Another step towards the expansion of the Hellenic Australian Lawyers Association was taken on Friday 30 January, when its Queensland chapter was launched in the State’s ceremonial court. The Chief Justices of Australia, Queensland and South Australia were present in the ceremony, as well as senior judges from Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. More than 30 judges attended the launch, joining the Honorary Consul-General of Greece in Queensland, James Raptis, and a large number of lawyers with a Hellenic background, in what was essentially a celebration of the contribution that people of Hellenic origin have made to Australia.

The association was launched in Melbourne by its national patron, the Chief Justice of South Australia, Christopher Kourakis, in April 2014. The Queensland chapter was launched by Chief Justice of Australia, Robert French. During the launch, the Chief Justice of Queensland, Timothy Carmody, spoke of the enduring links between Greece and Australia. The launch served as an opportunity for the commemoration for the Hellenic lawyers who made a significant contribution to the profession in Australia, becoming eminent figures in the community. Chief Justice Kourakis mentioned Sir John Demetrius Morris, who was the first Chief Justice of Hellenic origin appointed in Australia, in 1940, while Mal Varitimos QC, the Queensland representative of the association, provided a brief history of Hellenic lawyers in Queensland, highlighting the story of John Manelaus Panos, ‘the galloping Greek’, a war hero (he was awarded the distinguished Flying Cross in 1944, having been an officer in 460 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force), who became the first lawyer of Hellenic origin to obtain a law degree in Queensland in 1953. The second was Alexander Christie Freeleeagus, who was the longest serving consul in Australia, and in fact Greece’s longest-serving consul anywhere in the world, having served as Honorary Consul of Greece from 1957 until 1977, then as Consul-General in Queensland until his passing away in 2005.

The launch was closed by the Queensland patron of the association, Justice Anthe Philippides, who in 2000 was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland, in what was the first appointment to a superior court in Australia of a female of Hellenic origin.

The National President of the Association, Andrew Panna QC, explained the aims and objectives of the association, that unites lawyers through their cultural background. As he had pointed out, speaking to Neos Kosmos in an interview published last April, the association “is a forum for people to network, but also a forum to discuss legal issues, welfare issues and Greek issues – somewhere to focus on the application of the law and the Greek community”.
The association plans to establish further state chapters and to hold events of interest to Hellenic lawyers and Philhellenes in the jurisdictions in which it has chapters.