanlan and Sergeant Michael Kennedy—were killed, while Thomas McIntyre escaped. Kelly later claimed the killings were acts of self-defence, while McIntyre gave a conflicting account.
The killings prompted the Victorian Government to pass the Felons Apprehension Act 1878, under which the gang were declared outlaws on 15 November. The Act authorised their killing if encountered armed or reasonably suspected of being armed, and imposed severe penalties on those who aided them. A substantial reward was offered for their capture, dead or alive.
Cameron Letter
On 14 November 1878, the day before Kelly and his gang were outlawed, Victorian parliamentarian Donald Cameron, speaking in the Legislative Assembly, referred to statements suggesting that the "conduct of certain members of the police force" may have "led up" to the Stringybark Creek killings, and asked the premier, Graham Berry, to inquire into the origins of the Kelly outbreak and the actions of the police authorities. It is speculated that Kelly and Byrne read about this exchange in the newspapers and may have mistaken Cameron as sympathetic to the gang. Kelly dictated a long letter to Byrne with the intention of sending it to Cameron.
On 9 December 1878, the gang robbed the bank in Euroa, Victoria, after taking hostages at a pastoral station nearby. Byrne kept watch over the hostages at the station while the rest of the gang carried out the robbery, and some of the hostages recalled seeing Byrne writing copies of a long letter.
Shortly after the Euroa robbery, Cameron and Police Superintendent John Sadleir each received a copy of Kelly's letter, signed "Edward Kelly, enforced outlaw", in which Kelly sought to justify his actions, portray himself and his family as victims of police persecution and explain the Stringybark Creek killings as acts of self-defence. The police advised against releasing the letter to the press for publication, but reporters were permitted to read it and publish summaries. Newspaper accounts of the letter ranged from dismissive to sympathetic.
History
Following the suppression of the Cameron Letter, Kelly composed a longer, more detailed version of it sometime before the gang's raid on the town of Jerilderie in southern New South Wales from 8 to 10 February 1879. It is traditionally thought that Kelly dictated the letter to Byrne, or that Kelly created a draft which Byrne then rewrote in neater handwriting.
Kelly took his document to Jerilderie where he intended to have it published as a pamphlet for public distribution. After robbing the local bank, Kelly tried to find Samuel Gill, the town's newspaper editor and printer, aiming to have him print the letter. When he failed to find Gill, Kelly gave the letter to bank accountant Edwin Living, and demanded that he pass it onto Gill. Kelly warned Living, "Mind you get it printed, or you'll have me to reckon with next time we meet".
Living ignored Kelly's demands and set off on horseback with the document towards Deniliquin, New South Wales, 50 miles away, from where he planned to catch a train to Melbourne. J. W. Tarleton, the bank's manager, accompanied Living to Deniliquin.'The Apocalyptic Chant of Edward Kelly', Alex McDermot's introduction to The Jerilderie letter: Ned Kelly, p.xxvi, Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2001, (republished 2012)
When Living stopped to rest at John Hanlon's hotel eight miles from Deniliquin, he allowed Hanlon to read Kelly's document and make a copy of it. Hanlon gave his copy the heading "Ned Kelly's Confession". The following morning Living and Tarleton took the train to Melbourne where they delivered Kelly's letter to the office of the Bank of New South Wales, who then forward it to the police. As with the Cameron letter, the police advised against making Kelly's letter available to the public,Kelly’s 'manifesto' was included as Chapter 13 of The Kellys are Out by J. M. S. Davies, which was serialised in The Register News-Pictorial (Adelaide, SA) in September and October 1930. Chapter 13 begins part way through the Monday 29 September instalment and concludes part way through the Thursday 2 October instalment.Brian McDonald (in his book What they said about Ned! : looking at the legend of Ned Kelly through books ..., Australian History Promotions, Bondi NSW, 2004) says of the serialisation that 'it includes an edited version of the Jerilderie Letter e.g. grammar, spelling, punctuation and the reference to the calf's testicles has been left out'. and only summaries were published by the press.On 18 February 1879, the Melbourne Age newspaper published a synopsis of Kelly's 'manifesto'. It is available on microfilm at the State Library of Victoria.
In July 1880 a government clerk made another copy of Kelly’s document when the prosecution case was being prepared for Kelly’s trial for murder in October 1880. The original was returned to Living after Kelly's trial and execution.
Format and style
The Jerilderie Letter is 56 pages long and contains 7,391 words. Written in the first person on notepaper measuring 20.3 x 12.5 cm, it features minimal and irregular punctuation, numerous grammatical inconsistencies, and frequent shifts in subject, resulting in what has been called a "stream of conscious outpouring". Germaine Greer likens the effect to blank verse poetry, "with pauses, and leaps, and wild swerves of tone". Despite its apparent disordered structure, the letter contains only occasional misspellings.A literary analysis of the Jerilderie Letter found that only 11 words are misspelt, and of these five are proper names: Joe Crowley, 'If Words Be Louder I Will Oppose Your Laws', pp.7-8, BA Hons thesis, 1997, University of Queensland).
Questions of authorship Kelly is the only person on record to have claimed authorship of the letter, telling a hostage at Jerilderie: "This [the letter] is a bit of my life. I have not had time to finish it. I will finish it some other time."
While Kelly claimed the letter as his own, it is generally considered that Byrne assisted in its composition or transcription, although the precise nature of his involvement remains uncertain. Greer theorises that Kelly probably composed an original draft, possibly in pencil with numerous corrections, which Byrne subsequently copied into the surviving ink manuscript, potentially making minor corrections or alterations in the process. Greer nevertheless concludes that "a single, if inconsistent, very individual voice, emerges from the letter." In 2022, writer David Dufty suggested that the letter may have been co-written by James Wallace, a schoolteacher and Kelly gang sympathiser.
Content The letter's considerable length, level of detail, and range of topics have given rise to "numerous and varying interpretations". It has been variously described as a manifesto, a work of "self-propaganda", an apologia that develops into a proclamation, "the longest threatening letter in the history of agrarian rebellion", and "the closest thing we have to an autobiography of Ned Kelly". Owing to its political themes and appeals to social justice, the letter has also been described as a "clarion call" on behalf of the rural poor of north-eastern Victoria; however, for much of the letter, Kelly focuses primarily on his personal life, his family and associates. It begins:
Dear Sir,
I wish to acquaint you with some of the occurrences of the present past and future.