O’Shane, Pat (1941-…), is an Aboriginal Australian lawyer. She became Australia’s first Aboriginal magistrate (law officer) when she was appointed to serve in the law courts of New South Wales in 1986.
Patricia June O’Shane was born on June 19, 1941, in Mossman, Queensland. She was educated at Cairns High School and at Kelvin Grove Teachers College in Brisbane (now part of the Queensland University of Technology). She became the first Aboriginal teacher in Queensland when she took a job at Cairns High School in 1962. She taught there until 1972. In 1973, she moved to Sydney, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in law at the University of New South Wales. In 1976, O’Shane became the first Aboriginal Australian to earn a law degree. That same year, she was admitted to the Bar Association of New South Wales and became Australia’s first Aboriginal barrister (lawyer with the right to argue cases in the highest courts).
In 1981, O’Shane was appointed to lead the New South Wales Aboriginal Affairs department. She was the first woman and the first Aboriginal Australian to head an Australian government department. She served until 1986, when she was appointed to serve as a magistrate in the local law courts of New South Wales. O’Shane retired in 2013.
