any Australian jurisdiction. That same year, she was made a Queen's Counsel (QC), the first female QC in New South Wales. In her capacity as Solicitor-General, Gaudron argued for New South Wales in such landmark High Court cases as the Tasmanian Dams case. From 1981 to 1986, she served on the Council of Macquarie University, and from 1984 to 1986, chaired an advisory council at the University of Wollongong. High Court Justice The death of Justice Lionel Murphy in October 1986 and the retirement of Chief Justice Harry Gibbs in February 1987 created two vacancies on the High Court. On 6 February 1987, John Toohey and Gaudron were appointed to the court. At just 44 years of age, Gaudron was the fourth youngest Justice, after Evatt, McTiernan and Dixon, as well as the first female Justice. As a High Court Justice, Gaudron contributed to every area of Australian law, most notably to Australian criminal law, in judgments that "combine technical mastery with a general tendency to insist on strict compliance by trial judges with their obligations in directing juries". Gaudron was part of the progressive Mason and Brennan courts, which decided such influential cases as Cole v Whitfield, Dietrich v The Queen, and the Mabo case. Gaudron was consistently opposed to all forms of discrimination, with notable judgments in this vein including the decision in Street v Queensland Bar Association (on Section 117 of the Constitution of Australia) and her joint judgment with Justice McHugh in Castlemaine Tooheys Ltd v South Australia. Gaudron was generally regarded as not particularly emotive in her writing style, although the judgment for which she is perhaps best remembered popularly was the Mabo case, where, in a joint judgment with Justice Deane, she said that Australia's past treatment of Indigenous Australians was "the darkest aspect of the history of this nation". The award of Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) was made to six of the seven serving High Court justices in the Bicentennial Australia Day Honours of 1988. Gaudron had declined the award without explanation. On 19 September 1997 Gaudron was appointed the founding Patron of Australian Women Lawyers and continued in this role until 20 February 2009. Retirement On 21 June 2002, Gaudron announced her retirement from the High Court, effective from 10 February 2003. She left the court at the age of just 60, ten years before she reached the mandatory