The Argus at KellyGang 15/7/1879

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The travelling reporter of the Bendigo Advertiser, writing from Kerang on July 9, states -" Ever since the alleged appearance of the Kelly gang on the Gunbower Island last January, soon after the Jeilderie robbery , I, together with many other persons acquainted with this locality, have held to the opinion that the armed men seen there were no other than the Mansfield murderers, notwithstanding the opinion of the so called detective force to the contrary. The information brought in from the island at the time was to the effect that three different reliable persons had seen, at different times, a party of four armed men on the spot alleged, and that traces of concealed camps and knocked up horses were afterwards found. It was said by the detectives that the horses were claimed by a resident, but they never were, and a fine mare, with her hoofs almost worn off is limping about there to this day. People generally and naturally come to the conclusion that as armed men wandering about in parties of four are not common in Victoria, the men seen on the Gunbower Island could have been no other than the KellyGang. This view has now received confirmation. A selector has let it out in conversation that soon after the Jerilderie robbery he was on the Gunbower Island looking for his bullocks, when he suddenly encountered four men on horse back. He stared in astonishment, seeing that they were armed with rifles and revolvers. They, thinking they were recognized, made a clean breast of it, and informed him they were the Kellys and that if he said a word about the meeting to anybody they would shoot him. They then asked him the names and situations of all the stations in the neighbourhood, which station possessed the best horses and their number, and their means of defence. He gave the men the required information, and they departed again cautioning him. In consequence of the threats held out to him, the selector kept his mouth shut until recently, when he found the men who threatened him did not show  up again.


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