20 Facts About Ronald Wilson

1.

Ronald Wilson was one of three judges sitting on The WA Inc Royal Commission in the early 1990s which eventually led to former Premier Brian Burke being jailed in March 1997.

2.

Ronald Wilson was born in Geraldton, in Western Australia on 23 August 1922.

3.

At the age of 14, Ronald Wilson left formal schooling and took his first job as a messenger with the Geraldton Local Court.

4.

Ronald Wilson was discharged from the RAAF on 14 February 1946, with the rank of Flying Officer.

5.

Ronald Wilson later completed a Master of Laws degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1957, as a Fulbright scholar.

6.

Ronald Wilson was admitted as a barrister and solicitor in 1951.

7.

Ronald Wilson had a rapid rise in his legal career, becoming Crown Prosecutor for Western Australia in 1959, only eight years after starting work as a lawyer.

8.

Ronald Wilson served in that position for ten years working under both Labor and Liberal governments.

9.

Ronald Wilson adopted a federalist position on the court; and was frequently in the minority on issues relating to the scope of the Commonwealth's external affairs legislative power.

10.

In Koowarta v Bjelke-Petersen, Ronald Wilson was in the minority in holding that the external affairs power in the Australian constitution applied only to relationships outside Australia.

11.

Ronald Wilson considered that the external affairs power did not give the Federal Parliament authority to pass such legislation as it could obtain power to pass any form of legislation it wished by simply entering into a treaty with another power.

12.

Ronald Wilson dissented on the first Mabo case of 1988, with the majority finding that the Queensland Coast Islands Declaratory Act, 1879, which attempted to retrospectively abolish native title rights, was not valid according to the Racial Discrimination Act, 1975.

13.

Ronald Wilson retired from the High Court in 1989, aged 67 years.

14.

Ronald Wilson was Chancellor of Murdoch University between 1980 and 1995.

15.

Ronald Wilson held a range of senior positions in the Church including Moderator of Assembly, Presbyterian Church in Western Australia ; Moderator, Synod of Western Australia, Uniting Church in Australia ; President of the Assembly, Uniting Church in Australia, the first layperson to hold that post; and President of the Australian Chapter of the World Conference on Religion and Peace.

16.

Ronald Wilson was particularly concerned with encouraging the broad Australian community to gain an understanding of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history.

17.

In 1978 Ronald Wilson was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George for services to the community in Western Australia.

18.

On 26 January 1988, Ronald Wilson was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia for services to the law.

19.

Ronald Wilson has been conferred with honorary degrees from the University of Western Australia, Keimyung University, and Murdoch University.

20.

Sir Ronald Wilson married Leila Smith in April 1950; and together they had five children and nine grandchildren.