James Muirhead from Adelaide law to focus of nation in Chamberlain trial and Aboriginal deaths in custody
James Muirhead leading the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody in the 1980s and (inset) as a Northern Territory supreme court judge.
James Muirhead went on to prominent 20th Century national roles, including presiding at the Lindy Chamberlain trial and the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody, after his start in South Australian law. He was also an administrator of the Northern Territory and became a judge on the territory’s supreme court.
Adelaide-born Muirhead was educated at St Peter’s College before enlisting in the Second Australian Imperial Forces for World War II. From 1943-46, he was an infantryman and signaller with the 57/60 Battalion in Bougainville and later the 32/52 Battalion in Rabaul, New Britain.
He obtained a bachelor of law from Adelaide University and was admitted to the South Australian bar in 1950. He practised as a barrister and solicitor with Thomson & Co 1968-71 before being a judge of the local and district criminal court of South Australia. He was appointed as a Queen’s Counsel in 1967. Dean Mildren, later a also a Northern Territory supreme court judge, was his articled clerk 1966-68.
Muirhead was appointed acting judge of the supreme court of Papua New Guinea in 1972 before being the first director of the Australian Institute of Criminology 1973-75. He was appointed as a judge of the Northern Territory supreme court in 1974 and became the second resident judge, with William Foster (another St Peter’s College/ Adelaide University law graduate who was master of the South Australian supreme court 1966-71). In 1976, Muirhead was appointed a judge of the new federal court of Australia along with his territory commission.
Muirhead presided over Australia's most famous criminal trial, when Lindy and Michael Chamberlain were charged with murdering their daughter Azaria. He sentenced LindyChamberlain to life imprisonment in 1982, In the 1988 film Evil Angels, based on the trial, Muirhead was portrayed by the actor Charles “Bud” Tingwell.
When William Forster retired in 1985, Muirhead was appointed acting chief justice of the Northern Territory until he retired in 1985. Muirhead moved to Perth and resigned as federal court judge in 1986 to head the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody from 1987. Another South Australian, Elliott Johnston, took over and completed the royal commission after Muirhead was appointed administrator of the Northern Territory in 1989.
As territory administrator, Muirhead opened the new supreme court building in 1991. At that time, he was patron of 74 territory organisations. He was deputy prior of the order of St John, chief scout and chairman of the forum for indigenous studies at the North Australia Research Unit.
Knighted in 1989, Muirhead was invested as companion of the order of Australia for public service and service to the law in 1991. After he retired, he was a ministerial adviser to the council on veterans issues, 1993-94.
