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When land became available in Fannie Bay, and two blocks were reserved for ex servicemen, Bill obtained one
of them and built the family home in McColl Street. He worked in a variety of jobs—as a bridge carpenter with
McGinnes and later with the railways. He also helped the Forestry Branch plant trees at Howard Springs, Gunn
Point and Garden Point, a backbreaking job. Hilda recalled that Bill excelled in everything he did and that this trait
carried over to the children.
By this time the Muirs had 10 children, one of whom, Patrick, died as a youngster. The others became prominent
in sporting activities, some winning several diving titles, others excelling in cricket, darts, water polo and Territory
football, particularly rugby.
When Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin on Christmas Day 1974 Bill was killed and Hilda and several of
the family were injured. When Hilda discovered that Bill’s war medals and ribbons had been lost in the cyclone,
she asked local historian Peter Spillett to help her get replacements so that she could pass them on to her children
as a reminder of the contribution Bill made to his country during a time of national crisis. Following the cyclone
Hilda went to Brisbane for a while but returned to Darwin in 1976. She still resided there in 1992, with Bill’s
medals amongst her most cherished possessions. She was writing her own story to ensure that her unique heritage
and her family’s history were passed on to future generations of the Muirs and other Territorians.
Article by D Lawrie in Palmerston Herald; personal family interviews and notes.
BARBARA JAMES, Vol 2.MUIRHEAD, JAMES HENRY (JIM) (1925– ), barrister, Supreme Court Judge, Royal Commissioner and
Administrator, was born in Adelaide, South Australia on 24 April 1925, son of Henry Mortimer Muirhead, for
many years the Senior Magistrate in South Australia. His maternal grandfather was Sir Richard Butler who had
been Premier and Treasurer of South Australia in 1905 and Treasurer again in 1909–1910; in an interesting family
connection, Sir Richard was also the Minister responsible for the Northern Territory in 1905 and again in 1909–
1910, when the Territory was administered by South Australia.
The Muirhead name was brought to Australia from Glasgow by Henry MacKinnon Muirhead, who established
himself as a jeweller in Adelaide in 1850 and was later a member of the first Municipal Council for Glenelg.
Henry Muirhead also had an early connection with the Territory. He had purchased a preliminary land order,
which entitled him to a 0,2 hectare town lot and 128 rural hectares. When the selections were made in 1870,
he became the registered owner of lot 311, Cavenagh Street, later part of the site of the Don Hotel. He sold it and
the rural block to Thomas Reynolds in 1874 for 150 Pounds, a very handsome profit, given the purchase price of
60 Pounds, three Shillings and 9 Pence. He was one of the few absentee owners who ever made anything out of
their Northern Territory speculation. One of his sons, Charles Mortimer Muirhead (Jim Muirhead’s grandfather),
began the family association with the Law, being a prominent South Australian barrister and Justice of the Peace
as well as being well respected in yachting circles.
James Muirhead, following the family tradition, was educated at St Peter’s College, and spent one year at the
University of Adelaide studying for his Bachelor of Laws degree before he was old enough to join the Australian
Imperial Force (AIF). He saw active service from 1943 to 1946 as an infantryman and signaller with the 57th/60th
Battalion AIF in Bougainville, New Guinea, and with the 37th/52nd Battalion in Rabaul, New Britain. Upon
demobilisation he returned to four more years of university studies at the University of Adelaide, concurrently
serving his Articles of Clerkship in a Waymouth Street office. He served as a Judge’s Associate in the final year
of his training and was admitted to the South Australian Bar in 1950. He practised in the partnership of Thomson,
Beatrice, Ross and Lewis, and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1967.
On 4 February 1950, he married Margaret Hamilton Frayne from Adelaide, and they have four children—
a daughter and three sons. Jim Muirhead first served as a Judge of the Local and District Criminal Court of
South Australia in 1970–1972 and then went to Papua New Guinea for five months as an Acting Judge of the
Supreme Court in 1972–1973, under Chief Justice Sir John Minoghue. In 1973, he was seconded to establish
the Australian Institute of Criminology in Canberra, being appointed Acting Director of that Institute. In 1974,
Muirhead was appointed as the second residential Judge of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory, alongside
Sir William Forster. Upon the setting up of the Federal Court of Australia, Jim Muirhead also served concurrently
as a Judge of that Court from 1977 to 1986.
It is in the former capacity however, that Muirhead is often most remembered, as the Northern Territory Supreme
Court Judge who presided over the trial of Michael and Lindy Chamberlain, who were convicted on 29 October
1982 after the case had been re-opened by the Attorney-General, Paul Everingham. Of this case, Muirhead has
said: ‘As to the trials of Mr and Mrs Chamberlain, I have always declined to comment in public. I must be one of
the few who have not written a book about it. I sometimes wonder what the jury who assisted me at that trial think
about it all. The crown case was well conducted—as was the defence. I believe the trial was a fair one. The full
court of the federal court found it to be so, so did the High Court of Australia. The convictions have now been set
aside by the processes of a Royal Commission and a special Act of Parliament’.
Whilst in the Northern Territory, he was twice called upon to be sworn in as Acting Administrator, once in
1980 and again during the absence of the Administrator in late 1982. On 4 February 1983, he was appointed
Acting Administrator with a Dormant Commission, empowered to administer the Government of the Territory
when neither the Administrator nor Chief Justice (who held the first Dormant Commission) was available, and he
acted in that capacity on a further two occasions. Jim Muirhead remained in Darwin until September 1985 when he
moved to Western Australia, there to enjoy his retirement years. He later recalled that until this time, ‘life had been
a bit wearing and I felt as if I had been a Judge forever. By coincidence, I read the words of a Chinese philosopher