We are delighted that Professor Kate Auty will deliver the Society’s second Paul Mullaly History and Law Lecture.

In this paper Professor Kate Auty will link the current critically important discussion about a First People’s Treaty in Victoria to the historical theft of country (1838-1869). Her paper has specific reference to the theft of Taungurung people’s country.

Kate will first discuss

1. Legal Status: the general legal contempt for the rights of First Nations people by reference to a few contemporaneous criminal law cases;
2. Economic history: the manner in which squatters routinely co-opted the law and used their position in society to advance their economic interests.

Kate will then focus on the role of Peter Snodgrass – MLC, MLA, Commissioner for Crown Lands, duelist, and punitive party member

1. as an authorised but nevertheless corrupt ‘trustee’ of Taungurung land (1850-), and
2. as an unauthorised and criminally dishonest lobbyist for Hugh Glass and others in respect of the Duffy Land Acts (1860s).

It is her contention that as lawyers, historians, and community members, we need to critically examine the land theft upon which our prosperity has been built.  This theft was both authorised and unauthorised.

We need to consider the history of land theft to promote a thoughtful discussion about reparations and to undertake the truthtelling that the Yoorrook Justice Commission, the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and all First Nations people are urging upon us.

His Honour Paul Mullaly QC

The Royal Historical Society of Victoria was much saddened at the death of long-serving member, His Honour Paul Mullaly QC, in 2022 just shy of his 93rd birthday. Paul contributed substantially to the RHSV over many years and in many ways however his greatest contribution has been his transcription and annotation of Judge Willis’ Port Phillip Casebooks, for which legal scholars will always be in his debt. Paul’s work can be found on a mini-website within the RHSV website here: The Judge Willis Casebooks . To honour Paul’s contribution we have established this biennial lecture on history and law in our Distinguished Lecturer series.

Speaker: Kate Auty

Barrister, historian, environmentalist, active community member in regional Victoria, and author, Professor Kate Auty is passionate about diversity and inclusive community development. She is involved in a number of community-based intermediary organisations in respect of environment, climate change, energy and Indigenous matters. She is a member of the Australian Accountability Roundtable; co-chair of the Australian Open Government Partnership Multi-Stakeholder Forum; chair of the governing board of the Victorian Environmental Protection Authority; Professorial Fellow School of Law University of Melbourne and Senior Research Fellow with Melbourne Energy Futures.

She was the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability in Victoria from 2009 to 2014. She has formerly held appointments as a magistrate in Victoria and in the goldfields and western desert of Western Australia, in both positions establishing Aboriginal sentencing courts in consultation with Aboriginal people.

Kate holds tertiary qualifications in environmental science, law and history, having graduated from University of Melbourne (Arts Hons/Law), Monash University (Masters in Environmental Science), and La Trobe University (PhD in Law and Legal Studies). She also holds a Diploma of International Environmental Law from UNITAR. Kate is member of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand and is also a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Kate continues as a barrister in Victoria (1992 – ).

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