Analysis of the Burman photo where the police were shot at SBC. This page answers certain questions raised in relating to scale, comparisons of old with recent photos of the same place. In recent times there has been much discussion on Face Book pages, blogs and forums about exactly where the police were shot by the Kelly gang. There is now little doubt the place is know as the site of two huts. However, there are still some who cannot accept photographic proof, of science and logic. Its for these fellows I create this page so they may understand why there can only be one true site.

 

These pictures were presented on N.K.Central Face Book page by Mike Fitzsimons,  (Fitzy), still believes the police camp of Oct 1878 was near the Kelly tree area along StringyBark Creek road. Since the CSI@SBC teams 2010 document, they have not been able to show one decent photo to compare with the 1878 Burman photo looking south or in any direction from their site to match the B&W Burman photo, part of which is shown bottom left. So Fitzy will do it for them. Now that the 'Lawless' documentary led by Adam Ford has taken the wind out of the CSI sails, no effort seems to being made by them to recover their credibility except for Fitzy in this instant. On the face of it, the small pictures left give the impression of a match, the drawn lines indicate where rising ground matches a slope in the lower black and white original image. The composition sort of looks right, giving the impression of flat foreground with the slope to the background, but its not what it seems if you take a closer look at the enlarged image below. I know the area and I have dotted in the yellow line to show the actual ground level. The text on the image below was added by me.  The text on right is Fitzy's description. Its interesting to note he got 25 likes! But who are these lickers?

 

Now lets show you a decent photo comparison as first posted by Bruce on KC2000 in 2010, and which I recently re posted on N.K.Central FB page. After several days I notice not one 'like' has been recorded so far? If this debate was serious, surely seeing is believing, I ask, what are the odds of being able to match 4 important points depicted in a 1878 forensic photo of a murder scene on the ground today, if it was not the actual ground where the police had camped?  There is no need to look elsewhere, this is the true site. It was Bruce Johnson that first placed blue plastic sheets over the fireplaces, see 2 and 3, and inserted some PVC pipe into a post holes of one of the huts (4). and the slope (1) is an un-mistakable comparison.

 

Further to attempts to discredit my findings, below we see a picture presented by Fitzy and on N.K.Central Face Book page. Although he denies it, but Fitzy has become spokesperson for the CSI@SBC teams document that still believes the police camp of Oct 1878 was near the Kelly tree area. Since 2010 they have not been able to show one decent photo to compare with the 1878 Burman photo looking in any direction from their site. Now that the Foxtel 'Lawless Adam Ford' has taken the wind out of the CSI sails, no effort seems to being made by them to recover their credibility. If all they can do is discredit the two huts site, accepting they have been annihilated by Lawless Adam Ford, then why nit pick trivial scaling details of my conclusive identification of the site. So lets embrace the discussion. The following images will answer questions put by Mike Fitzsimons, regarding the scale of figures in photos.

We can read by the side text above how angry these people are. And the man behind the mask is Kelvyn Gill. So what is this above image all about? Both pictures were originaly taken by me a year or two apart. You will see the trees are the same being arrowed. The upper image shows the slope the Burman photo looking south, rising from flat ground  with no creek in between. The argument Fitzy makes, is to show the figure with the raised arm is completely out of scale to 'Kelvyn' who is supposedly standing in the same area as a giant by comparison? The explanation of course is camera lens 'focal length', the distance the lens is away from the image sensor. This can be varied if it is a zoom lens, in or out, and the closer a person is zoomed in the larger he will appear. Also, every camera has a different perspective depending on the lens spherical diameter. In the above image, notice how tiny Steve the man on the orange coat appears compared to Kelvyn reading his notes. Yet if they stood side by side they would appear about the same size. The little raised arm man is naturally out of scale but could also be better placed as the image below demonstrates. This original image of Steve has Kelvyn superimposed as standing in the exact same place and same scale as in the image above. Look at the slope defining lines in both images, notice the raised arm man is about the same size as Steve. If Steve was to step forward 3 paces he would be the same size as Kelvyn.

Below: left image, Steve has been superimposed in exactly the same place on Kelvyn's photo and visa versa. Image right is the original of Steve standing a little back from tree3. Trees 1,2,3 are easily identified and diameters are the same but the camera's focal lengths vary a fraction making the logs on the slope look a bit larger in left image. If Kelvyn stepped back to where Steve stands, they would be of similar size.

 

Below, This image I prepared for the CSI team when they decided on the Kelly tree site. I made the viewer scope to check their view. Of importance is the A3 white dot marker that I had placed on the highest part of the eastern bank slope which was about 100 metres distance from the camera. Its not the clearest photo taken through the viewer scope but it clearly shows no slope comparable to the Burman photo. 10 years later the CSI team are still adamant this is where the Burman photo was taken, but the slope needs to be right up near the top red line if it were true. We drove up to Glenrowan to show this to Linton Briggs and Gary Dean but they rejected my conclusion.

 

Back to Ironicon This page was first uploaded 4 Nov 2017. Copyright: Bill Denheld       See also analysis of the 'Lawless the real Bushrangers' presented by Mike Munro