The Guardian
Mary Gaudron, the first woman appointed to the high court of Australia, has been honoured for her contributions to the legal landscape after her death at the age of 83.
Gaudron was appointed to the high court in 1987, aged 44, and served until 2003.
Her death was confirmed in multiple tributes posted online on Sunday.
While serving on the high court, she contributed to decisions that shaped Australian law, including the landmark native title case, Mabo v Queensland.
In the decision, Gaudron and a fellow high court judge, William Deane, wrote of Aboriginal dispossession as “the darkest aspect of the history of this country”.
Born on 5 January 1943, in the north-west New South Wales town of Moree, Gaudron blazed a trail in a male-dominated profession.
After studying law at the University of Sydney on a scholarship and initially practising primarily in defamation and industrial law, she became the first woman appointed to the NSW Bar Council in 1972.
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