Patrick Michael Byrne (anthropologist)

Patrick Michael Byrne (1856–1932), also known as Paddy or Pado, was an Australian telegraph operator, anthropologist and natural scientist who worked at the remote Charlotte Waters telegraph station in central Australia for 50 years. He was a keen self-taught scientist who collected specimens and corresponded extensively with biologist and anthropologist Walter Baldwin Spencer. He also worked with anthropologist Francis James Gillen at Charlotte Waters, and was a friend of and advocate for the local Arrernte people.

The scientific name of the small marsupial known as the kowari is Dasyuroides byrnei, in recognition of his work.