Mary Gaudron, Australia’s first female High Court judge, dies at 83

Mary Gaudron, the first woman appointed to the High Court of Australia, has died at the age of 83. Appointed to the nation’s highest court in 1987 at age 44, she served until her retirement in 2003.

Throughout her 16-year tenure on the High Court, Gaudron contributed to landmark legal decisions, including the Mabo v Queensland case regarding native title. In that ruling, she and fellow judge William Deane described Aboriginal dispossession as ‘the darkest aspect of the history of this country’.

Before her High Court appointment, Gaudron was the first woman appointed to the NSW Bar Council in 1972. After retiring from the High Court, she served as the president of the International Labour Organization’s administrative tribunal in Geneva until 2012.

Governor-General Sam Mostyn paid tribute to Gaudron’s legacy, stating that as the only woman justice in the court’s first century, she ‘broke new ground and inspired generations of Australians to pursue careers in the law and public service’.