Peter Dennis Petrus Dyonisius KAVANAGH joined the Australian Police Force when he was twenty-one years old. He was born on the 25 Jun 1873 in 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 […]
A Policemans Lot – The story of Patrick Donovan
25/03/2023 By 2 Comments
I was recently sent a wonderful family story by Brian Kelly who has done an amazing job of researching the life and times of his ancestor Patrick Donovan. He has given me permission, with thanks, to reproduce an extract from the story of Patrick’s time in Western Australia. Patrick ‘Paddy’ Donovan (AKA O’Donovan) was born […]
The Mysterious Mr Bradley – a family story
04/03/2023 By 1 Comment
The comment ‘not another Lionel’ is a long-standing joke, between a good friend of mine and fellow historian, Graeme Sisson, who was the Archivist of the Police Historical Soc of WA at the time. It came to refer to any research inquiry that we were working on that was more than a little complicated and […]
First Female Police Officer – Helen Dugdale
24/06/2022 By Leave a Comment
There are many ‘Firsts’ that have occurred in the Goldfields and one of them is that we had the first female police officer, Helen Blanche Dugdale who was appointed from Kalgoorlie. The Police Historical Society have recognised the contribution of Helen Dugdale and in 2006 the Goldfields Family History Society had a plaque placed on […]
When the Law came to Niagara –
09/04/2022 By Leave a Comment
Smith’s Weekly 26 November 1927 by John Drayton How “Justice” was served out on the Goldfields. Niagara was one of the little towns worth a column in the W.A. Post Office Directory of 1899 following Bob Menzie’s strike in September 1894. The town’s life was short, but while it was alive, it ‘LIVED’. Menzies find […]
