Four policemen searching for Ned Kelly and his gang had made camp at Stringybark Creek, near Mansfield, when the outlaws struck on 26 October 1878. Sergeant Michael Kennedy and Constable Michael Scanlan were away searching the bush when the gang surprised Constables Thomas Lonigan and Thomas McIntyre at the camp. Lonigan was shot dead after attempting to draw his revolver, while McIntyre surrendered and was held captive.
The gang then waited for the other two officers to return. As Kennedy and Scanlan rode into camp, they were ordered to surrender, but gunfire erupted and Scanlan was killed. McIntyre escaped on Kennedy’s horse during the confusion, while Kennedy fought his way into the bush, pursued by the outlaws. He was eventually tracked down and killed. McIntyre reached Mansfield the following day to raise the alarm, the sole survivor of an encounter that left three policemen dead and helped turn the Kelly Gang into Australia’s most notorious bushrangers.
