Summary heading
The Hon. Sir Richard Kirby (CP 960)
Career within Commonwealth
Richard (Dick) Clarence Kirby was born at Charters’ Towers,
Queensland on 22 September 1904. His family moved to Cairns and he attended Cairns
State School. From 1916 to 1921 he attended the King’s School, Parramatta. He
obtained an exhibition to Sydney University and completed his LLB in 1927.
Kirby was knighted in 1961 and was created a Companion of the Order of
Australia in 1985. He died in Sydney on 25 October 2001.
Dick Kirby volunteered for the AIF in 1940, and was accepted and commissioned
as Lieutenant in 1942. He served in the education corps. In 1944 he was
discharged and returned to the Bar, where he resumed a busy practice. On 23
August 1944, Kirby was appointed as a Judge of the District Court of NSW. At
his death, he was the oldest surviving member of that bench. In 1945 Kirby was
one of three judges appointed to the Australian War Crimes Commission. On his
way to Singapore to take up his appointment, his aircraft was diverted to
Colombo and he was taken to visit the allied Supreme Commander, Admiral Lord
Louis Mountbatten who subsequently invited Kirby to join his personal staff as
legal adviser. In 1946 Kirby was also appointed by the Australian Government to
inquire into the deaths of some Australian officers in the former Dutch colony
that was to become Indonesia. Kirby became the de facto Australian
representative in Batavia (shortly to become Djakarta). His experience in Indonesia
led to his appointment as the Australian representative on the United Nations
Committee of Good Offices on the Indonesian Question.
In 1947, Kirby was asked to accept appointment to the Supreme Court of NSW, but
he had already agreed to go to the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and
Arbitration, and was sworn in as a judge of that court on 25 August 1947. Kirby
developed his approach to industrial relations throughout his career. On his
appointment to the industrial bench in 1947, he was drafted to chair the
Stevedoring Industry Commission, a new body designed to bring a co-operative
approach to the regulation of work on the waterfront.
A 1956 High Court case questioned the Arbitration Court's powers - specifically
Kirby's exercise of the power to punish for contempt of court. R v Kirby; ex
parte the Boilermakers' Society of Australia, (the “Boilermakers' case” (1956)
94 CLR 254; (on appeal (1957) 96 CLR 529), is one of our most important
constitutional cases. It meant that the existing Arbitration Court could no
longer continue to exercise a mixture of arbitral and judicial powers. The
Menzies Government decided to create an arbitration commission and an
industrial court. Kirby was approached to become President of the new
Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, the more important of the two bodies.
Kirby retired from the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission in May 1973. He
became Chair of the Advertising Standards Council, a member of the Evatt
Foundation, Ausflag, and Skillshare (now the Dusseldorp Skills Foundation). For
many years he was a member of the Council of the University of Wollongong, and
took an active part in its development, especially in industrial matters. He
retained these positions until he was well into his 80s.
Links to other Commonwealth Persons
CP 99
CP 390
CP 7
Publications
Biography: Mediator: a biography of Sir Richard Kirby
/ Blanche d’Alpuget. Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1977.
Sources
Who’s Who in Australia 37th Edition 2001
Obituary, Sydney Morning Herald 27th October 2001