Ned Kelly the Kelly Gang", the world's first dramatic feature-length film. Among those who have portrayed him on screen are Australian rules football player Bob Chitty ("The Glenrowan Affair", 1951), rock musician Mick Jagger ("Ned Kelly", 1970) and Heath Ledger ("Ned Kelly", 2003). In the visual arts, Sidney Nolan's 1946–47 Kelly series is considered "one of the greatest sequences of Australian painting of the twentieth century". His stylised depiction of Kelly's helmet has become an iconic Australian image; hundreds of performers dressed as "Nolanesque Kellys" starred in the opening ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics. In 2001, Peter Carey won the
Armour of the Kelly gang Armour of the Kelly gang In 1879, Australian bushranger and outlaw Ned Kelly devised a plan to create bulletproof armour and wear it during shootouts with the police. He and other members of the Kelly gang—Joe Byrne, Steve Hart, and brother Dan Kelly—had their own armour suits and helmets crafted from plough mouldboards, either donated by sympathisers or stolen from farms. The boards were heated and then beaten into shape over the course of several months, most likely in a crude bush forge and possibly with the assistance of blacksmiths. While the suits successfully repelled bullets, their heavy weight made