[1][2] Gavan Duffy's parents moved to Australia in 1856, where his father continued his political career and briefly served as premier of Victoria in the early 1870s.

[1] In July 1909, Gavan Duffy announced in parliament the death of Speaker Frederick Holder, who had collapsed in the middle of a parliamentary sitting.

Due to the heated parliamentary atmosphere following the fusion of the anti-socialist parties, the election of Liberal MP Carty Salmon as Holder's successor took several hours.

Prime Minister Alfred Deakin subsequently thanked him for "the able manner in which he discharged his duties under extremely trying conditions, which it was impossible for him to foresee, and prepare for".

[2] Gavan Duffy drew up the initial regulations for the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery which remained in place until reformed by Alan Reid in 1966.

He had long sought appointment as clerk of the Australian Senate, based on the colonial convention that the upper house conferred a higher rank.