Revelling in the Riverina: Episode 13 – In the company of Ned Kelly

 

REVELLING in the Riverina

 

The vintage years

 

 

Episode 13 :                           In the company of Ned Kelly

 

 

 

 

Jerilderie, NSW (the Demons, Picola and District FNL)

 

 

Stage 13: Deniliquin to Jerilderie

 

Driving out of Deni, past the either mud-or-dust site of the annual Deni Ute Muster, we head off towards Jerilderie. It seems almost every ute we pass in this neck of the Riverina carries the obligatory black and white CONARGO PUB sticker on the rear window. It is ‘B and S’ country, that is, Bachelors and Spinsters Balls (or Blokes and Sheilas). All you need out this way is a ute, a swag, a dinner suit or gown and a pair of boots. 

 

The Deni Ute Muster was born out of community determination to do something to boost the town and district which was in the grip of the Millennium Drought back in 1999. Held on the first weekend of October, many among the 20 000 people who flock to ‘the ute capital of the world’ for the muster are only just getting over their football grand final celebrations. Be prepared for some ‘circle work’ of a different kind … loud and full of testosterone, but don’t be fooled, the sheilas are just as imbued in the worship of utes!

 

Camping on the flat plains and with two evening musical concerts and daytime entertainment, the ute muster keeps everyone rocking. If you drive your ute to the festival you are rewarded with a collector’s item – a diamond sticker – themed with the catchphrase “ute-ilize-it”, to put alongside your Conargo Pub sticker! The local economy gets a big boost and the community benefits from the $100 000 raised.

 

Jerilderie have their B’N’S on the last weekend in July. The music goes something like this – thump the floorboards with Steve Earle’s ‘Copperhead Road’:

 

 

 

 

Luckily we can call in at the Conargo Pub to quench our thirsts. The recently restored historic hotel, which was gutted by fire in 2014, is back in action. Afterwards we will stretch our legs on the Conargo Sports Ground opposite the pub, where cricket, not football, is the order of the day. But it wasn’t always that way at Conargo …

 

Conargo played in the Edward River Football Association from 1948 to 1961, but never made it to a grand final. Local sports historian ‘Cowboy’ Corrigan advises that the team was made up mostly of shearers. ‘‘Rumour has it that they would interview shearers at Boonoke and the first question asked was: ‘Do you play footy?’ ‘‘If you didn’t play footy you didn’t get the job.’’ (Deniliquin Pastoral Times 29 July 2016)

 

Conargo, known as the ‘Billabongs’, played against Hay, Blighty, East Deniliquin, Mathoura, North Deniliquin and West Deniliquin. Visiting teams may not have always enjoyed the road trip to Conargo, or the reception they received from the men in green, but the after-match hospitality seemed to draw them back, as the Deniliquin press, the Pastoral Times (29 June 1948), reported: 

 

 

It’s a Way They Have at Conargo

 

In assuming the role as hostess, the ladies auxiliary of the Conargo Football Club does not do things by halves. After football matches on the village green have concluded, players and officials become guests of the auxiliary. This means that about 50 enthusiasts troop into Conargo Hall which is next to the oval. Hot dogs, hot sausage rolls, cream cakes, sandwiches and tea and coffee are set before the gathering. This social atmosphere, created exclusively by the Conargo ladies, is a great football stimulant. Matches at Conargo are rarely of a ‘timid’ nature, but the get-together after the games smoothes over any hard feelings which may have been nursed by  players. This wonderful Conargo effort is not just a small community affair. Every person within range of Conargo donates the foodstuffs. Small wonder, then, that all the players of each team in the ERFL are never difficult to find when they know they will be sporting the colours at Conargo.”

 

We arrive in Jerilderie from the west, 145 years after Ned Kelly, his brother Dan and their gang made a daring raid on the town’s branch of the Bank of New South Wales. It was not only money the Victorian bushrangers were after. Kelly presented a letter to the town’s publican demanding it be published in the local newspaper. In his letter (dictated to gang member Joe Byrne) Kelly made a strong defence of his bushranging actions. He condemned the people he believed had wronged his family and warned people not to defy him. The 8000-word manuscript became known as the ‘Jerilderie Letter’. The welcome to Jerilderie town sign carries artwork depicting Kelly’s letter.

 

The Jerilderie community recreated the Kelly gang’s three day occupation of their town in 1879 with a self-guided tour of the 16 buildings visited by the bushrangers. Kelly’s iconic armour is a theme you cannot miss driving through Jerilderie today (and I’m surprised it wasn’t adopted as a symbol by the footy club!).

 

Jerilderie and the gang of four bushrangers inspired Melbourne’s Bill Jackson to write a song that would perfectly accompany a walk in Ned Kelly’s footsteps:

 

 

 

 

The town is linked with another well known Australian character, the charismatic and affable media personality, former Geelong footballer Billy Brownless. Billy was born and raised in Jerilderie, playing football for the local club before attending the great football nursery – Assumption College in Kilmore. He was on the radar of the Cats but chose to return home in 1985 to play a season with his mates. And what a season it was for the high flying, long kicking forward. He booted 148 goals and helped the Demons make the grand final of the Murray League. Despite a six goal effort from Brownless, Jerilderie lost the big one to the Deniliquin Rams before a crowd double the size of the previous year’s grand final. Kardinia Park beckoned for Brownless in 1986, a football home where he carved out a 198 game career with a tally of 441 goals.

 

Billy Brownless entered Riverina bush footy folklore in 1988 when he roosted a Sherrin over the silos at Mirrool (near Ariah Park – see episode 8) – a feat that won him 50 bucks. The Mirrool Silo Challenge was thus born. The community fundraiser, held every October, has helped put Mirrool on the map. Take a moment to have a punt with Lee Kernaghan singing The Boys from the Bush – Mirrool Silo Kick.

 

 

 

 

Australian Football has been played at Jerilderie for more than 130 years. There have been six phases in the history of the Jerilderie Football Club, each corresponding with its sequence of affiliations: 1905-1931 Southern Riverina Football Association; 1932-1956 Murray Valley Second Eighteen FA; 1957-63 Coreen and District FA; 1964-1993 Murray Football League; 1994-2007 return to the Coreen and District League; 2008-present Picola and District FNL.

 

Jerilderie enjoyed golden eras in the 1930s, the mid to late 1980s and again in the early years of the 21st Century.  But the 2009-2014 period, when they secured four premierships in six seasons in the North West division of the Picola League, including the treasured three in a row (2012, 2013, 2014), stands slightly above their earlier dynasties. In all, the ‘grand old Demons’ have won sixteen premierships.

 

In 2009 and 2012 the Demons defeated Berrigan while their 2013 and 2014 victories were at the expense of Strathmerton. The club has a strong commitment to local footballers evidenced by the fact that all but two selections in the club’s team of the decade (2010-2019) were players from the Jerilderie area.

 

Jerilderie in 2024

 

In round 15 of the Picola and District FNL, on Saturday 13th July at the Jerilderie Recreation Reserve, Jerilderie 16.10 (106) defeated Berrigan 0.1 (1). Across the league there were some remarkably one-sided games – Strathmerton defeated Mathoura by 155 points, Katunga had a 253 point win over Yarroweyah, while Waaia enjoyed a 95 point win against Tocumwal. A handful of P&DFNL clubs are languishing and a reshape of the league is on the cards. Could a return to a two zone competition, in place between 2009 and 2017, be part of the answer?

 

Riverina Spotto

 

Sheep (rams) and dog (rovers) worked  and there are 6 to go.

 

the last post	Irish pub	a slice of pizza
faithful canine	sheep and dog	the family club
22 yards	two felines	31.12.74
truckie’s stop	submarine	a shearing team
all among the wool	one pub town	Sherrin
three  bees	square	footy hub

 

 

Next episode: Stage 14 – to Finley

 

 

Previous episodes of Revelling In The Riverina, and more from Peter Clark can be read Here.

 

 

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