Louis von Doussa, an attorney general for South Australia 1903-4; devoted to law, cricket and Mount Barker

Louis von Doussa, a South Australian attorney general and a practising lawyer for 60 years, was also honoured with a memorial obelisk for his service to the Mount Barker community in the Adelaide hills, after he died in 1932.
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia and Monuments Australia

(Charles) Louis von Doussa was the prominent progenitor of a South Australian legal dynasty, serving as a state attorney general and practising in the high court, supreme court amd every lower court during 60 years as a lawyer, with much of his private life devoted to the Mount Barker community in the Adelaide hills. 

Von Doussa was born in Hanhdorf, the second son of Emil Louis Alfred von Doussa, an officer of the Prussian army, who emigrated to South Australia in 1846 with his wife Anna Dorothea.

Louis von Doussa was educated at Hahndorf College and afterwards tutored privately by George R. Irvine, formerly a master at St Peter’s College. In 1866, he was articled to J.J. Bonnar of Strathalbyn, and admitted to the bar in 1871. He began practice at Mount Barker in 1872.  

An ardent federalist, Von Doussa was elected to the South Australian parliament  representing the House of Assembly district of Mount Barker from 1899 to 1902 but defeated by a narrow majority when the Mount Barker, Noarlunga and Encounter Bay were merged into the district of Alexandra. Adverse publicity surrounding his introducing judges` retiring allowances bill (1901) possibly contributed to his defeat.

In 1903, von Doussa was elected unopposed to the Legislative Council seat vacated when John Hannah Gordon was elevated to the bench of the South Australian supreme court. Von Doussa was appointed attorney general and education minister in premier John Jenkins’ ministry but relinquished both in 1904 when his health suffered. He retired from politics in 1905 and was appointed a special magistrate in 1927.

Von Doussa had married Agnes Bowman, daughter of grazier William Bowman, in 1874. They had seven children, four surviving childhood. Agnes didn’t survive the eighth delivery. Von Doussa married again in 1905, to Ruby Louisa Farrar, née Smythe.

One of von Doussa’s sons, Stanley Bowman von Doussa, served his law articles with him (along with Thomas Shuldam O’Halloran and William Edward Pyne). Stanley assisted his father in the family law firm until about 1930 (with an S.B. von Doussa branch office at Mannum).

Bill (William Louis ) von Doussa, a grandson of Louis, joined the firm in about 1930 and ran the firm until about 1974. Bill’s son was John von Doussa QC, a supreme court judge, federal court judge, and human rights commissioner, and chancellor of the University of Adelaide.

Louis Von Doussa followed cricket avidly and watched every Test match in Adelaide. But most von Doussa’s leisure time was spent in Mount Barker: “The town I love.” He was president, then patron, of the Mount Barker Bowling Club, and represented South Australia in interstate matches. He was patron of the Mount Barker agricultural society and cricket club. A freemason, von Doussa was lay reader and churchwarden at the (Anglican) Christ Church, Mount Barker, and church advocate in the Diocese of Adelaide from 1895 to 1916. He was a foundation member of the Mount Barker Institute and a close friend of politician and grazier Lancelot Stirling.

In the 21st Century, von Doussas remained the oldest law firm in the Adelaide hills, operating from Mount Barker.