This film is based on "Our Sunshine" by Robert Drew, a novel based on the life of Australian bushranger and icon, Ned Kelly. It tells of his life as a bushranger in north-west Victoria, where he lived all his life. He, his brother Dan, and two other men, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne, formed a gang. These four robbed a bank and hijacked an entire town for 3 days. They killed three policemen who were hunting them. They then took over a pub in Glenrowan, where they basically held a party, waiting for a train full of police to derail at a part of the track that they tore up. However a school teacher warned the train, so the gang and all the others in the pub ended up in a shootout with scores of policemen.