The Hon. Dame Roma Mitchell AC DBE CVO QC (1913–2000) was the first Australian woman to be a Queen's Counsel, Supreme Court judge, Acting Chief Justice, Deputy University Chancellor, Chancellor and State Governor. After graduating in law at the University of Adelaide, Mitchell was admitted to the Bar in 1935 and practised as a barrister. In 1962 she became Queen's Counsel, and in 1965, was appointed a Supreme Court judge. During the 1970s she chaired the Dunstan government's groundbreaking criminal law and penal methods reform committee. She was also Vice President of the Law Council and founding chair of the Human Rights Commission from 1981 to 1986. In 1983 she became chancellor of the University of Adelaide, where she often taught family law. She was appointed Governor of South Australia at the age of 77. In 1998, at the age of 84, she was an active participant in the Constitutional Convention. No other Australian woman was first to achieve so many official appointments, but she looked forward to a time when the appointment of a woman would not be noteworthy.
While most images of Roma Mitchell show her as the extraordinary person she became with age, this pastel portrait by her friend Geoffrey Mainwaring is a striking representation of her in her youth, full of promise and determination.
Gift of friends of Dame Roma Mitchell 2018
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