Every nation has a lovable bandit/rebel/folk hero in the mould of Robin Hood and Rob Roy. But Ned Kelly is an uncomfortable hero - he killed policemen, robbed banks, stole horses from squatters...But he became a champion of the rural underclass and an enemy of arrogant officialdom.
Ned Kelly was of Irish stock - to some, he embodied the splendid rebel spirit of the Irish, to others he was the awful example of what the Irish Australian was capable of in opposition to British law.
Ned Kelly became increasingly prominent in Australia's artistic life - in paintings, literature, poetry, drama, music and film - and the Kelly legend lives on.