Court marks 25-year milestone

More than 70 Judges sat in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2) yesterday to mark 25 years since the court’s establishment.

The ceremonial sitting took place yesterday afternoon with 76 Judges sitting on the bench in Courtroom 1, Queens Square Law Courts Building, Sydney.

Since the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2) (then known as the Federal Magistrates Court of Australia) was established 25 years ago, it has experienced significant change and immense growth in workload, judicial numbers and jurisdiction, to become the nation’s largest federal court.

Chief Judge William Alstergren AO KC said he was honoured to be part of such a collegiate and hard-working court and extraordinarily proud of what had been achieved in the past 25 years.

Chief Judge William Alstergren AO KC

“The Court has faced many challenges over its relatively short history, but its success has been marked by hard work, innovation, resilience and a steadfast commitment to accessible justice,” Chief Judge Alstergren said.

“Judges of the Court, Registrars, Court Child Experts, Associates, Legal Case Managers, Administrative, Corporate and Registry staff, past and present, should be very proud of their achievements, and we look forward to the future with confidence.”

Applications were first filed in the court on 23 June 2000 and the original sittings were conducted on 3 July 2000 in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Newcastle, Parramatta and Townsville.

The Honourable Diana Bryant AO KC was sworn-in as the inaugural Chief Federal Magistrate on 1 May 2000, followed shortly by the appointment of nine original Federal Magistrates. There has been considerable increase in the membership of the court which currently consists of 91 Judges.

Following the elevation of Chief Justice Bryant to the Family Court of Australia on 14 July 2004, John Pascoe AO CVO was subsequently appointed as Chief Federal Magistrate on 14 July 2004 before his elevation to the Family Court of Australia on 13 October 2017.

On that same day, William Alstergren AO KC was appointed as Chief Judge of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia. His Honour was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia on 10 December 2018, which provided for His Honour to hold a dual commission as head of each jurisdiction, which he continues to hold today.

The establishment of the court, which was also originally known as the Federal Magistrates Service, marked a change in direction in the administration of justice at the federal level in Australia, as it was the first lower-level federal court since the passage of the Judiciary Act in 1903.

Facts and figures

• In the court’s first full year of operation (2000-01) it received 36,435 applications in total. Eight years later that figure had more than doubled to 85,984 applications filed in 2008-09 for both family law and general federal law.
• In 2023-24 the court received 98,636 applications in total, with 95,557 in its family law jurisdiction and 3079 applications in the court’s general federal law jurisdiction.
• The court’s jurisdiction has broadened over the years, particularly in the areas of general federal law to include bankruptcy, human rights, copyright, migration, industrial law, trade practices, privacy, administrative and admiralty law, and the court deals with nearly all bankruptcy and migration applications filed in the federal courts.
• The court is committed to providing access to justice to the people of Australia and over the past 25 years it has developed an expansive regional circuit network where Judges and other staff, travel to regional locations to deal with local matters. This alleviates the burden on regional litigants (and their legal representatives) to travel to major cities to have their matters dealt with.
• The court is the only federal court that regularly conducts regional circuits, and in 2023-24, the court circuited to nearly 30 rural and regional locations throughout Australia on more than 100 occasions.

The court has introduced a significant number of initiatives in recent years, particularly in relation to First Nations engagement, improved family violence and risk assessment, the court dog program and many other innovations.