Celebrating 100 Indigenous UNSW Law Graduates 100-Indigenous-Law-Graduates-Event_Booklet_V13_FIN | Page 5

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including the law course I was in the process of setting up.
Clearly what was needed was a “special admission” program
for Aboriginal students that would have regard to the actual
capacity of students to undertake a course, rather than a
formal classification into which an unsympathetic system had
delivered them.
I was keen to have such a system in place before we recruited
our first year of students, and this required the support of the
Professorial Board and the approval of the University Council.
I drew up a recommendation that a person of Australian
Aboriginal descent might with the necessary approval be
admitted to any Faculty as a student additional to the quota.
The purpose of requiring individual approval was to ensure
that a student was not set up for failure by being admitted to a
course in which they had no reasonable prospect of success.
Indigenous students given special admission were additional to
the quota so that no student could complain that the presence
of the Aboriginal students had deprived a non-Aboriginal
student of a place that would have otherwise been available.
I took this proposal to the Professorial Board which
recommended it to Council on 8 December 1970. On 25
January 1971 it was adopted by the University Council, and
ever since that date the avenue of special admission has been
available to Indigenous students in every Faculty of UNSW,
should they need it.
I had succeeded in getting the special admission policy
approved before the Faculty opened, but the question
remained whether any candidates were available at such
short notice. I was able to find two (both office-bearers on the
Aboriginal Legal Service) who became members of our first
year of students. Unfortunately, one of them, a brilliant student
named Gary Williams, decided that a legal career was not for
him and he left before the year was out. He has recently made
a name for himself in scholarly circles through his work on
Aboriginal languages.
The other student, Paul Coe, finished the year and ultimately
took out his degree and practised for some time as a barrister.
However, he was not able to be our first law graduate. He
was enrolled in a five-year combined degree course, and in
the School’s second year of operation Pat O’Shane, who had
already acquired a degree while doing teacher training, was
able to enrol in our three-year graduate course, which she
completed in minimum time, becoming our first graduate.
I returned to the Bar and went on to the Supreme Court in 1973.
I knew that the Law School’s interest in Indigenous people was
safe in the capable and caring hands of others, particularly
Garth Nettheim, who made it his life’s work after he joined the
School early in 1971. I am sad that he did not live to share my
pride in the School’s 100th graduate.
Hal Wootten AC QC
Foundation Dean, UNSW Law (1969 – 1973)