Stories
Joseph Wesley Nichols’ story
Joseph Wesley Nichols has the rare distinction of being as famous in Darwin as he is in Alice Springs.
Nichols arrived in Darwin in 1925 to begin duties as Police Clerk of Courts. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Nichols was responsible for an assortment of duties associated with the legal administration of the Northern Territory and at various times, had 28 separate statutory roles to fill.
By 1933, his appointments included Clerk and Bailiff to the Local Court, Clerk of the Supreme Court, Registrar of Bankruptcy, Registrar General, Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages, Sheriff Marshall of the High Court, Assistant Marshall of the High Court and … the list goes on. In echo of Gilbert and Sullivan, Nichols was known as Legal Poo-Bah of the Northern Territory and Lord-High-Everything-Else of the Law Courts.
His duties included accompanying the Justice on the Court circuit that took in the whole of the Territory, travelling by car, with all the hazards and discomfort of dust in the dry and bogs and flooding in the wet.
Nichols was appointed a Special Magistrate and during the 1940s he covered many thousands of miles by car and air, hearing several thousand cases. Justice Wells once said of Nichols, I have never known a man to work like him. Nothing is ever a trouble to him and he has always been of the greatest assistance…
Nichols retired to Alice Springs in 1955 but continued in his duties as Special Magistrate. A war service injury in the leg made it difficult for him to move around and with his subsequent increasing weight, he, rather unconventionally, sometimes found it easier to hold court on the verandah of his home!
Despite all his work, Nichols also found time for an active community life. He was Patron of the Alice Springs Sub-Branch of the Returned Services League (RSL) and a member of the Federal Executive of the League. He was actively involved with the Northern Territory Football League (NTFL) for many years and was made life member in 1934. The prestigious Nichols medal for the Best and Fairest Player is still awarded by the NTFL each year. Nichols was also active in the racing community, Chamber of Commerce, Red Cross, Legacy and Freemasonry. In 1964 he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to the Northern Territory.
It is said that a letter addressed to Mr JW Nichols, Everything, Alice Springs, sent in the 1950s, reached him promptly. Joseph Nichols died in Alice Springs Hospital in 1968.
