The Australian Women's Register

Summary

Dorothy Jean Kitching (formerly Shearer, nee Asher) was an experienced public servant who served three terms as legislative draftsman for The Administration of Norfolk Island: the first was in 1984; the second in 1993; and the third in 2001. For a time she also carried out the role of deputy clerk for the Island. In the 1970s she had been a legal officer in the Office of the Legislative Draftsman, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. After resigning her initial post in Norfolk Island in 1987, she became assistant legislative counsel at the Australian Law Reform Commission in Sydney. She later worked in the Office of Parliamentary Counsel in Darwin. A 1946 law graduate of the University of Sydney, Kitching was admitted to the New South Wales Bar but remained on the list of non-practising barristers throughout her life.