2.1 The Court

The original Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904 provided for a specialist Court—the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration—comprising a single Judge (designated as President), who would be one of the Judges of the High Court, appointed for a term of seven years. One of the initial three appointees to the High Court, R E O'Connor, was appointed to the Arbitration Court in 1905 and served until 1907, when he resigned. O'Connor's contributions were limited, his main decision being the making of an award for merchant seamen (Macintyre 2004, pp. 55, 59). He was succeeded by Henry Bournes Higgins, who served almost two terms (resigning in June 1921, shortly before the end of his second term). Higgins was the sole member of the Court for six years. An amendment of the Act then allowed for the appointment (also from the High Court) of Deputy Presidents, and Charles Powers was so appointed in 1913. From then until 1921 Higgins and Powers shared the great bulk of the Court's workload, with some help from Isaac Isaacs and Hayden Starke in 1917 and 1920–21 respectively.

Initially, the workload of the Court was modest. In its first five years, it made only five awards: three related to merchant shipping, one for employees of the BHP Company at Broken Hill and Port Pirie, and one for the boot trades.