Paddy Hannan

Infobox Person
name = Patrick Hannan


image_size = 200px
caption = Paddy Hannan in the 1920s (courtesy [http://www.liswa.wa.gov.au/ LISWA] )
birth_date = baptised 26 April 1840
birth_place = Quin, Ireland
death_date = November 4 1925
death_place = Brunswick, Melbourne
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in the area.

Born in Quin, County Clare, Ireland, Hannan was the son of John Hannan and Bridget Lynch. He emigrated to Australia in 1863.

Hannan, Tom Flanagan and Daniel Shea discovered gold when one of his horses lost it's shoe near Mount Charlotte less than 40 kilometres from the Coolgardie Goldfields. After registering his claim of over 100 ounces of alluvial gold, an estimated 700 men were prospecting in the area within three days.

In 1904, at the age of sixty-one, having prospected for all his adult life, Hannan was granted an annual pension of £100 by the Government of Western Australia. He ceased his prospecting activities in 1910, and moved to live with two nieces in Brunswick, Melbourne. He died there in 1925.

The main street and a suburb in Kalgoorlie both bear his name and in 1929 a statue of him by sculptor John MacLeod [cite web | url=http://www.heritage.wa.gov.au/register/PDF_Files/E%20-%20A-D/Edith%20D%20Cowan%20Mem%20(I-AD).PDF | title=Register of Heritage Places Assessment Documentation (P6)] , was erected there. A popular Irish pub at the Burswood Entertainment Complex is also named after him.

There is a plaque dedicated to his memory opposite Quin Abbey, Quin.

References