Sir Anthony Mason

Anthony Frank Mason was born in Sydney on 21 April 1925, one of four children of Eileen (nee McArdle) and Frank Maxwell Mason. His father was a World War I veteran and Military Cross recipient, a registered surveyor with a large North Shore practice, and served as president of the New South Wales bodies for surveying and town planning. Mason's interest in law came through his uncle Harold Mason, a prominent Sydney barrister who briefly sat in state parliament, and his mother had hoped from early on that he would become a barrister. His parents divorced in 1936 and his father later remarried Elvira Clare "Bobbie" Wood.

In January 1944 he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force as an aircraftman. He was commissioned as a flying officer in November 1944 and trained in Canada as a navigator, logging over 100 hours in Avro Ansons. He was discharged in September 1945 while stationed at the 2nd Aircrew Graduate Training School in Calgary.

Mason was educated at Kincoppal, Elizabeth Bay, where he knew future federal attorney-general Tom Hughes, and then at Sydney Grammar School. After the war he studied arts and law at the University of Sydney, graduating with first-class honours. He recalled Julius Stone as an influential lecturer and credited John Holmes with sparking his interest in constitutional law. He served his articles with Clayton Utz and was associate to Justice David Roper of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.

Mason was admitted to the New South Wales Bar and read with Kenneth Asprey QC. He built a practice in equity and commercial law and became a favourite junior of Garfield Barwick. For five years he lectured in law at the University of Sydney, teaching future High Court Justices Mary Gaudron, William Gummow and Dyson Heydon.

In November 1964 he was appointed Solicitor-General of Australia and Queen's Counsel, the first standalone holder of the office. He helped shape the Commonwealth's new administrative law, including the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, the Ombudsman and freedom of information, and in 1966 successfully argued before the Privy Council in the IPEC-Air case.

In 1969 he joined the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. In 1972 the McMahon government appointed him to the High Court of Australia. Early on he was relatively conservative and often wrote jointly with Chief Justice Barwick, but he gradually became a centrist judge. In 1980 he lifted an injunction that had stopped newspapers publishing confidential defence and foreign affairs material.

In 1987 he succeeded Sir Harry Gibbs as Chief Justice. The Mason Court decided Cole v Whitfield (1988), Polyukhovich v Commonwealth (1991), Mabo v Queensland (No 2) (1992), Australian Capital Television v Commonwealth and Nationwide News v Wills (1992), Dietrich v The Queen (1992) and Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs v Teoh (1995). He abolished wigs, introduced video-link hearings and explained the court to the public through speeches and media appearances. He retired in 1995 at 70.

Afterwards he sat as a non-permanent judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal from 1997 to 2015, was President of the Court of Appeal of the Solomon Islands and a judge of the Supreme Court of Fiji. He was Chancellor of UNSW from 1994 to 1999, professor of legal science at Cambridge in 1996 to 1997, Chairman of the National Library of Australia Council from 1995 to 1998, and a visiting fellow at ANU's law faculty.

Mason met Patricia McQueen, secretary to Kenneth Asprey QC, early in his career at the Bar, and they married within the year. Asprey later joked that when "master Mason" turned up in his office, that was the end of another suitor's chances. They had two sons, Michael and David. Lady Patricia Mason died before him. His family notice lists grandchildren Kate, Dominic (deceased), Emma, William, Rebecca, Alice and Robert, and great-grandchildren Charlie, Leo and Violet. He loved rugby league and tennis, and said his three abiding interests were the law, books and gardening.

Mason treated precedent as a policy of consistency rather than an absolute constraint, and argued that legalism could exert a subtle conservative influence. After appeals to the Privy Council ended, he believed the High Court was free to develop a distinctly Australian common law. He accepted that federal government needed economic powers in a globalising world, but held that individual rights required careful protection. Colleagues described his openness of mind and interest in politics, sport and international affairs.

The "Mason Court" is widely regarded as a turning point in Australian law. Former colleague Michael McHugh called him one of the two greatest justices the Australian legal profession has produced, alongside Sir Owen Dixon, and Mary Gaudron called him possibly the greatest Chief Justice of all time. Only Dixon and Isaac Isaacs served longer on the High Court. His judgments are praised for their clarity. UNSW named a sculpture garden in his honour in 2008 and hosts the annual Mason Conversation, first held in 2016. His selected writings were published as The Mason Papers (2007).

Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), 1969. Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), 22 September 1972. Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), 1988. Centenary Medal, 1 January 2001. Grand Bauhinia Medal (Hong Kong), 1 July 2013. Honorary Fellow of the Australian Institute of Building, 2017. Fellow (2018) and Distinguished Fellow (2019) of the Royal Society of New South Wales. Life Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. Honorary doctorates in law from ANU, Deakin, Griffith, Melbourne, Monash, Sydney, Hong Kong, Oxford and UNSW.

The Mason Papers: Selected Articles and Speeches by Sir Anthony Mason, edited by Geoffrey Lindell, was published by Federation Press in 2007. Jason L. Pierce's Inside the Mason Court Revolution (2006) examines his court. He gave the 2012 Utzon Lecture at UNSW and appeared in the inaugural Mason Conversation in 2016.

In 2012, Kerr papers released by the National Archives at the request of historian Jenny Hocking showed that Mason had advised Governor-General Sir John Kerr in 1975 on his power to dismiss Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. On 27 August 2012 Mason published his own account: he confirmed advising, as a close friend, that the power existed, but said he did not advise dismissal and had repeatedly warned Kerr to give Whitlam the chance to call an election first. He said he drafted a dismissal letter at Kerr's request, though a very different text was used. Critics, including Hocking and columnist Troy Bramston, argue the secrecy tarnishes his legacy, while NSW Chief Justice Andrew Bell called it a tiny aspect of a 60-year career. The Mason Court's Mabo and implied-freedom decisions also drew accusations of judicial activism.

Mason died on the night of Tuesday 17 March 2026, aged 100, about five weeks before his 101st birthday. The cause and place of death were not made public. Tributes came from the High Court, the New South Wales judiciary, the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal and legal academics. He was survived by his sons Michael and David, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.