Collections
The Supreme Court History Program currently holds a number of special collections, which have been acquired from donations. These consist of a wide range of items, including manuscripts, diaries, photographs and legal memorabilia, which are used for public exhibitions and which also provide a resource available to scholars of legal history. The preservation of such documents, images and objects makes a significant contribution to the state’s historical legacy.
Reginald Carter Collection
This collection consists of items donated by Judge Reginald Francis Carter, which relate to his life and career as a Queensland District Court judge. Judge Carter was the author of Criminal Law of Queensland, a widely-used textbook affectionately known as Carter's Criminal Code. The 231 items in this collection include letters, photographs, certificates, newspaper clippings, school medals and pamphlets, which range in date from 1916 to 1990. These shed light on the career of a Queensland District Court judge and illustrate the legal lifestyle during this period.
Judge R. F. Carter,
author of Criminal Law in Queensland
Judge R.F. Carter as a young man
Woolcock Collection
The Honourable Mr Justice John Laskey Woolcock
Donated by Mrs Dorothy Woolcock, these items relate to the life of the Honourable John Laskey Woolcock. Woolcock attended Sydney University, where he completed an Arts degree. His long and productive career included a period as Griffith’s private secretary, in which capacity he accompanied Griffith overseas to several inter-colonial conferences. Admitted to the Bar in 1887, Woolock became a parliamentary draftsman in 1899 and was later appointed to the Bench. He received an appointment to the Supreme Court at the age of 64 in 1927, which was cut short by his untimely death in 1929. Woolcock promoted education throughout his life, through his involvement with the State Library, University Senate and Brisbane Grammar School.
The 159 items in this collection include letters, photographs, invitation cards, newspaper articles and certificates. Woolcock’s scholarly and creative output is well represented by handwritten essays and lecture notes on literary subjects, as well as original poems and even two detective stories. The collection also includes lectures that Woolcock presented on the Australian, British, Canadian and American Constitutions. Personal items, such as a copy of Woolcock’s school record from Brisbane Grammar, his degree certificate and a medal awarded to him by the University of Sydney, his marriage certificate, and a collage of poems and photographs are also included. These materials shed light on the career and personality of a Queensland judge and on life and letters in Queensland at the turn of the century.
McPherson Collection
Manuscript and notes donated by the Honourable Mr Justice McPherson CBE
Donated by the Honourable Mr Justice Bruce Harvey McPherson CBE, this collection contains documents associated with the writing of his definitive history of the Queensland Supreme Court, The History of the Supreme Court of Queensland 1859-1960: History, Jurisdiction, Procedure. The collection, preserved in nine solander boxes, comes in two parts. The first includes handwritten and typed notes, while the second contains over 400 primary materials (cases, articles, correspondence and original notes) relating to the book. This is a comprehensive collection of resources relating to the history of the Queensland Supreme Court, and a very useful reference tool for Queensland legal historians.
Sir Harry Gibbs Collection
The Gibbs Collection of Medals, Robes and Regalia
The Supreme Court Library is proud to display a collection of medals, robes and regalia donated by Lady Gibbs, the wife of the late Rt. Hon. Sir Harry Gibbs GCMG, AC, KBE. These include the medal of the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George, the medal of the order of Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire and the medal of the Companion of the Order of Australia which were awarded to Sir Harry in the course of his illustrious career. The Library will also exhibit Sir Harry’s letters patent and armorial banner, as well as a mantle in blue silk bearing the insignia of the Knights Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George and a suit worn by justices in the early years of the High Court of Australia.
The public display of these medals, robes and regalia will, it is hoped, inform and inspire a new generation of young Australians. Sir Harry made a truly remarkable contribution to the nation, and no less an authority than Lord Denning ranked him among the greatest Australian judges of all time. Born in Sydney in 1917 and educated at the University of Queensland, Sir Harry was appointed to the Queensland Supreme Court in 1961 and to the High Court of Australia in 1970, becoming Chief Justice in 1981, a position which he held until his retirement in 1987.
This display also commemorates Sir Harry’s close association with the Library, whose committee he chaired between 1963 and 1967. When the Supreme Court History Program was established with the opening of the Rare Books room in the year 2000, Sir Harry himself delivered the inaugural oration. The Library holds in trust many other objects and papers associated with Sir Harry, including three oral history reviews, a Bench wig, a Bar wig and various personal and official documents. In this way it seeks to preserve the legacy of a great Australian.
Joan Priest Donation
This collection of correspondence, newspaper clippings, interviews, speeches and drafts, preserved in forty folders within three solander boxes, was donated by Mrs Joan Priest. It includes documents related to the writing of her biography of Sir Harry Gibbs, Without Fear or Favour. These 40 folders in 3 solander boxes include correspondence, newspaper clippings, interviews, speeches and drafts. The Right Honourable Sir Harry Gibbs, GCMG, AC, KBE the former Chief Justice of Australia, is figure of cardinal significance to Australian law, and these items detail of his career, the reactions of the Australian public to his decisions, and the legal scene in Australia before his retirement.
Lilley Family Collection
Sir Charles Lilley
These papers belonging to various members of the Lilley family were donated by Mr Richard Lilley. They consist of 121 items, including letters, certificates, handwritten books and notebooks, notes of cases, newspaper clippings, petitions, bills of sale and lecture notes. The Lilley collection covers a period from 1895 to 1942 and includes materials relating to Harold J Lilley, Wilfrid J Lilley, Arthur S Lilley, Edwyn M Lilley, and William J Lilley.
The Lilleys have had a considerable influence on the legal profession in Brisbane since the days of Sir Charles Lilley, the second Chief Justice of Queensland. Indeed, the family’s success at law provoked some public disquiet in the last decade of the nineteenth century. In this period, Edwyn was a rising member of the junior bar and his brother Harold was a practising solicitor, while their father Charles was Chief Justice, and some detractors dubbed these three “the Trinity.” It was suggested that Edwyn’s success before his father obliged litigants in the Supreme Court to secure both his and his brother’s services. The matter was broached by a member of the Legislative Assembly in 1890, who introduced a Bill to prevent judges from presiding over matters in which a relative appeared as Counsel, a proposal which lapsed after heated debate.
These materials contain many invaluable insights into the legal profession in Queensland in this early period.
Queensland Parliament Collection
The Honourable Mr Justice Alfred J. P. Lutwyche
These 21 items, which include Bills and Acts, correspondence, and petitions, were donated by the Department of Bills and Papers at the Queensland Parliament. They relate principally to disagreements between Justice Lutwyche and the original Queensland Legislative Council.
These are not original documents, but instead contemporary copies made between 1859 and 1861. They provide a valuable insight into the process by which the colony of Queensland was detached from New South Wales, a process which took three years to effect. For this reason, they are of considerable interest to historians.
The Douglas Diaries
The Honourable Mr Justice Robert Johnstone Douglas
The Douglas diaries, donated by Mrs Barbara Douglas, are a series of notebooks relating to the life of Robert Johnstone Douglas. Douglas completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Sydney and went on to practice at the Townsville Bar. He was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1923. For a period he acted as Industrial Arbitration Judge in the North, where he continued as Northern Judge for 30 years, until his retirement in 1953.
The Douglas Collection consists of fourteen items: five cash books, five diaries, two inventories of the family home, one stock record and one book of quotes. The diaries cover the period from 1907 to 1933, while the cashbooks range from 1911 to 1953. Taken together, these give a valuable picture of legal and social life in Townsville in the early part of the twentieth century, also illustrating aspects of domestic life in this period.
MacDonnells Collection
These documents relate to the Cairns law firm MacDonnells and were donated by the firm. There are 19 items in this collection, which include letters, booklets, deeds, policies, and memoranda, ranging in date from 1859 to 1984. These indicate the sorts of business transacted by a Queensland firm over a period of more than one hundred years, and indicate how it managed cases on a day to day basis.
Tokyo War Crimes Trials Collection
Sir William Webb
This is an extensive collection of materials relating to the Tokyo War Crimes Trials (1946-1948), most of which are not available elsewhere in Australia. These documents, which highlight the role of Sir William Webb as President of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, were deposited with the Library by Dr Dayle Smith. The collection includes over 50,000 pages of transcripts from the trial, the text of the judgment itself and twelve hours of video footage of the proceedings, in addition to copies of the minutes of Japanese Cabinet meetings (1934-1935) and extracts from the newspaper The Nippon Times from the same period.
A full inventory is being prepared of these important sources, which will be made available on the Supreme Court History Program website.
Feez Ruthning Collection of Opinion Books
The Supreme Court Library will soon launch an ambitious Historical Document Digitisation Program. The Feez Ruthning Opinion Books, compiled by law firm Feez Ruthning in 1874, will be the first such project undertaken by the Library. These works, kindly donated by Allens Arthur Robinson, include opinions from prominent jurists such as Samuel Griffith, Charles Lilley, Patrick Real, Charles Stumm and Virgil Power.
For further information on this project, please refer to Digitisation Program.