Site 7 - 63 Jerilderie Street

Address: 63 Jerilderie Street

When Ned Kelly and his gang raided Jerilderie there were no buildings on this triangle of land. The significance of this site is in relation to instructions given by Ned Kelly too burn the documents that were held in the safe of the Bank of New South Wales as securities against loans made by the Bank.  As of December 2007, the Title Deed to this parcel of land is the only document unearthed so far.

Apart from the Title Deed to this parcel of land being destroyed during the bank raid, there is another connection with this property and the raid on Jerilderie by Ned Kelly and his Gang, albeit a rather tenuous one, and that is that in April 1883 Mr Rudolph Gartman purchased the property to establish his own chemist shop, which he carried on at this address until October 1888, when he sold out and left Jerilderie.

At the time of the raid, Rudolph Gartman was the pharmacist employed by Mr Louis Monash in a chemist shop located opposite to what was the site of the Courthouse Hotel, on the south-west corner of Jerilderie and Bolton Streets.

At some stage during the day of the bank hold up, Mr Gartman, responding to a rumour that something strange was going on in the vicinity of the bank and Royal Mail Hotel at the western end of the town, decided to investigate.

He walked into Mr Harkin’s store just as Ned Kelly, in company with James Rankin Snr, was “re-arresting” Mr Harkin. Mr Gartman was also taken into custody by Ned and then escorted to the bar parlour of the Royal Mail Hotel where the three gentlemen, along with other hostages, were left under the watchful eye of Dan Kelly. On being bought a drink by Ned Kelly, it is believed that Mr Gartman was most put out at not being allowed to return the compliment!

Later, after all of the Kelly gang had departed from Jerilderie, Mr Gartman joined the local school teacher, Mr Elliott, and the junior bank teller Mr Mackie, as they went past his shop on the way to the Police Barracks to see what could be done with the prisoners locked up in the police cells.