Denis Doherty

Denis Doherty
Born
Denis Joseph Doherty

1861
Newry, County Armagh, Ireland
Died23 October 1935 (aged 74)
Subiaco, Western Australia
Resting placeKarrakatta Cemetery
Occupations
  • Businessman
  • pastoralist
SpouseGeorgina Cable
Children4

Denis Joseph Doherty (1861 – 23 October 1935) was an Irish-Australian businessman, pastoralist and politician who served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia from 1897 to 1903, representing the seat of North Fremantle.

Doherty was born in Newry, County Armagh, Ireland. He arrived in Australia in 1882, settling in Sydney. In 1886, he moved to Wyndham, a small town in Western Australia's Kimberley region, with a schoolmate from Ireland, Francis Connor. They went into partnership together, initially supplying goods to the Kimberley goldfields,[1] and later went into the live cattle trade, acquiring two pastoral leases in the Northern Territory (Newry Station and Auvergne Station). In 1897, Connor and Doherty merged their business with that of Michael Durack, forming Connor, Doherty & Durack.[2][3]

Doherty first stood for parliament at the 1895 North Fremantle by-election, but was defeated by Matthew Moss. He stood again at the 1897 general election, and defeated three other candidates.[4] He did not live in the area, but had business interests there.[5] Doherty was re-elected at the 1901 election, but resigned from parliament in August 1903 to travel to England on business. The resulting by-election was won by John Ferguson. Doherty returned to Australia in 1930, and died in Subiaco, Perth, in 1935, aged 74. He had married Georgina Cable in 1888, with whom he had five children but only four survived: George Roy Doherty, Kathleen Doherty, Auvergne Doherty and Dorothy Doherty.[6]

  1. ^ Kimberley Goldfield refers to the gold rush of 1885 to 1886 in Kimberley, Western Australia. A few discoveries of reef gold were made but most had little or no success. The gold rush drew world attention to the colony, resulting in a flood of immigrants and investment capital that transformed Western Australia from an impoverished colony in the late 1880s to one of Australia’s wealthiest States in 1901. See ‘The Discovery of the East Kimberley Goldfield 1885’. Accessed 23/05/17.
  2. ^ Denis Joseph Doherty – Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  3. ^ Francis Connor – Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  4. ^ Black, David; Prescott, Valerie (1997). Election statistics : Legislative Assembly of Western Australia, 1890–1996. Perth, [W.A.]: Western Australian Parliamentary History Project and Western Australian Electoral Commission. ISBN 0730984095.
  5. ^ "NORTH FREMANTLE.", The Inquirer & Commercial News, 2 April 1897.
  6. ^ 1911 Census, Ancestry.co.uk; The Doherty Children[permanent dead link], The Dohertys of Western Australia