Ned Kelly was a bushranger outlaw who came to symbolize free-spirited resistance to the colonial authorities. In the 1870s Ned and his gang specialized in robbing banks and eluding the police posses sent after them. But in a shoot-out at Stringybark Creek, three constables were killed, thus provoking the biggest manhunt in Aussie history. A reward of £1,000 (a colossal sum in those days) was offered for the capture of Ned and his gang. After robbing a bank in Jerilderie, Ned sent a mocking letter to his pursuers, deriding them as ‘wombat-headed, magpie-legged sons of English landlords.’ In the end the law caught up with him and his gang at Glenrowan, where Kelly emerged in his celebrated iron mask and home-made suit of armour, before being captured and sentenced to hang. Some sympathizers turned up when he was executed at Melbourne Gaol on November 11, 1880. His life and death are now celebrated in rousing folk songs.