Mary Gaudron, the first woman appointed to Australia's High Court, has died at the age of 83. Her death marks the loss of a pioneering legal figure who overcame significant gender barriers throughout her career, ultimately reshaping opportunities for women in the Australian judiciary and legal profession.

Born in 1943 in Moree, New South Wales, Gaudron studied part-time at the University of Sydney Law School from 1961, at a time when lectures began with "gentlemen" and the women's common room had only recently been a men's urinal. She was repeatedly refused clerkships because firms would not hire women, yet went on to become the youngest federal judge on the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission and the first female NSW solicitor-general, before her landmark appointment to the High Court in 1987 at age 44. She served there for 16 years until retiring in 2003 to join the International Labour Organisation's tribunal in Geneva, and is survived by her three children. Attorney-General Michelle Rowland and the High Court's Justices paid tribute to her as a trailblazer whose advocacy and example advanced women's role in the law.