Police Honour Legendary Aboriginal Tracker On the 2nd of July 2008, a memorial was unveiled in Kalgoorlie for one of the state’s most renowned Aboriginal police trackers. Johnny Grey, also known as Pannican, who was considered one of the best trackers of his time. He worked for the police in the Laverton-Leonora area from 1942 […]
The Great Unwashed Preserver of the Peace
10/06/2023 By Leave a Comment
Sunday Times Perth – 7 November 1909, page 1 Jolly’s Bath – by Spinifex It was hot, something like 100 deg in the Victoria Hotel passage, and about 120 in the police tents. The ‘cosmopolites’ of the old camp were as cool as they could get in common khaki, pants and soft shirts, the latter […]
Peter Dennis P D Kavanagh – Detective & Legend
03/06/2023 By Leave a Comment
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 […]
