STRINGYBARK Creek in the depths of October can be a harsh, unforgiving place. High in the Wombat Ranges, it is bone-chillingly cold and wet. The towering gums of the High Country soar into the sky and block out what little light creeps through the low gray clouds. The thick, tangled undergrowth, rocks and endlessly up-and-down-terrain are tough going. Here, 145 years ago in October, the Kelly Gang shot dead three police officers – Sergeant Michael Kennedy and constable Thomas Lonagan and Thomas Scanlan. A fourth, Constable McIntrye survived and made his way 30 kilometres through the thick bush to raise the alarm and guide a party back to recover the bodies. Last Sunday, relatives of the troopers – covering several generations - came to Mansfield's iconic Police Monument obelisk for a memorial service, something they do every five years. “Their deaths, together in individually, were and are a great tragedy,” said Leo Kennedy, the great grandson of Sgt Kennedy and organiser of the service. “One hundred and 45 years – and we still remember them. “All in their 30s with long lives and careers ahead of them. “They were not perfect. No one is. But they were good men. “We ask for the true stories of these men to be told and the myths and nonsense to cease.” The officers had been sent after the Kelly Gang – Ned, his brother Dan, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart who were wanted for the attempted murder of Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick as he tried to arrest Dan for horse stealing. The Kelly’s allege he also made advances to Kelly’s 14-year-old sister Kate. Fitzpatrick denied this. McIntyre later described the difficult nature of Stringybark: “It seems to be a climatic condition that three nights of frost are almost invariably followed by rain on the fourth,” he wrote in an unpublished manuscript now in the Victoria Police Museum describing lead the search party for his colleagues’ bodies. “Being a wet night, it was a dark one and it was with great difficulty that our party kept together in the gloom of the forest.” McIntyre was so traumatised by his experience he retired from the police force early. "It ruined his life, the Stringybark Creek episode, according to my mother," McIntyre's grandson Howard Humffrray wrote. Kelly later wrote his own thought, penning the 8000-word Jerilderie Letter while hiding out in the southern Riverina town in 1879, the year before his capture in Glenrowan. “I do not pretend that I have led a blameless life, or that one fault justifies another,” Kelly wrote. "But the public in judging a case like mine should remember that the darkest life may now have a bright side.” An emotional Leo Kennedy said "These men were not heroes". "They were criminals and murderers. "We thank those that search for the truth, and tell the truth - they help us heal."
