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Australian People
Heath Ledger
One of the most famous movie stars in Australia is Heath Ledger.
He was born on April 4th, 1979 as the son of Sally and Kim Ledger (divorced since Heath was 10) in Perth, Western Australia.
He has got three sisters: Kate Ledger (27) and two half sisters, Olivia Ledger (6) and Ashleigh Bell (13).
His acting story started in his junior high, a private, all boys school called Guilford Grammar, where he had to choose between two electives, either cooking or drama. He tried his hand in drama. He was talented, but his classmates did not accept his talent, possibly out of jealousy.
At the age of 17 he broke up school and drove with his best friend Trevor DiCarlo to Sydney. Heath believed Sydney to be the place where dreams are made, or at least, where actors can possibly get their big break.
His first real acting job he played in "Blackrock" (a very small role) a lower budget movie. Some smaller roles followed but then he went to America. First he found nothing but then the Australian director Gregor Jordan gave him an acting job in "Two Hands".
After that he got a role in "Ten things I hate about you" ( his breakthrough). Now it seemed Heath was being typecast as a teen hunk, which he did not like. So he accepted a role in a very serious war drama "The Patriot". Other acting jobs followed, for example "Ned Kelly", "The Sin Eater" or "A Knightīs Tale".
In 2001 he was named one of People Magazineīs 50 most beautiful people and he got the ShoWest Award for the Male Star of Tomorrow based on his performance in The Patriot.
In 2003 Heath was named one of Australian GO's Men of the Year for acting.
Personal quotes
"I only do this because I'm having fun. The day I stop having fun, I'll just walk away. I wasn't going to have fun doing a teen movie again.... I don't want to do this for the rest of my life....I don't want to spend the rest of my youth doing this in this industry. There's so much I want to discover." - Vanity Fair (August 2000)
Geraldine Sander, 13a
Ned Kelly - Australia's Most Famous Outlaw
Ned Kelly was born at Wallan near Melbourne in 1854, the year of the famous Eureka Stockade. His father, John (Red) Kelly was an Irish patriot who had spent seven years as a convict in the hell that was Van Diemenīs Land. Having served his time he came to the mainland and married a beautiful girl of eighteen. Her name was Ellen Quinn. The couple did well from the goldfields and with five children they decided to settle down on a forty-acre dairy farm at Avenel where the children could attend school. But Irish patriotism was an unforgivable sin in the eyes of the British Government Officials in the Colony of Victoria. John Kelly was continually hounded by the police and whenever anything went wrong in the disctrict, the cry went up, ''Blame it on the Kellys!''.
The authorities finally had their way with Nedīs father and in 1864 he was imprisoned for six months on a dubious charge of cattle stealing. The family was in great difficulty as Ned reached the age of ten and even at this stage of his life he had many responsibilities. News of his bravery spread throughout the district when folks heard how he had saved the life of Richard Shelton who nearly drowned in Hughes Creek. For this courageous deed he was given a beautiful green sash which he was to wear years later at the siege of Glenrowan. The year 1866 brought tragedy to the Kelly family. Nedīs father returned from prison a broken man, and two days after Christmas he died, leaving Ned to fend for the family.
For the next twelve years Ned tried hard to support his family. They had moved to near Greta, not far from Benalla so as to be closer to relatives. But the police continued to harass them and Ned was in and out of prison on petty charges. In Benalla he was viciously beaten up by four policemen, one of whom was Constable Lonnigan, who badly injured Ned in the ground. The die was cast and trouble really began on April 15, 1878. On that day Constable Fitzpatrick rode to the Kelly Homestead supposedly to interview Ned, but in fact he tried to seduce Nedīs sister Kate. Mrs. Kelly defended her daugther, a fighter ensued and Fitzpatrick claimed that he had been treated badly. On this evidence Mrs. Kelly was sent to Pentridge Prison for three long years with a babe in arms. Constable Fitzpatrick was known as a liar and a cheat and was soon to be expelled from the force. Now Ned was beside himself, and well aware of the fate that had befallen his father; he took to the bush with Joe Byrne, Steve Hart and his brother Dan. They swore to get revenge.
Having killed Kennedy, Scanlon and Lonigan at Stringybark Creek on Saturday, 26th October, 1878, the Kelly Gang became outlaws and were forced to say farewell to their home at Greta.
From 1878 until 1880 the Kelly gang made history with daring raids on the banks at Euroa and Jerilderie. They easily escaped capture even though there were large sums of money on their heads, for they had sympathisers everywhere. The story is told in this ballad which was written at the time by Joe Byrne.
By June 1880 time was running out for the gang and they decided to join with their sympathisers and make a stand against the Authorities at Glenrowan. Joe Byrne and Dan Kelly went to Woolshed to silence Aaron Sherrit; a former friend whom they believed had become a spy for the police. They joined Ned and Steve ant Glenrowan where they had arranged to derail a train full of police. A great night of drinking and dancing was had with their friends and captives at Mrs. Jones pub.
But suddenly everything went wrong. Ned allowed Thomas Curnow, the local school teacher to leave the pub and tend to his sick wife. Immediately he ran down the line and with a lighted candle and a red handkerchief he managed to stop the train crashing. Quickly, the police surrounded the pub and they killed JoeByrne and Mrs. Jonesī little boy. As the situation grew worse Ned left the pub to warn his sympathisers to return to their families. He thought that Dan and Steve were following, but they stayed behind. Then courageous above all he donned his armour and returned to the pub to fight it out against more than fifty policemen. In the ensuing battle, Dan and Steve perished and the police set fire to the pub. Ned was finally brought down by a shotgun blast to his legs. Badly wounded, he was patched up and hurriedly tried and convicted. For more than an hour Judge Barry argued with Ned until finally Kelly correctly prophesied that they would soon meet a fairer court in the sky. 32.000 sympathisers now signed a petition calling on the Governor to exercise mercy, but did not avail, and in his condemned cell Ned promised his mother that he would ''die like a Kelly''. His last brave words of resignation were
.''I guess it has come to this. SUCH IS LIFE'' .
Madeleine Hofmann, 13A
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