The Honourable Margaret Lusink AM

Margaret (Peg) Lusink AM (b. 1922), retired barrister and judge, was born in Tocumwal, New South Wales, and educated in Melbourne. At sixteen she was articled to her mother, Joan Rosanove – Victoria's first female barrister and first female QC. She attained her law degree from the University of Melbourne as a mature age student having raised three children and following the death of her first husband in 1959. She married fellow law student Theo Lusink in 1964. She became the first Victorian woman appointed to a Superior Court of Record when she joined the bench of the Family Court of Australia in 1976. One historian has written that Lusink and her fellow Justices Elizabeth Evatt, Josephine Hemsley-Maxwell and Kemeri Murray contributed to the 'fulfilment of possibly the most humane and enlightened social reform to be enacted in Australia since the Second World War'. After retiring from the Family Court in 1988, Lusink lectured at Bond University, and served on a number of tribunals and committees.

This tapestry by Pamela Joyce, one of the Australian Tapestry Workshop's Master Weavers, was commissioned by the Lusink family. It is based on a photograph of great personal significance to the sitter, taken in 2016 when she was 93 years old.

Gift of The Honourable Margaret Lusink AM 2021
© Australian Tapestry Workshop