Where are they now?: Ron Castan AM QC (1956)

Ron graduated from Carey in 1956 and studied at the University of Melbourne where he obtained an Arts/Law degree and the prestigious Supreme Court Prize for the top law student. He was then awarded a Fullbright scholarship to Harvard University where he gained a Master of Laws.

Upon his return to Australia, Ron joined the Victorian Bar and quickly built a substantial practice in commercial and constitutional law. However, it was human rights and, particularly, First Nations rights law for which Ron would become best known. Ron cofounded the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service in 1973 and the Koorie Heritage Trust in 1985 which began with the University of Melbourne and Museum Victoria’s return of First Nations cultural collections. Ron worked as a Human Rights and Equal Opportunity

Commissioner in Victoria for several years, was an important member of the Australian Constitutional Commission and revitalised the Victorian Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty Victoria).

In 1992, the landmark High Court Mabo decision recognised the land rights of the Meriam people, the traditional owners of the Murray Islands. This significant case changed the course of Australian legal history, overturning the concept of Terra Nullius, meaning ‘land belonging to no one’, and paving the way for recognising the native title of First Nations Peoples across Australia. Along with his team of lawyers, Ron Castan AM QC led this case on behalf of Eddie Mabo, dedicating 10 years to working toward pre-colonial land rights. Ron was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1993 and was posthumously awarded the Carey Medal in 2000. When Ron died in October 1999, Monash University’s Castan Centre for Human Rights Law was named in his honour and First Nations politician Aden Ridgeway called him the ‘great white warrior against racism’.