Alan George Demack, who was the Central Judge and came on circuit to Mackay between 1978 and 19 May 2000, died in Rockhampton on 28 January 2025.
There have been many tributes written with respect to AG Demack AO during his lifetime. There will be many more tributes which talk of the man and his qualities at his funeral in Rockhampton on 14 February 2025. I regard Alan Demack as one of the few humanitarians that I have encountered in my lifetime.
Prior to being appointed as the Supreme Court Judge for Central Queensland in 1978, Alan Demack had been the Chief Judge in the Family Court in Brisbane following the introduction of the Family Court in 1976. Prior to that he was appointed as a Judge in the District Court in 1972 when he was 37 years of age.
My first encounter with Alan Demack was appearing before him in the Family Court in Brisbane after I was admitted as a solicitor in February 1976. After I was admitted and employed as a solicitor by Power & Power in Brisbane, I appeared in the Family Court on a weekly basis.
On Alan Demack’s first visit to Mackay as the Central Judge, a dinner was held for him (as was the custom at that time) by the Mackay Law Society. Michael White, who was then a partner at Macrossan & Amiet organised the dinner.
The dinner was in a room on the first floor level of the Whitsunday Hotel. The Ink Spots (American Negro group) were playing at the hotel that night.
There were 13 solicitors in attendance. All of the solicitors were male. A number of them were not friends. I spent part of the night on the pay phone in the foyer at ground level of the Hotel ringing a man in Maryborough who I was trying to convince to drive to Mackay to give evidence in a civil case the next day.
When I returned from one of my visits to the pay phone organising witnesses, I was called upon without notice, as the most junior solicitor then present, to propose a toast to the Judiciary – Alan Demack.
The witness drove overnight from Maryborough and was in my office at 8:00am the next morning. The trial was held. Stanley Jones, barrister from Rockhampton, appeared for my client. At the end of the cross examination, His Honour asked the Plaintiff, who had suffered a badly broken leg when he fell off the bonnet of a truck and his leg was caught between the front of the truck and the bulbar, what he did with himself during the day. The Plaintiff said that he spent his time in the hotel drinking and playing pool.
Although the Judge was a teetotaler and a religious man, the Plaintiff was compensated fairly. My first civil case before Judge Demack.
Prior to Alan Demack being appointed as the Central Judge, there were few civil trials in Mackay and most of the cases that were tried were tried in Townsville before Justice George Kneipp.
Alan Demack travelled to Mackay as the Circuit Judge over the next 22 years. Initially, there were sittings of one week, three times a year which later grew to sittings of two weeks, three times a year. At the sittings, there were running lists of civil cases. That is, the cases were listed in order and if one case settled, the next one would be called on with short notice.
The briefs in the civil cases conducted by Macrossan & Amiet were shared in the early years of Judge Demack’s circuits to Mackay between Kerry Cullinane from Townsville and Stan Jones from Rockhampton.
In later years, the briefs for trial before Alan Demack were shared between Duncan McMeekin QC, John Baulch QC and Graeme Crow QC.
All of the above barristers who regularly appeared before Alan Demack were subsequently appointed as Judges.
Kerry Cullinane was appointed the Northern Judge when Sir George Kneipp retired. Stanley Jones was appointed as the first Far Northern Judge in 1997 when he was appointed to sit in the Supreme Court in Cairns.
Duncan McMeekin QC sat as the Central Judge between October 2007 and April 2018.
John Baulch SC was appointed a District Court Judge in Townsville between 2010 and 2017.
Graeme Crow QC is the current sitting Central Judge and was appointed in 2018.
In the 22 years that Alan Demack travelled to Mackay and heard cases, the Mackay Supreme Court was always busy with civil litigation. The Bruce Highway and Peak Downs Highway were dangerous roads to travel on. Working in coal mines was dangerous work. There were many injuries that led to a lot of civil cases that went to trial in Mackay.
Judgments were given by Alan Demack within days of the hearing, and often at the same sittings. He would work on his judgments overnight and then give them in the morning before the start of another case. He always had an issue with math. At the end of the delivery of his judgments, he would ask the solicitors present to check the math.
In his last year as Circuit Judge in Mackay, his daughter, Anne was his Associate. Anne has subsequently become a Judge in the Federal Court who still comes to Mackay and hears family law cases
Alan Demack and John Carroll, who was at that time the Senior Partner at Macrossan & Amiet, became good friends. When Alan Demack came to Mackay, he always dined with John Carroll as John did not practice civil litigation.
Alan Demack was a great common law jurist that Mackay and Central Queensland were blessed to have served them for 22 years.
