34 Facts About Mary Gaudron

Mary Genevieve Gaudron was born on 5 January 1943 and is an Australian lawyer and judge, who was the first female Justice of the High Court of Australia.

Mary Gaudron was the Solicitor-General of New South Wales from 1981 until 1987 before her appointment to the High Court.

Mary Gaudron, expecting two stone tablets, was disappointed to receive only a small pamphlet.

However, when the school bullies declared the pamphlet useless, Mary Gaudron retorted that it was of great use to lawyers, and that some day she would be one.

In 1960 Mary Gaudron was awarded a federal government scholarship to study for a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Sydney, which she graduated with in 1962.

Mary Gaudron was the second female recipient, after Elizabeth Evatt, and the first female part-time student to be awarded the medal.

In 1988, Mary Gaudron was awarded an honorary doctorate in law from Macquarie University, and another from the University of Sydney in 1999.

Mary Gaudron was admitted to the New South Wales Bar in October 1968 after having completed her articles of clerkship and commenced practice as a barrister.

Mary Gaudron attempted to buy a room for herself in one of the barristers' chambers in Sydney but was regularly knocked back because she was a woman.

When future High Court colleague Michael McHugh attempted to sell his room, the other members of his chambers would not let Mary Gaudron buy it, although there were no other buyers.

Mary Gaudron eventually shared a room with Janet Coombs, another pioneering female barrister.

Mary Gaudron regularly argued before the Supreme Court of New South Wales and the High Court in the early 1970s, particularly in the area of industrial law.

Early in 1972, Mary Gaudron had entered a bar with a male barrister friend when the waitress informed the friend that the bar did not serve women.

Mary Gaudron's argument was based on the principles of the 1951 Equal Remuneration Convention of the International Labour Organization.

However, Mary Gaudron later came to regard her argument, that Australia had not ratified the Convention because the commission would not grant equal pay, as somewhat disingenuous, and recalled it with a measure of embarrassment.

Mary Gaudron's most notable case on the Arbitration Commission was an important test case for maternity leave in 1979, which laid down award standards allowing for a year's unpaid leave for all full-time and permanent part-time workers.

Mary Gaudron held the position of Deputy President until her resignation in May 1980.

Mary Gaudron lectured at the University of New South Wales' law school for a brief time, then in February 1981 she was appointed the Solicitor-General of New South Wales, the first female Solicitor-General in any Australian jurisdiction.

On 6 February 1987, John Toohey and Mary Gaudron were appointed to the court.

At just 44 years of age, Mary Gaudron was the fourth youngest Justice, after Evatt, McTiernan and Dixon, as well as the first female Justice.

Mary Gaudron was part of the progressive Mason and Brennan courts, which decided such influential cases as Cole v Whitfield, Dietrich v The Queen, and the Mabo case.

Mary Gaudron was consistently opposed to all forms of discrimination, with notable judgments in this vein including the decision in Street v Queensland Bar Association and her joint judgment with Justice McHugh in Castlemaine Tooheys Ltd v South Australia.

Mary Gaudron was generally regarded as not particularly emotive in her writing style, although the judgment for which she is perhaps best remembered popularly was the Mabo case, where, in a joint judgment with Justice Deane, she said that Australia's past treatment of Indigenous Australians was "the darkest aspect of the history of this nation".

Mary Gaudron was inducted onto the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2001.

On 19 September 1997 Mary Gaudron was appointed the founding Patron of Australian Women Lawyers and continued in this role until 20 February 2009.

On 21 June 2002, Mary Gaudron announced her retirement from the High Court, effective from 10 February 2003.

Mary Gaudron left the court at the age of just 60, ten years before she reached the mandatory retirement age.

Justice Michael Kirby, who was a close friend of Mary Gaudron, has stated many times that her absence left the court with a different character and turned it into "a more blokey place".

In March 2003, Mary Gaudron joined the International Labour Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.

Mary Gaudron was appointed as a judge of the ILO's Administrative Tribunal.

When she announced her retirement, an anonymous academic said that Mary Gaudron had failed to achieve the expectations set by her supporters, and that among the other High Court Justices, Mary Gaudron was "erratic" and "certainly not among the court's greats".

Mary Gaudron described herself in 2005 as privileged "to be a bit player in the maintenance of the rule of law in Australia".

Mary Gaudron has two daughters, Danielle and Julienne, with her first husband, Ben Nurse.

Mary Gaudron has a son, Patrick, with her second husband, John Fogarty.