ACT Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker has announced she will retire in 2026 after more than 15 years on the bench, including more than a decade as head of the Magistrates Court.
Her Honour’s final sitting day will be 27 March 2026.
Chief Magistrate Walker was appointed to the Magistrates Court in 2010 and became Chief Magistrate in 2011, the first woman to hold the role. She also serves as the ACT’s Chief Coroner.
In 2019, she was sworn in as an Acting Judge of the Supreme Court to establish the ACT’s Drug and Alcohol Court, before resuming her role as Chief Magistrate in April 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Before her judicial appointments, Chief Magistrate Walker served as a legal officer in the Royal Australian Air Force and later worked for the UK Crown Prosecution Service. After returning to Australia in 1996, she became a partner at Barker Gosling before practising as a barrister in the ACT for a decade.
Her Honour has also served on the boards of the ACT Law Society, the ACT Bar Association, and the Canberra Institute of Technology, and has tutored at the Australian National University.
The ACT Government thanked Chief Magistrate Walker for her significant contribution to the ACT community, with formal recognition of her tenure to take place in March.
Recruitment for a new Chief Magistrate is expected to begin in the new year.
