Mary Gaudron, Australia’s First Female High Court Justice, Dies Aged 83
Mary Gaudron, Australia’s First Female High Court Justice, Dies Aged 83
Australia has lost one of the most consequential figures in its legal history.
The Honourable Mary Gaudron KC, the first woman appointed to the High Court of Australia, has died aged 83.
Her career was defined by firsts.
Born to working-class parents in Moree, NSW, Gaudron graduated from the University of Sydney with first-class honours and the University Medal in law. She became the first woman appointed to the NSW Bar Council, the first female Queen's Counsel in NSW and the first woman to serve as Solicitor-General of an Australian state.
Then, in 1987, aged just 44, she broke one of Australian law's highest glass ceilings when she became the first woman appointed to the High Court. Until then, every Justice in the Court's history had been a man.
She served for 16 years.
Her influence extended far beyond that historic appointment. Justice Gaudron contributed to some of Australia's most important decisions across constitutional, criminal, administrative and industrial law. Most notably, she was part of the majority in Mabo v Queensland (No 2), the landmark 1992 decision that rejected terra nullius and recognised native title in Australian law.
Her own experience of inequality had begun decades earlier. As a young woman seeking a legal clerkship, she encountered firms that simply did not employ women. She would ultimately reach a court that had never before appointed one.
LawUno Insight
There are legal careers that succeed within the system.
And there are careers that change the system for everyone who comes after them.
Mary Gaudron's was the latter.
Today, women sit throughout Australia's judiciary, lead major law firms, take silk, serve as Attorneys-General and occupy some of the country's highest public offices.
That landscape was very different when Mary Gaudron began.
She didn't just become the first woman on Australia's highest court.
She made it easier for there to be a second.
And a third.
And every one who followed.