Children's Court of South Australia (GA1811)

The establishment of the Children's Court of South Australia resulted from dissatisfaction with the previous juvenile court system. In 1976 the senior Judge of the Adelaide Juvenile Court, Judge Wilson, had been critical of the administration of juvenile justice in South Australia. This led to a Royal Commission in 1977 into the juvenile process, which culminated in the enactment of legislation, the Children's Protection and Young Offenders' Act 1979. The Act created the Children's Court of South Australia, thereby superseding the Juvenile Court.

The Children's Court was committed to ensuring that youths obtained the same procedural rights as adults and for instigating a more formal style of justice than that with which the previous court had been engaged. It also acquired the right to order fixed periods of detention to a maximum of two years. Juvenile aid panels, based on the previous welfare model, operated to deal with offenders and a separate screening panel was established to decide the way in which each case would be handled.

The Court was located in the purpose built court/administrative building at 75 Wright Street, Adelaide, for the term of its existence. Judges, special magistrates, special justices and justices of the peace formed the composition of the Court. Two judges sat in metropolitan Adelaide, one of these being appointed as Senior Judge, special magistrates sat in metropolitan Adelaide and went on circuit to small towns and in the absence of a special magistrate, a special justice or 2 justices were able to preside over the initial stages of a trial in a country town.

The Court Registry dealt with all matters referred into and out of the Children's Court, including court documents, files, case listings, enquiries and the allocation of cases. It was headed by a principal administrative officer, the Registrar, who was responsible for the efficient and effective management of the court. A South Australian Children's Court Advisory Committee provided detailed statistics of the operation of the Children's Court in it Annual Reports.

A decade after the introduction of the Children's Court, its effectiveness as a mechanism for providing juvenile justice was, in turn, being questioned. In August
1991 the House of Assembly established a Select Committee to review the whole system, including the administration of the Court and in November 1993, an interim report recommending that the whole system be overhauled and restructured, was produced. Subsequently the enactment of The Status Repeal and Amendment (Children's Protection and Young Offenders) Act 1993 abolished the Children's Court and with further legislation, the Youth Court Act 1993, Young Offenders' Act 1993 and Children's Protection Act 1993, it was superseded by the Youth Court of South Australia.