The True Story of the KellyGang of Bushrangers Chapter 8 page 4

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Up to this time no use had been made of the Felons Apprehension Act, which took effect from November 12 and gave the police very wide powers in arresting people known to have concealed or in any way succoured the outlaws. Sympathisers were known in plenty, but the difficulty was to obtain proof of any act committed by them in contravention of the law. It was quite certain, for instance, that Mrs Skillion, the sister of the Kellys, was in the habit of conveying food to the gang, and it was observed that far more bread was baked at her residence at Greta that could possibly be accounted for by the wants of her family. On November 15 the prisoner Williamson, concerned together with the Kellys in the attack of Constable Fitzpatrick, and then in Pentridge Prison, furnished Inspector Green with his ideas of the localities likely to be frequented by the Kellys and their most probable associates. The places he mentioned were the more or less inaccessible heads of various creeks and rivers, some of them forty miles apart, from which places, as Williamson admitted, the outlaws could see the police coming; so the information was not of much value. The police themselves were aware that any one of those places might be chosen as a hiding place, but the trouble was to know which would be favoured at any particular time. Williamson was, however, confident that the Kellys would obtain rations from Mrs Skillion, and he mentioned that she would signal to them by hanging a white sheet, when police were about, on a sapling near her house, which could be seen from a great distance.

Another prisoner, named Williams, also an associate of the Kellys, on October 29 had informed Inspector Green that the outlaws carried with them a small tent and about a month’s rations. He too mentioned their favoured haunts, and laid stress on the probable endeavours of Mrs Skillion to assist them. In particular he described the position and appearance of a hollow log near her residence, in which he expected food would be planted for the Kellys or their associates to carry away. Search was made for this log and it was found; but from its appearance the police concluded that it was not being then used as a receptacle for provisions, and they appear to have kept no particular watch upon it, for which they were afterwards blamed by the Police Commission. It is probable, however, that the log was not then actually in use. The Kellys and their friends had no doubt availed themselves of it during some of the numerous bygone periods when they were in hiding from justice, and the mere fact that several others beside themselves knew of its history was likely to put them on their guard.

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