List of Justices of the High Court of Australia - Complete List

There are 7 Justices of the High Court of Australia.

Justices are appointed by the Federal Government, on advice to the Governor-General.

Since the constitutional amendment of 1977, Justices are required to retire when they turn 70.

The Current Court

Justices of the Australian High Court – Current
No.	Name	State	Date Appointed	Prime Minister at time of appt.	Party in Govt at time of appt.	Retires
1	Kenneth Hayne	VIC	Sep 22, 1997	John Howard	Liberal	Jun 5, 2015
2	Susan Crennan	VIC	Nov 08, 2005	John Howard	Liberal	Jul 1, 2015
3	Susan Kiefel	QLD	Sep 03, 2007	John Howard	Liberal	Jan 17, 2024
4	Robert French (Chief Justice)	WA	Sep 01, 2008	Kevin Rudd	ALP	Mar 19, 2017
5	Virginia Bell	NSW	Feb 03, 2009	Kevin Rudd	ALP	Mar 7, 2021
6	Stephen Gageler	NSW	Oct 09, 2012	Julia Gillard	ALP	Jul 5, 2028
7	Patrick Keane	QLD	Mar 05, 2013	Julia Gillard	ALP	Oct 26, 2022

Chief Justices

Chief Justices of the Australian High Court
No.	Name	State	Dates	Prime Minister at time of appt.	Party in Govt at time of appt.
1	Sir Samuel Griffith	QLD	1903-1919	Alfred Deakin	Protectionist
2	Sir Adrian Knox	NSW	1919-1930	William Morris Hughes	Nationalist
3	Sir Isaac Isaacs	VIC	1930-1931 first appointed 1906	James Scullin Alfred Deakin	ALP Protectionist
4	Sir Frank Gavan Duffy	VIC	1931-1935 first appointed 1913	James Scullin Andrew Fisher	ALP ALP
5	Sir John Latham	VIC	1935-1952	Joseph Lyons	United Australia Party
6	Sir Owen Dixon	VIC	1952-1964 first appointed 1929	Robert Menzies Stanley Bruce	Liberal Party Nationalist
7	Sir Garfield Barwick	NSW	1964-1981	Robert Menzies	Liberal Party
8	Sir Harry Gibbs	QLD	1981-1987 first appointed 1970	Malcolm Fraser John Gorton	Liberal Party Liberal Party
9	Sir Anthony Mason	NSW	1987-1995 first appointed 1972	Bob Hawke William McMahon	ALP Liberal Party
10	Sir Gerard Brennan	QLD	1995-1998 first appointed 1981	Paul Keating Malcolm Fraser	ALP Liberal Party
11	Murray Gleeson	NSW	1998-2008	John Howard	Liberal Party
12	Robert French	WA	2008-	Kevin Rudd	ALP

Justices – Complete List

Justices of the Australian High Court – Complete List
No.	Name	State	Dates	Prime Minister at time of appt.	Party in Govt at time of appt.
1	Sir Samuel Griffith CJ	QLD	1903-1919	Alfred Deakin	Protectionist
2	Edmund Barton	NSW	1903-1920	Alfred Deakin	Protectionist
3	Richard Edward O’Connor	NSW	1903-1912	Alfred Deakin	Protectionist
4	Sir Isaac Isaacs CJ	VIC	1906-31 (CJ 1930-31)	Alfred Deakin	Protectionist
5	Henry Bournes Higgins	VIC	1906-1929	Alfred Deakin	Protectionist
6	Sir Frank Gavan Duffy CJ	VIC	1913-1935 (CJ 1931-35)	Andrew Fisher	ALP
7	Sir Charles Powers	QLD	1913-1929	Andrew Fisher	ALP
8	Albert Bathurst Piddington resigned before taking up appointment	NSW	1913-1913	Andrew Fisher	ALP
9	Sir George Rich	NSW	1913-1950	Andrew Fisher	ALP
10	Sir Adrian Knox CJ	NSW	1919-1930	W.M. Hughes	Nationalist
11	Sir Hayden Starke	VIC	1920-1950	W.M. Hughes	Nationalist
12	Sir Owen Dixon CJ	VIC	1929-1964 (CJ 1952-64)	S.M. Bruce	Nationalist
13	Herbert Vere Evatt	NSW	1930-1940	James Scullin	ALP
14	Sir Edward McTiernan	NSW	1930-1976	James Scullin	ALP
15	Sir John Latham CJ	VIC	1935-1952	Joseph Lyons	UAP
16	Sir Dudley Williams	NSW	1940-1958	Robert Menzies	UAP
17	Sir William Webb	QLD	1946-1958	Ben Chifley	ALP
18	Sir Willfred Fullagar	VIC	1950-1961	Robert Menzies	Liberal
19	Sir Frank Kitto	NSW	1950-1970	Robert Menzies	Liberal
20	Sir Alan Taylor	NSW	1952-1969	Robert Menzies	Liberal
21	Sir Douglas Menzies	VIC	1958-1974	Robert Menzies	Liberal
22	Sir Victor Windeyer	NSW	1958-1972	Robert Menzies	Liberal
23	Sir William Owen	NSW	1961-1972	Robert Menzies	Liberal
24	Sir Garfield Barwick CJ	NSW	1964-1981	Robert Menzies	Liberal
25	Sir Cyril Walsh	NSW	1969-1973	John Gorton	Liberal
26	Sir Harry Gibbs	QLD	1970-1981 (CJ 1981-87)	John Gorton	Liberal
27	Sir Ninian Stephen	VIC	1972-1982	William McMahon	Liberal
28	Sir Anthony Mason CJ	NSW	1972-95 (CJ 1987-95)	William McMahon	Liberal
29	Sir Kenneth Jacobs	NSW	1974-1979	Gough Whitlam	ALP
30	Lionel Keith Murphy	NSW	1975-1986	Gough Whitlam	ALP
31	Sir Keith Aickin	VIC	1976-1982	Malcolm Fraser	Liberal
32	Sir Ronald Wilson	WA	1979-1989	Malcolm Fraser	Liberal
33	Sir Gerard Brennan CJ	QLD	1981- (CJ 1995-98)	Malcolm Fraser	Liberal
34	Sir William Deane	NSW	1982-1996	Malcolm Fraser	Liberal
35	Sir Daryl Dawson	VIC	1982-1997	Malcolm Fraser	Liberal
36	John Leslie Toohey	WA	1987-1998	Bob Hawke	ALP
37	Mary Genevieve Gaudron	NSW	1987-2003	Bob Hawke	ALP
38	Michael Hudson McHugh	NSW	1989-2005	Bob Hawke	ALP
39	William Gummow	NSW	21-4-1995- 9-10-2012	Paul Keating	ALP
40	Michael Kirby	NSW	1996-2009	Paul Keating	ALP
41	Kenneth Hayne	VIC	1997-	John Howard	Liberal
42	Ian Callinan	QLD	1998-2007	John Howard	Liberal
43	Murray Gleeson CJ	NSW	1998-2008	John Howard	Liberal
44	John Dyson Heydon	NSW	11-02-03 – 01-03-13	John Howard	Liberal
45	Susan Crennan	VIC	2005-	John Howard	Liberal
46	Susan Kiefel	QLD	2007-	John Howard	Liberal
47	Robert French CJ	WA	2008-	Kevin Rudd	ALP
48	Virginia Bell	NSW	2009-	Kevin Rudd	ALP
49	Stephen Gageler	NSW	9-10-2012 -	Julia Gillard	ALP
50	Patrick Keane	QLD	05-03-13 -	Julia Gillard	ALP

Justices of the High Court

The Current Court

Chief Justices

Justices – Complete List

Search AustralianPolitics.com

AustralianPolitics.com at The Drum

Try A Tag

Recent Posts

Gillard Government

Occasional Opinion