The Australian Women's Register

Records in this series were created by the Honourable Justice Elizabeth Evatt when she was Chief Judge of the Family Court of Australia. Included in the series are files of her associates, and records of the Pearl Watson Foundation, which was set up in 1985 in memory of the murdered wife of a Family Court judge. Approximately half of the series contains administrative files arranged alphabetically while half of the records are subject based. The administrative files include bound files of photocopied correspondence with the Attorney-General, records of parliamentary debates, copies of family law legislation, conference papers, minutes of committee meetings, journal articles, press releases and cuttings. Also included are booklets and leaflets on family law issues, and copies of publications on legal issues designed for high school students. The records in the subject-based files concern the history of the Family Court and problems faced by it, papers of the Chief Judges’ Committee and the annual Family Law Judges’ Conference, annual reports of the Court and its counselling services, and papers analysing legislation and Family Court practice. Included are desk diaries of Justice Evatt and three judges’ notebooks containing handwritten notes of family hearings. The records of the Pearl Watson Foundation contain details of the setting up, funding and projects of the foundation, one of which was the publication of “A Guide to Family Law”.