The Honourable Roslyn Atkinson AO (1965)
Holding Court – from actor to judge
As Roslyn Atkinson tells it, her innate sense of justice surfaced early and strong. She was just nine years old and in primary school at Kingaroy, west of Brisbane, when a classmate was accused of stealing a teacher’s wristwatch.
Convinced of the boy’s innocence, Roslyn and a friend campaigned vigorously in his defence until the watch was eventually found at another student’s home. It was a valuable life-lesson on many fronts. It hadn’t escaped her notice, even as a child, that the accused boy was the only Indigenous student in the class.
‘I learned a lot from that about how unfair life can be to people when they’re stereotyped and stigmatised,’ Roslyn told the ABC’s Conversations. ‘But also, that if you persevered and you tried to do something about it, even as a child, I could make some difference. I could have some effect.’
Years later, that same instinctive passion for fairness and equity would see Roslyn become a storied jurist—inaugural President of the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Tribunal, Chair of the Law Reform Commission and a long-serving Queensland Supreme Court Judge who presided over some of the state’s most complex, high-profile cases, including the trial of Brett Cowan, who was convicted in 2014 of the murder of Sunshine Coast schoolboy Daniel Morcombe.
In 2015, Roslyn was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for her enormous and ongoing contribution to Law. So, it’s surprising to learn she came to the profession relatively late, after initially pursuing a career in acting.
Her interest in acting originally helped shape her education. One of the reasons her parents moved to Brisbane from Kingaroy was to allow Roslyn not only more educational opportunities, but more acting opportunities. When she entered Girls Grammar in 1962, it must have been something of a culture shock. Roslyn said she had heard rumours children in Brisbane were ‘forced’ to wear shoes to school but wasn’t sure this could possibly be true. Before long she was in stockings and gloves too.
From schoolgirl debater ...
... to Supreme Court Judge
While she thrived under the intellectual rigour, she also chafed at the restrictions of the era. An outstanding schoolgirl debater, Roslyn longed to test her skills beyond the white picket fence. However, at the time, BGGS only sanctioned debating behind closed doors at interhouse contests within the School.
With typical clear-headed logic she remembers: ‘I thought the best approach was to make an appointment to see the headmistress and simply explain that we would like to do interschool debating. I put the argument in favour as persuasively as I could, arguing by analogy from other interschool competitions.’
The response wasn’t what she had hoped, with a shocked headmistress explaining it would be ‘most unseemly for young ladies to argue against young men’.
Roslyn was prepared. ‘I was used to being the third speaker, so countered with the proposition that we could just debate against girls’ schools as we did in swimming and athletics. The headmistress pursed her lips and told me that might involve the unseemly prospect of young women being seen arguing by young men.’
It was a rare debate Roslyn did not win. And, as if to add insult to injury, BGGS joined interschool debating the very next year, after she had graduated.
‘In my many years as a barrister, as I argued against male barristers and before male judges, it amused me to remember that my headmistress had thought it unseemly,’ Roslyn said. ‘However, more seriously, it’s also true that those attitudes were part of the reason why there were so few female barristers and no female judges at the time.’
‘How times have changed. Now the School expects and encourages its students to be the thinkers and leaders of the future. I take pleasure in the fact that I must have sown the seed. And now we have many fine women at the bar, on the bench and in politics.’
Roslyn’s own early aptitude for the legal profession was clear, with a Girls Grammar career advisor recommending she study Law. She was unconvinced.
‘I remember thinking that was ridiculous. I thought it would be boring,’ she once told an interviewer.
Instead, after leaving Girls Grammar, she pursued teaching and drama, founding a touring theatre company with her husband Richard Fotheringham.
Some years later, the birth of their first child, a daughter, was a turning point. As Roslyn reflected on the unlimited opportunities she wished for her child, she realised she had allowed doubt to limit her own ambitions.
She enrolled in a Law degree at UQ and immediately discovered her life’s passion, juggling study and motherhood. The birth of her second child saw her spend Swotvac in the maternity ward, but she didn’t miss a beat, going on to ace her first-year exams. At UQ, Roslyn was awarded the Ruthning Memorial Scholarship (1984) and the Wilkinson Memorial Prize (1984), graduating with first-class honours. She also received the James Archibald Douglas Prize (1985) for her results in the Bar Practice Course.
In 1986 she worked as associate to High Court judge the Honourable Sir Gerard Brennan, and was admitted to the bar in 1987. She quickly gained a reputation as a meticulous, logical and skilled barrister with a knack for communicating complex arguments clearly. In a rapid ascent, Roslyn was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland in 1998, serving with distinction for two decades.
Throughout her career, she has shown a dedication not only to the application of the law, but its operation, chairing the Queensland Law Reform Commission for more than a decade while on the bench. In this role she led reviews and recommended updates to State laws to ensure they remained efficient and appropriate. And earlier, as the inaugural President of the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Tribunal, serving from 1994 to 1997, she deepened a commitment to equity and inclusion. Landmark rulings include the first case on inclusive disability access to public buildings (Cocks v State of Queensland), which forced a design change to the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre at South Brisbane.
Today, Roslyn maintains a close connection to Girls Grammar, with her granddaughter the fourth generation to attend the School. Each continues to widen the opportunities for those who will follow, just as Roslyn did when she sowed the seeds of debate back in the 1960s.