OVER NED KELLY’S GRAVE

Evening Star, Issue 20138, 1 April 1929, Page 1

OVER NED KELLY’S GRAVE

SCHOOL TO BE BUILT AT MELBOURNE END OF HISTORIC GAOL 'Did wall; of the old tlfdlioiuric Gaol. 20,000 ton? of bluertnie. a:c llnnic'.pimg down about tho. grave? of Ned Kelly, Albert, William Deeming, .Marllta Needle, and oilier? uolorioue in Australian criminal lecord?, to make way for the new engineering school at the Working Men'? College. The yard in which v.ei e buried those who jiairl the la?I grim | enally for their crimes, i? a long red angular one surrounded by wall,, apparently built to last centime?. Now lins’.Mca, long given over to (lie correction of laid citizens, i? to he dedicated to the making and training of good citizen?. The cheerful --lion I? of sludeni? will ring mil where once prison hell” tolled, and light feet, will scampCi through a bright new modern building over a place where once only furtive whisperings, (ho wail? of the condemned, and the rattling of iron.? could be heard. That which i? believed id be Ned Kelly? grave lie- hv il-mlf. and th- 1 initial? K.K. with an arrow arc on a wall souk- distance, from (lie others. In ib« last, few oaye, while, (he workers have been (earing down the wall flouting the street, many, curious pas-ors-by hava peeied through the bicycle .bed Irving to read the initials carved on the wail—J.V.P , F.K. J.C., E.M.N., and uiat.y others. , Among' • the grave'? are (hose ■ol • William Barnc?, 188 b; Freeland Morrell, 1886 : George Sviuo. 1888: T'ilini Castillo. 18b9; Robert T.andelis, 1883; John Thomas Phelan, 1891; John Wilson. 1891; Martha Needle, 1394; and Albert William Teeming. 1892. The building of the old Melbourne Uaol was fir-t commenced iip 1841. The stone is being carted away and cold to the Harbor" Tnitf for under-water work. . | The wall? arc of massive slabs of binestone 2ft long and Ift square. The concrete i? still, as hard as ever, and each slab i? only removed after hard work. Buried in the walls is an bid pipe, and occasionally the workmen come upon the brickwork of an old underground tunnel. A Scotsman's love letter;—“Darlin’ Maggie, 1 worship the ground you walk on. .1 like, to see you walk—it. shows ye're thrifty a-iT savin'. The In ? I time ye dyed yer dress 'it looked smarter than over—next year it would look fine turned outside in, ser but'.- a piider—it's pretty enough to last a lifetime. 'There's uaethiiig T wadna dae lor you, darlin'. If it. wasna for the expense of the funeral, I'd lay ti|o down ami die for ye.—Sandy.”,