2022
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Wednesday, November 1, 2023
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16-PAGE LIFTOUT INSIDE TODAY Countr y
High
Melbourne Cup Weekend Edition
Festival season hits Mansfield OFF TO RACE DAY
By PAM ZIERK-MAHONEY
MANSFIELD is wide open for visitors and is looking forward to a hectic, but fantastic, High Country Festival which starts this weekend. And this year’s festival period has more to offer than previously, with new events and some favourites returning to the highlight. Catering for all genres and age groups there is something for everyone to enjoy this festival time and beyond, well into November. The festival begins on the Friday morning, November 3, when Mansfield Autistic Statewide Services (MASS) will serve delicious breakfasts on the median strip lawns opposite FoodWorks. MASS will also host an Farm Open Day - Operation Gamechanger Ogilvie’s Road giving visitors the chance to see what this organisation offers children and families of autism; what it has to offer in the way of teaching and support services. From 4pm on Friday, the festivities really get underway with family activities in the Botanic Park, at the eastern end of town, with music and stalls for food and drinks Opening the festival week-long action and returning is the ever popular Torch Light Parade followed by the fireworks display commencing at approximately 8.30pm. The presentation to the winning CFA Brigade follows the march and of course it is then onto the enlightening fireworks which amaze both young and old. The weekend continues with the Mansfield Hospital Art Show
FASHIONS for ladies, men and even the horses will all be a part of the big day at the Mansfield Race Club’s Melbourne Cup Picnic races on November 7. Getting ready for the fashions and the racing out at the venue last week were Adrianne Moore, Mansfield’s Fashions on the Field Ambassador with ‘Clifford’ owned and loved by local owner Scarlett Hanratty. For details on this year’s cup races turn to page 4 of this issue of High Country Alive. PHOTO: Mark Photography
(opening Friday night and continuing all weekend), a big bush market, a grand parade (held in High Street from 11am on Saturday, November 4), the Amped Up Amphitheatre Sound Sessions, in High Street and featuring guest singer Jacotene.
M.O.S.T. (Mansfield Open Studios Trail) is a must for all creative and art lovers – a time when local artists open their studios to the public. Also on Saturday, November 4, sculptors showcase their works in the Median to Rare exhibition,
held on the lawns opposite the Post Office. Keeping in the theme of crafts and creativity will be the Mansfield CWA’s Makers Market to be held from 10am at the CWA Hall at the eastern end of town – pick up a bargain or early Christmas
Courtesy buses to and from town. General Admission
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Mansfield District Racing Club
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Available
Cup Day in the High Country
presents for friends and family. St John’s Church book sale is also a must for avid readers, books of all genres will go on sale inside the church hall while morning teas will be served outside on the lawns. ■ Continued page 7
Marquee Packages Available
Lawn Party Marquee
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M/MANSFIELD
BOOKINGS AT COUNTRY.RACING.CO
Marks IGA Melbourne Cup Day Picnic Races
events@mansfieldraces.com.au
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FAMILY MEMORIES: Leo Kennedy, the great grandson of Sergeant Michael Kennedy, and five-year-old Emma Henwood, the trooper’s great, great, great grandaughter lay flowers at the Police Monument.
Blue Curtain set to rock festival
Families honour troopers killed by the Kelly Gang
Page 12
By TERRY FRIEL STRINGYBARK Creek in the depths of October can be a harsh, unforgiving place. High in the Wombat Ranges, it is bone-chillingly cold and wet. The towering gums of the High Country soar into the sky and block out what little light creeps through the low gray clouds. The thick, tangled undergrowth, rocks and endlessly up-and-downterrain are tough going. Here, 145 years ago in October, the Kelly Gang shot dead three police officers – Sergeant Michael Kennedy and constable Thomas Lonagan and Thomas Scanlan. A fourth, Constable McIntrye survived and made his way 30 kilometres through the thick bush to raise the alarm and guide a party back to recover the bodies.
Last Sunday, relatives of the troopers – covering several generations - came to Mansfield’s iconic Police Monument obelisk for a memorial service, something they do every five years. “Their deaths, together in individually, were and are a great tragedy,” said Leo Kennedy, the great grandson of Sgt Kennedy and organiser of the service. “One hundred and 45 years – and we still remember them. “All in their 30s with long lives and careers ahead of them. “They were not perfect. No one is. But they were good men. “We ask for the true stories of these men to be told and the myths and nonsense to cease.” The officers had been sent after the Kelly Gang – Ned, his brother Dan, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart who were wanted for the attempted
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murder of Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick as he tried to arrest Dan for horse stealing. The Kelly’s allege he also made advances to Kelly’s 14-year-old sister Kate. Fitzpatrick denied this. McIntyre later described the difficult nature of Stringybark: “It seems to be a climatic condition that three nights of frost are almost invariably followed by rain on the fourth,” he wrote in an unpublished manuscript now in the Victoria Police Museum describing lead the search party for his colleagues’ bodies. “Being a wet night, it was a dark one and it was with great difficulty that our party kept together in the gloom of the forest.” McIntyre was so traumatised by his experience he retired from the police force early.
“It ruined his life, the Stringybark Creek episode, according to my mother,” McIntyre’s grandson Howard Humffrray wrote. Kelly later wrote his own thought, penning the 8000-word Jerilderie Letter while hiding out in the southern Riverina town in 1879, the year before his capture in Glenrowan. “I do not pretend that I have led a blameless life, or that one fault justifies another,” Kelly wrote. “But the public in judging a case like mine should remember that the darkest life may now have a bright side.” An emotional Leo Kennedy said “These men were not heroes”. “They were criminals and murderers. “We thank those that search for the truth, and tell the truth - they help us heal.”
Page 10
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