This proclamation was prepared by the Victorian Governor, Sir George Ferguson Bowen to proclaim Daniel Kelly and Edward Kelly “Outlaws” under the Felons Apprehension Act 1878. The Act meant that anyone proclaimed an “Outlaw” could be taken dead or alive.

The law was controversial because it erased the presumption that a person is “innocent until proven guilty” by a court of law. Despite this, the majority of the Victorian parliament voted for the Act. Clearly, they believed that the crime of murdering three police warranted extreme action.

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PROCLAMATION

By His Excellency Sir George Ferguson Bowen, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Colony of Victoria and its Dependencies, and Vice-Admiral of the same, &c, &c, &c.

WHEREAS under and by virtue of the provisions of "The Felons Apprehension Act 1878," numbered 612, the Governor, with the advice of the Executive Council, is empowered to proclaim the fact that any person has been adjudged and declared to be an outlaw: Now therefore I, the Governor of Victoria, with the advice of the Executive Council, do hereby proclaim that, by a declaration under the hand of His Honor Sire William Foster Stawell, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria, dated the fifteenth day of November 1878, and filed on record in the said Supreme Court, DANIEL KELLY, of Greta, in the said colony, was adjudged and declared to be an outlaw within the meaning and under the provisions of the said Act.

  Given under my hand and the Seal of the Colony, this fifteenth day of November, One thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight, at Melbourne, Victoria, in the forty-second year of Her Majesty's reign.

By His Excellency sir George Ferguson Bowen, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Colony of Victoria and its Dependencies, and Vice-Admiral of the same, &c, &c, &c.

WHEREAS under and by virtue of the provisions of "The Felons Apprehension Act 1878," numbered 612, the Governor, with the advice of the Executive Council, is empowered to proclaim the fact that any person has been adjudged and declared to be an outlaw: Now therefore I, the Governor of Victoria, with the advice of the Executive Council, do hereby proclaim that, by a declaration under the hand of His Honor Sire William Foster Stawell, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria, dated the fifteenth day of November 1878, and filed on record in the said Supreme Court, EDWARD KELLY, of Greta, of the said colony, was adjudged and declared to be an outlaw within the meaning and under the provisions of the said Act.

  Given under my hand and the Seal of the Colony, this fifteenth day of November, One thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight, at Melbourne, Victoria, in the forty-second year of Her Majesty's reign.

G. F. BOWEN
By His Excellency's Command,
BRYAN O'LOGHLEN, Attorney-General.

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!