SNIPPET: Patrick CAHILL from County Galway arrived at the coastal port of Maryborough after a journey through the Torres Strait and south along the Queensland, Australian coast. No doubt because free or assisted passages were available to the agrarian workers so badly required in the colony, Patrick had given his occupation as a farm laborer. After several years as a stockman, he applied to join the police force in 1894. Three years later he was serving in Longreach, Western Queensland, when he drowned while endeavoring to rescue a stranded family when the Thompson River flooded. His grave was discovered in Australia in 1989 by a retired Garda sergeant and former curator of the Garda Museum in Dublin who was intrigued to find a young Irish constable from the Mitchell District buried in a remote area in the outback; he subsequently was able to piece together the story of CAHILL's life and it was published in the February 1998 edition of the journal of the Royal Historical So! ciety of Queensland, copies of which may still be available for four pounds from the Society at POB 12057, Elizabeth Street, Brisbane 4002, Queensland, Australia. By 1860 over 44% of the police force in the colony of Victoria, then at the peak of the gold fever, were Irish born. From the early 1860s, in the last of the Australian colonies to be declared, Queensland attracted large numbers of Irish, especially during the two decades of the 1860s and the 1880s. As in the southern districts, large numbers became associated with various branches of law enforcement throughout the enormous area of this NE colony which covered 22.5 percent of Australia. A portion of CAHILL's story and photo of his memorial appeared in the 1998 #1 issue of "Irish Roots" periodical, Belgrave Publishers, Cork, and the original photo is also located in the Queensland Police Museum. A "Google" search of the Internet will likely turn up related information.