Ex-pub linked to bushranger Ned Kelly’s brave exploits for sale

The former hotel at 26 Henry St, Avenel, now a house, is for sale. As a young boy, Ned Kelly saved the publican’s son from drowning.

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A former hotel-turned-house with a link to legendary bushranger Ned Kelly’s youthful heroics has hit the market in regional Victoria.

The circa-1855 home which formerly served as the Royal Mail Hotel at 26 Henry St, Avenel, is for sale with a $750,000 price tag.

The small town of Avenel, about 21km southwest of Seymour, is where Kelly spent part of his childhood when his family ran a dairy farm in the 1860s.

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When Ned was 11 years old (or aged 10, according to differing historical accounts) he rescued the Royal Mail owners’ Esau and Margaret Shelton’s seven-year-old son, Richard, from drowning when he fell into the flooded waters of Hughes Creek which runs through Avenel.

The Sheltons presented Ned with a green silk sash in gratitude.

Kelly wore the sash beneath his armour during the Kelly Gang’s last stand at the Glenrowan Inn in 1880, during which three other gang members, Dan Kelly, Joseph Byrne and Steve Hart, were killed.

Wallpaper from the 1800s is among the original features.

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An early image of bushranger Ned Kelly in his armour suit, featured in the 2002 Kellyana display at the NSW Justice and Police Museum.

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The owners have created a green sanctuary in the garden.

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At the time, the gang was wanted for the murders of three police officers at Stringybark Creek.

Kelly was captured during his famous last stand and was hanged at the Old Melbourne Gaol late that same year, at the age of 25.

According to the Victorian Heritage database, Esau Shelton ran the Royal Mail Hotel until his death in 1899.

The property, classified as historically and architecturally significant to the state of Victoria, served as a boarding house, private residence and bed and breakfast across later decades.

A sign outside the house explains its connection to Ned Kelly for passers-by and tourists.

In its heyday, the Royal Mail Hotel was a popular stopover for horse coaches travelling between Melbourne and the goldmining town of Beechworth.

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Bushrangers in the Kelly Gang, Steve Hart, Dan Kelly and Ned Kelly.

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The green sash awarded to Ned Kelly for saving the life of the Royal Mail Hotel owners’ Esau and Margaret Shelton’s seven-year-old son. It’s displayed at the Benalla Costume and Pioneer Museum.

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The abode, set on a 2000sq m block, still retains original features such as wallpaper, a stone cellar, wall and ceiling frescoes, locally-fired bricks and granite used in the veranda stones and building foundations.

BigginScott’s Claudio Perruzza said the current owners had been living in St Kilda when they bought it in order to embark on a treechange, in 2019.

“They restored it in a sense, anything that needed to be done has been done,” Mr Perruzza said.

“Apart from that, it’s as original as it can get.”

Avenel is less than 20km from the town of Nagambie, in the Goulburn Valley region.

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A young Ned Kelly. Picture: Magic Lantern Slides, National Museum of Australia.

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Frescoes remain on the former hotel’s ceilings.

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The owners have also carried out significant landscaping in the garden and installed

hydronic heating and cooling in the home.

Mr Perruzza said most buyers showing interest in the house were potential owner-occupiers although the residence would also make great short-term rental accommodation.

“For someone adventurous, in the front room that used to be the pub where people would gather to drink, you could potentially have a restaurant and live in another part of the home, or build another home to the side,” he added.

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