Tim Hinchcliffe, Magistrate, Northern Territory, 1986.
After leaving College he studied law at Melbourne University, was a resident at Queen’s College and rowed in the crew there. He graduated in 1972 and signed the bar roll on 13 February, 1975. He read with Frank Dyett before establishing his own practice from which, in 1982 at the age of 36, he was appointed as the youngest Magistrate up to that time in the Northern Territory. During the time in his own practice, he also served on the Bar Council, on the Ethics Committee and on the Police-Lawyers Liaision Committee. He later worked in Alice Springs before being appointed in February 1987 as a Judge of the Supreme and National Court, New Guinea, where he worked in rural areas including Lae (1987-1998) and Mt Hagen in the Highlands (1999-2009). He served in the National and Supreme Court System for 22 years and became the Senior Puisne Judge. In 1995 he was awarded a CBE for ‘outstanding services to justice and the community’.