Patrick Real


Patrick Real was a Supreme Court judge in Queensland, a colony and later a state of Australia.

Early life

Real was born at Limerick, Ireland, the youngest and sixth child of James Real, tenant farmer, and his wife Ellen, née Donegan. Real was taken to Australia as an infant in 1851. His father died on the voyage out, and his mother settled in Ipswich, Queensland, where he was apprenticed to a carpenter. Subsequently he was employed in the Ipswich railway workshops until, at the age of twenty-one, he formed the idea of becoming a barrister.

Legal career

Relinquishing his trade, he devoted himself to study. He was admitted to the Queensland Bar in September 1874 and practised with success. In February 1878 he was appointed Crown Prosecutor for the Central District of Queensland and, on the death of Justice Charles Mein in 1890, a Puisne Judge. In 1903 when Pope Cooper was appointed Chief Justice, Real was appointed Senior Puisne Judge. There was animosity between the Labor government and the judges, playing out through a series of cases challenging government actions and legislation. The parliament undermined his security of tenure by passing the Judges Retirement Act 1921, the effect of which was that immediately upon proclamation three out of six judges, Chief Justice Cooper and Justices Real and Chubb were compulsorily retired, which permitted the government to appoint new judges.

Later life

After his retirement as a judge, aged 76, Real practised as a consulting barrister, without great success. Real died in 1928 and was buried in Toowong Cemetery.

Legacy

His home Eulalia in Norman Park was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register.