Name |
First permanent appointment commenced |
Permanent appointment concluded |
Select details of Australian judicial service |
FORBES, Sir Francis William, Kt (1784–1841) |
13 October 1823 |
1 July 1837 |
Chief Justice |
(1771–1833) |
5 March 1826 |
31 December 1832 |
|
(1787–1844) |
6 August 1827 |
27 September 1844 |
Chief Justice (1837–1844) Primary Judge in Equity (1840–1844) |
BURTON, Sir William Westbrooke, Kt (1794–1888) |
22 December 1832 |
6 July 1844 |
|
(1793–1877) |
7 November 1837 |
17 June 1843 |
Resident judge at Port Phillip (from 1841 until his amoval by Governor Gipps) |
STEPHEN, Sir Alfred, KCMG CB PC GCMG (1802–1894) |
27 March 1841 |
5 November 1873 |
Chief Justice (acting from 1844 until his permanent appointment in 1845) Primary Judge in Equity (1865) Previously acting judge (1839 until his permanent appointment in 1841) [See note at the end of the table] |
(1806–1882) |
14 October 1844 |
17 February 1861 |
|
(1800–1874) |
31 January 1845 |
21 February 1859 |
Resident judge at Port Phillip (1845–1846) Primary Judge in Equity (1846–1858) [See note at the end of the table] |
(1806–1869) |
18 October 1846 |
23 January 1852 |
Primary Judge in Equity (1845–1846) Resident judge at Port Phillip (1846–1852) Previously acting judge (1844 until his permanent appointment) Subsequently Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria (1852–1857) |
(1797–1865) |
1 January 1856 |
26 May 1865 |
Additional judge (1856–1857) Resident judge at Moreton Bay (1857–1859) Primary Judge in Equity (1859–1865) Previously Master in Equity (1843–1855) |
(1810–1880) |
21 February 1859 |
13 August 1861 |
Resident Judge at Moreton Bay (1859–1861) Subsequently Supreme Court of Moreton Bay (Queensland) (1861–1880) |
(1818–1865) |
15 February 1860 |
28 September 1875 |
|
(1815–1885) |
22 June 1865 |
11 October 1881 |
Primary Judge in Equity (1865–1881) Judge in Divorce and Matrimonial Causes (1873–1879) Previously District Court (1859) |
(1810–1876) |
22 June 1865 |
14 March 1876 |
Previously District Court (1858–1865) |
(1813–1894) |
4 October 1865 |
8 February 1888 |
|
(1820–1886) |
19 November 1873 |
4 November 1886 |
Chief Justice |
Honorifics may have been conferred during or after judicial service.
Appointment as a Judge is a precondition to appointment as a Judge of Appeal. Appointment as a Judge of Appeal is a precondition to appointment as President of the Court of Appeal. Accordingly, dual or triple concurrent appointments are not recorded in the table.
References to service in a particular Division may not be exhaustive: see Supreme Court Act 1970 s 41.
‘Select details of Australian judicial service’ omits references to short-term periods of concurrent judicial office in another Australian jurisdiction, such as occurred with William Charles Windeyer J, Priestley JA and Sheller JA. Several judges have also served on the courts of the Pacific Islands, Dubai, Hong Kong or Singapore during their term of office on the Supreme Court and after retirement, see Ch 3: ‘The lives of the judges’.
The concurrent service of judges holding appointments in the colonial Vice Admiralty Court as personae designate (see The Yuri Maru [1927] AC 906 at 912) is recorded in the Law Almanacs. Between 1 July 1911 and 1 January 1989, when the Admiralty Act 1988 (Cth) commenced, the Supreme Court was a Colonial Court of Admiralty with civil jurisdiction in admiralty being exercisable by the Chief Justice or a judge nominated by him.
Acting appointments in courts other than the Supreme Court and acting appointments to the Supreme Court during the currency of a permanent appointment to the District Court are not included.
As to Alfred Stephen’s commissions as a judge and Chief Justice, see Bennett, Stephen, pp 104–105, 109–110, 130–133.
As to Roger Therry’s commissions, see J M Bennett’s introduction to R Therry, Reminiscences of thirty years’ residence in New South Wales and Victoria, facsimile edn, Sydney University Press, 1974, pp 20–23, especially n 66.
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