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KELLY GANG'S MAGAZINE

A STARTLING EXPLOSION

BENALLA, Friday

—After remaining for many years in the place of security where it was hidden by the Kelly gang, a quantity of gunpowder, fired in the course of burning off, was responsible for a startling occurrence near Lurg a few days ago.

Mr Griffiths, a local landowner, had begun burning off the timber on his property when an explosion occurred which blew a hollow tree to atoms, and sent sections of wood flying for several hundred yards. The sound of the explosion was heard a considerable distance away, and residents were at a loss to understand what had happened. The vibration was such that a clock in the state school, nearly a mile from the scene of the explosion, was shaken from a shelf to the floor, and crockery in Mr Griffith's house, which was also a mile away, was thrown down and smashed. The spot where the explosion had occurred was easily found, there being a depression in the earth, where the full force of the gunpowder had spent itself. The hollow tree which had occupied the spot had, according to a local tradition, been used by the Kelly gang for the storage of gunpowder, but this fact had been forgotten. It was only recalled to memory when the heat of the burning trunk ignited the powder, and the fierce explosion followed.

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15-aug-10

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