Peter Dennis Kavanagh joined the Police Force when he was twenty-one. 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) put a stop to the illicit trade and eventually decided to give Kavanagh a chance, and he quickly killed the trade in those parts.
Detective Kavanagh 1907 – Image 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 1890’s his natural ability soon won him a 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 in Bayley Street. The running to 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 – Image SLWA
However, he was to receive shabby treatment at the hands of the Government of the day. About five years before he died at the age of 34, in St. Vincent’s Hospital (Sydney), he and Detective Porter were out all night in Weld Square watching the movements of a notorious burglar named Fogarty. This vigil laid 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 a 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 Rose nee Ridley and daughter Lillian Fran Patricia Kavanagh, born VIC 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 him the Bulletin Prize and was later to become a TV show.
He died on the 27th March 1908, and sadly, he lies alone in the Rookwood Cemetery, New South Wales, with no memorial on his grave. His wife survived him by 57 years, passing away in Perth, WA, at the age of 65 years. She is buried in the Karrakatta Cemetery with her daughter, Lillian.
Peter Kavanagh’s Grave – Rookwood Cemetery NSW – Image Find a Grave
Moya Sharp
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