Tuesday November 4th is the 100th anniversary of the death of Patrick ‘Paddy’ Hannan credited with making the discovery that sparked one of the greatest gold rushes in Australian history.
Paddy passed away at the age of 85 on this day in 1925 after he had retired from prospecting and moved to live with relatives in Melbourne.
Earlier this morning in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, the Eastern Goldfields Historical Society hosted a memorial gathering at Paddy Hannan’s Tree, followed by morning tea at the Museum of the Goldfields, where visitors were able view personal items once owned by Paddy including his walking stick.
Still held in high regard in the city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Hannan was baptised on April 26th 1840 in Quin, County Clare. He was the son of John Hannan and Bridget Lynch. He left Ireland in 1862 bound for the goldfields of Australia and New Zealand.
After having very little success in New Zealand, he crossed the Tasman Sea once again to try his luck in Western Australia. He made his way east from Perth to Southern Cross and later to Coolgardie where he and his travelling companions, fellow Clare man Thomas Flanagan and Dan Shea from Cork stopped for supplies and water.
They later moved on as part of a group estimated to comprise over 200 prospectors three days later. After stopping for the night in what is present day Kalgoorlie, Hannan is said to have made the now famous discovery.
Not wanting the others in the group to know, the Irish trio kept their discovery quiet and during the night, moved one of their horses out into the scrub. The following morning, when the large group was preparing to set off, Hannan told them they were going to stay behind to look for their ‘lost horse’.
The mob continued east while Hannan, Flanagan and Shea began to pick up a large amount of gold.
They gathered 168 ounces initially and pegged out their lease before Hannan set off on horseback to Coolgardie to formally stake their claim. Hannan returned with the police constable to find that Flanagan and Shea had picked up another 400 ounces of gold.
Flanagan later claimed that it was he who found the gold but it’s known that it was Hannan who travelled to Coolgardie to register their claim. The mining warden at Coolgardie and later at Kalgoorlie, was an Irishman called John Michael Finnerty from Limerick.
The concentrated area of large gold mines surrounding the original Hannan’s find is known as the Golden Mile and believed to be the world’s richest square mile of earth.
After news of his Paddy Hannan’s death reached Kalgoorlie there was a moment of silence among all the mayors and councillors in Kalgoorlie and a wreath was ordered for his funeral.
The 100th anniversary of Western Australia’s founding occurred four years after Hannon’s death and it was suggested by the state government that every town in Western Australia should organise a celebration to commemorate the founding of Western Australia.
In Kalgoorlie it was almost immediately and unanimously decided that the local tribute should be a commemoration of Patrick Hannon. A competition was held and the judges found that most entrants favoured a monument or a statue of Paddy Hannon.
The most distinctive entry came from a schoolboy called Keith Craig who was 11 years old. He suggested that the statue, with the drinking fountain, be incorporated so that Hannan could be shown pouring out the water. He was awarded five guineas for his suggestion.
The statue was unveiled on the 5th of September 1929 and given pride of place on the corner outside the Kalgoorlie Town Hall on Hannon Street.
By 1982 that original copper statue had become the target of vandalism by local youth while exposure to the elements and people coming to sit on his knee or put their arm around his shoulder, had worn away some of the parts of the soft copper. So, a replica made from hardier bronze was commissioned and the original was brought inside to the town hall.
The people of Kalgoorlie held Hannan in such esteem that they collectively raised the amount of £460 to pay for the memorial. So the whole project was funded by public subscription, such was the esteem he was held in. The statue was vandalised in 2023 but was repaired. While two men were charge, one was convicted and the other acquitted.
In 1904, at the age of sixty-one, having prospected for all his adult life, Hannan was granted an annual pension of £150 by the Government of Western Australia. A few years later he gave up prospecting and moved to live with two nieces at 6 Fallon Street Brunswick, Melbourne. He died there in on 4 November 1925.
Clare FM will broadcast “Prospector’, a special documentary about Paddy Hannan at 11.00am today (November 4th).
Contributors include Timothy Moore, Local History and Archives Officer City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder; Tim Cudini, President Eastern Goldfields Historical Society, Kalgoorlie-Boulder; Michael Talty, Executive Librarian at the Clare Local Studies Centre in Ennis, Co Clare and Mary Cahill, former Keeper of Irish Antiquities at the National Museum of Ireland.
