“The Melbourne Supreme Court has never been an entirely monolingual space.”

As Melbourne has never been a monolingual city, neither has its Supreme Court been an entirely monolingual space. From the 1840s, the Court regularly functioned as a polyglot linguistic theatre; a stage to which people were drawn to listen in on a friends, relatives, or, a stranger’s trial.

Translation was essential to the spread of British imperial power and law in sites across the globe. From the 1870s, the Victorian government employed one official ‘Chief Chinese interpreter’, Charles Hodges. From the late 1880s, they also employed two official ‘Indian Interpreters’, the England-born Arthur Pritchard and Gilbert Smith. 

These court interpreters were called upon to survey the people of colour in their midst. Arthur and Charles not only frequented criminal and civil courtrooms but were also pervasively presence in Melbourne streets, moving into shops, factories and, at times, into Parliament House. As well as assisting their powers of surveillance, the interpreters’ language skills also gave them a diplomatic platform. In the lead up to the 1901 Immigration Restriction Act, the interpreters spoke for the interests of Chinese and South Asian Melbourne residents and criticized the racist attitudes of ‘Caucasians’. 

In September 1893, Arthur wrote to the Melbourne Argus newspaper to refute a charge made by white settlers that corrupt intermediaries had been providing licenses to ‘Hindoo hawkers’ who reputedly ‘did not speak a word of English’. Arthur claimed this was ‘not the case’.

After Charles passed away in 1909, the Wangaratta-born linguist William Ah Ket took over the role of prominent intermediary between the government and the Melbourne Chinese community. William had worked as a court interpreter in his teens before studying law at the University of Melbourne, and in 1904 William became first person of Chinese descent to be admitted to the Bar. Listen to Ah Ket's story here : https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/the-history-listen/william-ah-ket-the-first-chinese-australian-barrister/10155706