Supreme Court in session at Dubbo
JUSTICE ROBERT HULME is in Dubbo presiding over the current Supreme Court trial being run in the city.
It’s not often these days we see the Supreme Court in session at Dubbo but, as Justice Hulme pointed out at a Mayoral Reception given in the court’s honour, the city has a long tradition when it comes to legal processes at all levels.
He introduced his associate Ms Carol Lloyd, his Tipstaff Mr Billy Bruffey, and court reporters Ms Angela James and Ms Kaylene Scotson-tairua.
This is the speech Justice Robert Hulme wrote to deliver at that reception.
Criminal trials were conducted by a Deputy Judge-advocate who sat with six military officers, or, in civil cases, with two upstanding citizens of the community.
The Supreme Court that exists today is essentially the same as that which was established back then, and trial by jury has since become entrenched in our criminal justice system.
The Supreme Court comprises two appellate courts – the Court of Appeal for civil matters and the Court of Criminal Appeal for criminal matters.
I am a judge of one of the two trial divisions, the Common Law Division (as opposed to the Equity Division).
My division deals with interesting criminal cases and uninteresting civil cases.
The Equity Division deals with a broad range of generally uninteresting matters.
A court was first designated for Dubbo in 1846 when a Court of Petty Sessions (now known as the Local Court) was formally proclaimed to sit here.
A wooden Court House was built.
I have no information as to whether it was equipped any better or worse than the present Court House.
The Supreme Court sitting in Dubbo came about as a result of a proclamation by the Governor in 1874.
Sir William Montagu Manning, who was also the Chancellor of the University of Sydney, held the first sittings in 1875.
It did not take long for the death penalty to be imposed.
Poor Mr Thomas Newman was the recipient of the first such sentence in 1877 and others were to follow.
The present Court House has its origins in a construction of the late 1880s.
It was augmented by the addition of two further court rooms in 1978.
In its early days of sitting in Dubbo the Supreme Court presided over a wide variety of cases.
In 1880, in a case reported as The Queen v Reynolds (1880) 1 LR (NSW) 129, the Court was faced with a question of whether the crime of bestiality could be committed with a turkey, the relevant legislation having been recently amended to refer to an “animal” rather than a “beast”.
Sir William Manning J considered the issue of such importance that he sent the question to be resolved by three judges in Sydney and it was held by the then Chief Justice that the conviction of the offender was sound.
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