KELLYLAND GLENROWAN

In the small township of Glenrowan in North East Victoria, lives a very unique tourist attraction Kellyland Glenrowan. Housed inside is a range of displays depicting the story of Ned Kelly and his gang, books, souvenirs and gifts.

Many pieces relating to the Kelly story have been displayed together. These include many Victorian police artefacts from 1853-1880s, Sargent Kennedys hitching post, Ned Kelly’s death mask, original wanted posters and many other rare photographs, original artworks ect.

The show consists of five elaborate sets dressed in the style of the 1880s....

Spectators begin in the abandoned waiting rooms of the Old Melbourne Railway Station where the hooded narrator invites you to take a journey in time back to 1880. As he speaks, rain drizzles down the window pane, lightning strikes and thunder roars. His face becomes younger as we are transported back to Melbourne, 1880. A fire springs from the grate and our attention is now focused on local police. We are on a simulated train being sent from Melbourne to apprehend the elusive Kelly gang, wanted for robbery and murder.

As the train whistles north towards Benalla, the hooded narrator reappears and sends you through swinging doors into an imaginative re creation of the Glenrowan Inn, where the Kelly Gang detained sixty two frightened people, after removing a section of track to derail the police train. Here the animatronics steal the show. A laughing lad perched in the rafters, a bush band playing the Wild Colonial Boy that have audiences humming along, a rat darts across the bar, publican Ann Jones pours a beer, a pistol fired and much more excitement. Ned addresses the audience about the injustices, including the jailing of his mother and young brother that forced him into lawlessness. “What man with any guts could stand aside...” Ned warns of the terror that is near.

Into the daylight to stand on the platform of the Glenrowan Station where the police train has arrived after being flagged down before the broken track. Heavily armed police squads had taken up positions surrounding a model of the Hotel exterior meters away, with the Kelly gang dressed in their crudely, homemade, bullet proof armour. A spectacular scene, with no expense spared to detail. Police then set fire to the hotel, the Kelly Gang is no more. The audience then finds themselves within the burnt remains of the Inn.

After a few frights and surprises the final scene is witnessing Ned’s final moments in the Old Melbourne Gaol “Ah well, such is life”.

Finish off in our fabulous new museum section of the centre. A wonderfully entertaining, unique tourist attraction.