When does a manmade landmark become accepted as part of a town? Five years? Twenty-five years? More?
That's a question the residents of Nerriga, perched atop the Shoalhaven coastal escarpment, have tackled over the last 12 months.
Early in 2023, the tiny village of just a few dozen bushfire-hardened souls faced an identity crisis when council authorities demanded their infamous Ned Kelly statue be carted away.
For more than 15 years Nerriga Ned had stood sentinel on the large stump of a former conifer opposite the village's pub. However, deemed rotten and a safety hazard, as part of a Nerriga streetscape beautification scheme, the stump and therefore Nerriga Ned had to be removed.
"Until he was craned away, I didn't realise Nerriga Ned divided the village so much," confesses Sarah Smith who, since 2013, has owned the pub with husband Phil.
"To my children he's always been here but to some villagers who have been here for 80 years he is a blow-in and doesn't belong here," explains Sarah. "Just when do you decide when something starts to belong?
"Some argued Ned shouldn't be here as he is an eyesore, especially as the real Ned never roamed these parts."
Then of course there's those who remain perplexed as to why Kelly is held in such high regards at all, given he was a hardened criminal.
"There is nothing romantic or heroic about Ned Kelly, a morally corrupt, swaggering, loud-mouthed, brawling, thieving, horse stealing, racist Irishman who never thought of himself as an Australian," wrote one contributor on the pub's Facebook page.
According to Sarah "there were lots of discussions, all in good spirits, about whether Nerriga Ned should return after the stump was removed".
One man moved to pen a letter to the village's progress association about Nerriga Ned's unceremonious removal was Geoff "Woody" Woodham.
And with good reason. It was Woody, now a retired stonemason and bricklayer, who in 1997, along with the then publican Pat Maguire, created Ned.
"A fundraising variety bash was coming through town, and we wanted to help raise money," reveals Woody, who set to work creating Ned out of material in his sheds, including "a big tin for his trademark slitted bulletproof helmet" and some fake pistols "so he could stand and deliver".
Woody teamed up with another local, Steve Cansell, who dressed up as a policeman and together with Nerriga Ned they blocked the road, baling up passers-by and charging people $5 to use the toilets. "Everyone that day had to cough up the cash to get past or go into the pub, whether they liked it or not."
In just two hours, Nerriga Ned and his accomplices raised $2500 for Care Flight, a considerable sum for two hours' fundraising in 1997.
After the Variety Bash left town, sensing an opportunity to entice more visitors, Nerriga Ned was strapped to the roof of the pub.
"You've got to remember, back then the road was a rough gravel surface and regularly impassable, and hardly anyone used it," explains Woody. "If two or three four-wheel-drivers turned up for a beer or two, it was a busy day at the pub."
When Kyle Lumsden took over the pub in 2006-07, he undertook lots of repairs, including the roof. Nerriga Ned was deemed too heavy to remain on his lofty pedestal so was moved across to a tree stump opposite the pub where he sat until January 2023.
"If you do a Google search for Nerriga, Ned invariably pops up in so many photos," explains Sarah. "After the road was upgraded and became a sealed (and quicker) alternative between Canberra and Jervis Bay, many people would stop for a photo with Ned."
In fact, when Ned was taken down, social media was abuzz with reports of where Ned had gone.
Nonetheless, Geoff and his colleagues weren't going to let Ned disappear permanently so it was agreed he would return following the completion of council's road upgrade. And last month, just in time for the holiday rush, Nerriga Ned was reinstalled on a new platform made from rail sleepers.
During the 10 months Nerriga Ned was off display, Woody and his mates gave him a bit of a scrub-up but some things they was unable to fix.
"A few years back, someone took a pot shot at Ned - you can still see the hole in his helmet," says Woody, adding "but that's all part of who Ned is."
Earlier this week, despite being an especially stormy summer's afternoon, Nerriga Ned was turning heads once again with almost everyone who stopped at the pub wandering across the road for a selfie with Ned.
I'm not one to push for out-of-place statues. However, Nerriga Ned's genesis as part of a community fundraiser and then his familiarity with a new generation of visitors to the coast, means he (the statue not the bushranger) is now a Nerriga identity in his own right.
Not only has he witnessed the village transform over a quarter of a century from a frontier outpost to a busy tourist pitstop on the way to the coast, but he was also a welcome constant during the Black Summer fires which ravaged Nerriga and surrounds, razing 20 homes and many more outbuildings.
He also stood proud, a reassuring sight during COVID times, providing humour with several locals even posing with packs of dunny paper during the great toilet paper shortages of 2020.
I, for one, am glad to see him back.
Are you?
Bushranger part of our national psyche
At a tour I regularly co-host at the National Film and Sound Archive before we screen part of The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) which is regarded as the world's first feature film, I ask the audience who they think Australian's most famous character is. Without fail, Ned is the first answer hollered from the audience.
Despite being a convicted robber and murderer and although he only roamed a small part of our country, Ned Kelly is firmly entrenched in our national psyche. You just need to look around our own region and count how many letterboxes or homemade statues are made in his honour. Some of them, like the one above, has even appeared in this column's photo quiz.
If you ever follow the actual Ned Kelly trail in Victoria, be sure to check out the spectacular six-arch sandstone Avenel Bridge. It formed part of the Hume Highway until bypassed in 1969. It was just 150 metres downstream from this bridge that as a 10-year-old Ned rescued seven-year-old Richard Shelton from drowning. To thank him, the family presented Ned with a seven-foot-long green sash. When Ned was shot and captured at the siege at Glenrowan Inn on June 28, 1880, that very sash was found blood-soaked under his armour and is occasionally displayed at the Benalla Museum.
Don't miss: The Nerriga Hotel is hosting a competition as to what Nerriga Ned may have got up to while he was off display. "Let your imagination run wild - the only rule is a maximum of 1000 words," says publican Phil Smith. Stories must be submitted by January 15 by email to nerrigahotel@hotmail.com and will be read out anonymously at the pub on Australia Day from 4pm.
WHERE ON THE FAR SOUTH COAST?
Rating: Medium
Clue: Photo taken in the 1920s, but it's still there.
How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to tym@iinet.net.au. The first correct email sent after 10am, Saturday January 6 wins a double pass to Dendy, the Home of Quality Cinema.
Last week: Congratulations to Mitesh Desai of Greenway who was the first reader to identify last week's photo as Long Beach, on the northern shores of Batemans Bay, photographed in 1958 by the late Bill Tomsett. The clue related to the beach's famous whale bone seat which was a curious drawcard for many years during the 1940s to 1960s.
SIMULACRA CORNER
During the recent stormy weather, I was inundated with cloud photos, including this ripper (above left) snapped by Barry O'Mara in Yass. While some of Barry's mates reckon it resembles the late Queen Elizabeth II, I think it bears a much more striking resemblance to former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, complete with trademark clip-on earing. Oh, and if you can't "see" her, unlike her political ideology, she's centre left, looking right.
Closer to home, Craig Collins of Coombs captured this bearded man (above right) with tilted head and partial mohawk looking west from the top of Black Mountain.
CONTACT TIM: Email: tym@iinet.net.au or Twitter: @TimYowie or write c/- The Canberra Times, GPO Box 606, Civic, ACT, 2601
