First years of the court High Court of Australia

the court s home between 1928 , 1980, purpose-built courtroom in little bourke street, melbourne.

after court s first sitting in banco court in melbourne, court continued use court until 1928, when dedicated courtroom built in little bourke street, next supreme court of victoria, provided court s melbourne sitting place , housed court s principal registry until 1980. court sat regularly in sydney, shared space in criminal courts in suburb of darlinghurst, before dedicated courtroom constructed next door in 1923.

the annexe criminal court in darlinghurst, court s home in sydney.

the court travelled other cities across country, did not have facilities of own used facilities of supreme court in each city. deakin had envisaged court sit in many different locations, federal court. shortly after court s creation, chief justice griffith established schedule sittings in state capitals: hobart, tasmania in february, brisbane, queensland in june, perth, western australia in september , adelaide, south australia in october; said griffith established schedule because times of year found weather pleasant in each city. tradition remains day, although of court s sittings conducted in canberra.

sittings dependent on caseload , day sittings in hobart occur once every few years. there annual sittings in perth, adelaide , brisbane week each. during great depression, sittings outside of melbourne , sydney suspended reduce costs.

during world war ii, court faced period of change. chief justice, sir john latham, served 1940 1941 australia s first ambassador japan, although activities in role limited mutual assistance pact japan had entered axis powers before arrive in tokyo, , curtailed commencement of pacific war. justice sir owen dixon absent several years, while served australia s minister united states in washington. sir george rich acting chief justice in latham s absence. there many difficult cases concerning federal government s use of defence power during war.