“Like all good mythologically romanticised outlaws, Ned Kelly probably felt lonely. All that armour had to have been isolating—not to mention all that running from the law, knowing your mother was in prison. Poor Ned certainly felt misunderstood. It is said that he and his family felt they were victims of police harassment long before the criminal gang was established, before he went all Ice-T and became a Cop Killer. In an interview with The Age published on 14 August, 1880, Ned recounts various such instances, entreating the public to “remember that the darkest life may have a bright side” and bemoaning that “newspapers cannot speak of me with that patient toleration generally extended to men awaiting trial, and who are assumed…to be innocent until they are proved to be guilty.”

So, Ned felt wrongly accused and misunderstood by his haters. One can only imagine how bemused he would be today by how he is seen by his fans. His association with the current Australian flag would almost certainly cause him consternation, as it was not adopted until 1903—the same year Harley-Davidson started producing iron horses—some twenty-three years after his death. Even being associated with the flag of the Eureka Stockade would be bewildering, as it took place the same month he was born—and one can hardly imagine young Edward staking a claim from the cradle. Ned was, and remains, misunderstood—by both his detractors and supporters alike. To quote author Dan Brown in Inferno: “the worst kind of loneliness in the world is the isolation that comes from being misunderstood. It can make people lose their grip on reality.” In that unreal loneliness, you feel as though you are fading, disappearing into the background, until you are nothing more than a ghost, a shadow of your former self.”