Peter O’Callaghan interview 22 July 2009

If I’m about to conclude, I guess, am I?

Yes.

Well I only want to say one other thing in praise of generally, what clerks have done, what members of the Bar Council over the years have done selflessly and efficiently, albeit we snipe at them and do all sorts of things. And the other thing that I’d like to say is that in the main, barristers have been vastly supported by their wives, and it’s a big strain on a marriage when barristers are, during the week no chance of going to a play or to the theatre because they’ve got to prepare for the next day and so on, and whether they’re going to be in court on Thursday or not, they don’t know. So I’d just like to pay a great tribute to the wives and families of barristers – without them, I am sure they couldn’t have done as well as they did.

Can I just quickly ask you about your six children, did any of them follow you into the law?

The answer is yes, only in the sense that my sixth son firstly did commerce, and then he did a law degree at Bond, and his articles at Mahony’s and he was in the law for quite a while, but he’s now a financial adviser. But the others said (though it’s difficult for them to say it now because they’re doctors, obstetricians, and vets, etc) ‘no way are we going to be a lawyer if you have to work as hard as that’. And they probably do work at least as hard, if not harder.

Can I just ask a quick final question then? What do you feel in all these years has been your greatest achievement during your time at the Bar?

I wouldn’t be so presumptuous to say anything other than I think I’ve been a member of the Bar, I’ve fought, fitted in, had great camaraderie, affection for my fellow barristers, be they ladies or men, and that’s it. I wouldn’t want to say it any more than I said to Norman O’Bryan II (that is Norman O’Bryan, the retired judge) many years ago when I was on the circuit at Warrnambool, and he asked me how I was feeling about the Bar, and I said ‘Norman, I pinch myself’. And I don’t think I’ve changed from that. But I’m not going to say what any achievements I’ve made - that’s for somebody else to say.

An edited version of an interview conducted for the Victorian Bar oral history project by Juliette Brodsky, filmed by Stewart Carter at Owen Dixon Chambers and edited by David Broder.