[2] Patrick William Marony was born at or near Portlaw, County Waterford, Ireland, in 1859 to John Charles Moroney, a publican, and Johanna (née Walsh).
He assiduously attempted to ensure the accuracy of his representations, with faces painted from photographs where possible and the depicted scenes of action from the actual locations.
[7] During the planning and execution of his various paintings it was reported that Marony "made a personal inspection of the scenes of the different events, and collected from eye-witnesses and other available sources the fullest information he could".
[8] In June 1894 over thirty of his bushranger paintings, described as "graphic illustrations of what might be called the 'Australian reign of terror'" were exhibited in the Austral Gallery in the Strand Arcade, Sydney.
[7] The subjects represented in the paintings by Maroney, described as "the leading artist of Orange", included the raid on Bathurst by Gilbert’s gang, the Eugowra gold escort robbery, the death of Starlight, the sticking-up of a mail coach, the death of Ben Hall, the capture of Ned Kelly and the siege of Glenrowan.
[13] In 1902 Marony was amongst a group of eighteen Australian settlers, recruited by Burns, Philp and Co., who went to the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) aboard the steamship Mambare and took up land on the island of Espiritu Santo.
[20] He also wrote about the New Hebrides; two articles, illustrated by his own photographs, were published in February 1906 in the Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser.
The articles feature information about the Australian and French colonists in the island group, agricultural prospects and observations about the customs of the native inhabitants.
[21] In October 1908 a short story by P. W. Marony was published entitled 'A Romance of Santo Island', set in the New Hebrides.
[29] In May 1924 Marony held an exhibition in the Victoria Theatre, Kempsey, of his watercolour paintings of "beauty spots of the North Coast".