Sir Harry Talbot Gibbs, (7 February 191725 June 2005) was Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia from 1981 to 1987 after serving as a member of the High Court between 1970 and 1981. He was known as one of Australia's leading federalist judges although he presided over the High Court when decisions such as Koowarta v Bjelke-Petersen in 1982 and Commonwealth v Tasmania expanded the powers of the Commonwealth at the expense of the states. Gibbs dissented from the majority verdict in both cases. On 3 August 2012, the Supreme Court of Queensland Library opened the Sir Harry Gibbs Legal Heritage Centre. It is the only legal heritage museum of its kind in Queensland and features a permanent exhibition dedicated to the life and legacy of Sir Harry Gibbs. Early career (1917–1970) Harry Talbot Gibbs was educated at the Ipswich Grammar School and later at Emmanuel College at the University of Queensland, where he was President of the University of Queensland Union. He graduated from the latter with a Bachelor of Arts with honours in 1937 and a Bachelor of Laws in 1939. The same year he was admitted to the bar, but his legal career was interrupted by World War II and he served in the Australian Military Forces from 1942 to 1945 and in the Second Australian Imperial Force in Papua New Guinea, attaining the rank of Captain. He married Muriel Dunn in 1944 and the couple had three daughters and a son (Barbara, Mary, Margaret and Harry). His younger brother Wylie Gibbs was a federal Liberal MP in the 1960s. While stationed in Papua New Guinea, Gibbs developed an interest in its legal system and was awarded a Master of Laws based on his research. He returned to the practice of law following the war and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1957, while also lecturing in law at the University of Queensland. Gibbs served as a judge on the Supreme Court of Queensland from 8 June 1961 until 24 June 1967. He was the first law graduate of the University of Queensland to join that Court. In 1963, Gibbs was appointed Chair of the Supreme Court of Queensland Library Committee and held the position until 1967. In 1967 Gibbs was appointed to the Federal Court of Bankruptcy and the ACT Supreme Court. He was appointed as a judge at a relatively early age of 44