Peter Dennis Petrus Dyonisius KAVANAGH joined the Australian Police Force when he was twenty-one years old. He was born on the County Wicklow, Ireland to Patrick Patritius Kavanagh and Alice nee Ayres. He was the eldest of two children, his brother Richard being born in 1875.
How he crushed the gold-stealing industry on the Golden Mile has now gone down in history.
He was tutored by that wonderfully astute Excise Inspector – John Mitchell Christie. He was a born detective, keen and shrewd, with boundless energy. He was also a clever prosecutor. When Kavanagh was only 18, sly grogging, was rife around Mildura, South Australia and other places, and he suggested to Inspector Christie that he (Kavanagh) would put a stop to the illicit trade, he eventually decided to give Kavanagh a chance and he quickly killed the trade in those parts.
Detective Kavanagh 1907 – Photo SLWA
Kavanagh was a relentless pursuer of the interests of the Crown but always fair. Numerous incidents were told of the helping hand he extended to those who came within the pale of the law even after he took over the Gold Detection Unit at Kalgoorlie Western Australia. When he joined the Police Force in the early 1890s his natural ability soon won him rapid promotion. In 1896 he was transferred to the Eastern Goldfields where his first and most important case was the daylight robbery from Pearl’s Jewellery shop on Bayley Street, Coolgardie.
The running to the ground and arrest of four Eastern States criminals was one of the pluckiest actions in police history. After he was transferred to Kalgoorlie he was appointed to the Gold Stealing Unit (Detection) where he quickly became a legend. It was said that if there had been a dozen or so men of his ability and integrity, gold stealing might have been brought to an end. Another outstanding case was his capture of two well-known burglars – Jones and Grogan at Coolgardie on December 28th, 1898.
Detective Kavanagh 1908 – Photo SLWA
He was to receive very shabby treatment at the hands of the Government of the day. About five years before he died, on the 27 March 1908, at the age of 34, in St. Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, he and Detective Porter were out all one night in Weld Square watching the movements of a notorious burglar named Fogarty. This vigil was to lay the foundation of an illness that assisted the game little Irish-Australian to his death. In view of the fact that so much money was being contributed to the ‘Widows’ fund for the wives of Inspector Walsh and Sergent Pitman it may be noted that Mrs Kavanagh was to receive less than £100 from the Chamber of Mines as compensation for the death of her husband who had saved the mining industry several hundreds of thousands of pounds and whose death was accelerated by the result of his efforts to thwart the gold thieves. If he had accepted one-tenth of the bribes offered to him he could have retired to a life of comfort and not worried about the welfare of his wife and family, his wife Lillian Augusta nee Ridley and only child, Lillian Fran Patricia Kavanagh, born Victoria in 1896.
Detective Kavanagh and Family 1908 – Photo SLWA
One of his few failures was when a quick-witted miner’s wife plunged some stolen gold into a pot of soup on the stove as he knocked on the door, which became the basis for a short story “RICH STEW” by Gavin Casey which won for him the Bulletin Prize and was later to become a TV show. Lillian was to re marry to Richard Thomas John Patrick Miller in 1918 in Perth WA and had one more child, a son, Richard Dennis Patrick Miller ‘known as Kavanagh’. It’s not know why this child was known by this name.
Since this story was first published I was contacted by Michael Loney who kindly shared the following photographs of Lillian and Deb=nnis Kavanagh. He tells me: “The framed photos are of Detective Kavanagh and his wife which were left to my wife Cathy by their only child Lily. Like so many of her generation, Lily remained unmarried and childless because her fiancé died in WW1. Cathy has recently donated the framed photos, which are on mother of pearl, to the Police Historical Society. Thank you Michael.
Moya Sharp
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