Margaret Battye Kathleen Hartrey, Molly Kingston and Sheila McClemans

1933

Margaret Battye, Kathleen Hartrey, Molly Kingston and sheila McClemans are admitted to practice and all practice as legal practitioners.

Margaret Battye

Margaret Battye was one of only four women in the first cohort of law students at the University of Western Australia in 1928. She was admitted to practice in 1933, and in June of that year became the first woman to represent a client in a Western Australian court - and won! Battye was commended by the presiding magistrate and opposing lawyer for the manner in which she conducted the brief. From 1936 she practiced as a barrister and solicitor on her own, before taking a position with the Council for Civil Liberties from 1939.

Battye was a staunch supporter and advocate for women. She worked to establish a university women’s college (now St Catherine’s College, UWA); acted as honorary legal advisor to the Women’s Service Guilds; guided the establishment of the Perth-based Business and Professional Women’s Club and was the organisation’s first president; as well as being an active member (and president) of both the Karrakatta and Soroptimists’ Clubs, and chaired the Australian national committee for the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

Sheila McClemans and Molly Kingston

Sheila McClemans and Molly Kingston were also admitted in 1933, but found difficulty gaining sufficient employment due, in part, to their gender and the economic downturn of the Great Depression. In 1934, the two established their own practicing partnership focused on helping women with their legal problems; Kingston & McClemans was the first all-female legal firm in Western Australia. The partners disbanded after four years, after which both McClemans and Kingston joined the armed forces during World War Two. Following her service in the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service McClemans returned to practice in Western Australia. She then ran her own business before serving for 10 years as Secretary of the Law Society from 1960. McClemans retired from private practice in 1981.

Kingston continued her legal careers in Sydney and Melbourne after her wartime service with the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force. She practiced primarily in Family Law, before being admitted to the Victorian bar in 1962 where she combined her practice with lecturing at both the University of Melbourne and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

leading the Way

The District Court commenced on 1 April 1970 following Parliamentary proclamation of the District Court of Western Australia Act 1969 on 26 March 1970. Fifteen years later her Honour Antoinette Kennedy would be appointed to the Bench as a judge (later to become Chief Judge).

1975

1981 1985

Valerie French is the first woman to elect to practise as a barrister in Western Australia – she is followed very shortly thereafter by Antoinette Kennedy.

Vivien Edwards is appointed Western Australia’s first female prosecutor.

Carolyn Martin is appointed as the first female Stipendiary Magistrate in Western Australia (later appointed to the Family Court). Antoinette Kennedy is appointed to the Bench of the District Court of Western Australia as a judge (later to become Chief Judge). She was the first and longest serving woman judge in Western Australia, serving for 25 years.