Bob Bellear
| Bob Bellear | |
|---|---|
| Judge of the District Court of New South Wales | |
|
In office 1996–2005 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Robert William Bellear 17 April 1944 |
| Died | 15 March 2005 (aged 60) Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Citizenship | Australian |
| Spouse(s) | Kaye Williams |
| Alma mater | UNSW (LLB 1978) |
| Profession | Lawyer |
Robert William "Bob" Bellear (17 June 1944 — 15 March 2005) was an Australian social activist, lawyer and judge who was the first Aboriginal Australian judge. Bellear served as a judge of the District Court of New South Wales from 1996 until his death in 2005.
Bellear was born in the far north-east of New South Wales, and grew up near the town of Mullumbimby. His grandfather was a Vanuatuan man who was blackbirded to Australia to work on a sugar plantation, and his grandmother was an Aboriginal Australian woman from Minjerribah (also known as Stradbroke Island) in Queensland. His other grandfather had been blackbirded from the Solomon Islands. Bellear was one of nine children.
He left school early, but could not get a job, a fact which Bellear often attributed to racism. Instead, he joined the Royal Australian Navy, where he was trained in mechanical engineering and clearance diving. He was a successful rugby union player for the Navy's representative side. He was the first Indigenous person to achieve the rank of Petty Officer. Bellear left the Navy in 1968, with several qualifications, including masonry and fitting and turning. He was then able to easily find a job.
For some time Bellear lived in Redfern with his wife Kaye Williams, whom he had met while in the Navy. The suburb had a substantial Aboriginal population at the time. Bellear established the Aboriginal Housing Corporation there in 1972, and throughout the 1970s was a director of both the Aboriginal Medical Service and the Aboriginal Legal Service. Bellear was the leader of a campaign to prevent landlords in Redfern from evicting Aboriginal tenants, and his work led to the Whitlam government transferring ownership of The Block to the Aboriginal Housing Corporation.
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