The Chief Justice of Western Australia is the most senior judge of the Supreme Court of Western Australia and the highest ranking judicial officer in the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n state of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. The chief justice is both the judicial head of the Supreme Court as well as the administrative head. The chief justice is responsible for arranging the business of the court and establishing its rules and procedures. The office of chief justice was created in 1861 when the Supreme Court was established through the amalgamation of the Court of Quarter Sessions and the Civil Court. The first chief justice was the West Indian born lawyer and former slaveholder Sir Archibald Burt. Initially, in line with the British colonial policy of the time, the chief justices were appointed by the

Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of col ...

from outside the colony. It was not until 1901 that Western Australia had its first Western Australian born Chief Justice. By convention, the Chief Justice is usually also lieutenant governor, serving as deputy to the

Governor of Western Australia The governor of Western Australia is the representative in Western Australia of the monarch of Australia, currently King Charles III. As with the other governors of the Australian states, the governor of Western Australia performs constitutional ...

and acting in the position in the governor's absence. However, the two positions are not equivalent – Wayne Martin succeeded

David Malcolm David Kingsley Malcolm, AC, QC (6 May 1938 – 20 October 2014) was the Chief Justice of Western Australia from May 1988 until his retirement from the bench in February 2006. He was also an expatriate justice of the Supreme Court of Fiji. B ...

in the position in May 2006, but did not replace Malcolm as lieutenant governor until October 2009.

List of chief justices of Western Australia

Archibald Burt Sir Archibald Paull Burt QC (1 September 1810 – 21 November 1879) was a British lawyer, politician and judge. He grew up on the island of Saint Christopher in the West Indies, where both he and his father owned slaves. He studied law in Engla ...

(1861–1879) *

Henry Wrenfordsley Sir Henry Thomas Wrenfordsley (1825 – 2 June 1908) was an Irish lawyer and was the second Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Western Australia, which is the highest ranking court in the Australian State of Western Australia.T. S. Louch,Wren ...

(1880–1883) * Alexander Onslow (1883–1890) * Sir Henry T. Wrensfordsley (1890–1891) (acting) * Alexander Onslow (1891-1901) * Sir Edward Stone (1901–1906) * Stephen Parker (1906–1913) * Robert McMillan (1913–1931) * John Northmore (1931–1945) *

John Dwyer John Dwyer may refer to: * John Dwyer (Australian judge) (1879–1966), Australian judge * John Dwyer (baseball) (active 1882), American baseball player * John Dwyer (field hockey) (born 1928), Australian Olympic hockey player * John Dwyer (medici ...

(1945–1959) * Albert Wolff (1959–1969) *

Lawrence Jackson Lawrence Christopher Jackson (born August 30, 1985) is a former American football defensive end who played in the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the first round of the 2008 NFL Draft. He played colleg ...

(1969–1977) *

Francis Burt Sir Francis Theodore Page Burt (14 June 1918 – 8 September 2004) was an Australian jurist who served as the 11th Chief Justice of Western Australia, from 1977 to 1988, and the 27th Governor of Western Australia, from 1990 to 1993. Burt w ...

(1977–1988) *

(1988–2006) * Wayne Martin (2006–2018) *

Peter Quinlan Peter Damien Quinlan is the Chief Justice of Western Australia. His appointment was announced on 1 August 2018, and took effect on 13 August. He was the Solicitor-General of Western Australia from 2016 to 2018. Quinlan attended John XXIII Co ...

(2018–)

References

{{reflist Lists of judges of Australian superior courts

List of chief justices of Western Australia

See also

References