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GLENROWAN HERITAGE PRECINCT

Location

SIEGE STREET GLENROWAN, WANGARATTA RURAL CITY

File Number

PL-HE/01/0011

Level

Heritage Inventory Site

Statement of Significance

The Glenrowan Heritage Precinct is historically significant as the place most intimately connected with the legend that surrounds Ned Kelly, among the most well known of Australian historical figures. In a similar way the Eureka Historical Precinct (H1874) invokes the history of another rebellion against authority. The small town of Glenrowan was central to the history of the Kelly gang. The members lived in the district and spent much time there among a population generally sympathetic to the outlaws. The plan for a final showdown with police by derailing a train was a feasible if reckless plan that suited itself to the topography of the town where the railway line between Benalla and Wangaratta makes a sweeping curve on a steep embankment. The siege, the police cordon, the capture of Ned and the burning of the Glenrowan Inn are firmly implanted in Australian folklore and are directly related to this physical place.

(From VHR Statement of Significance.)

Group