Obituary for former NT administrator Tom Pauling

Loved ones of former NT leader Tom Pauling have penned an emotional obituary to the ‘extraordinary’ man ahead of his State Funeral on Wednesday afternoon. Read the touching words.

Tom Pauling is survived by his wife Tessa. Picture: Supplied

Thomas Ian Pauling AO KC was an extraordinary human being. A force of nature. A one off.

Tom was born on December 13, 1946 in Sydney. On the day of his arrival, Sydney was hit by a “Southerly Buster” bringing rain and hail with thunderous fury. Windows were blown out. We can’t say we weren’t warned.

Tom grew up in Sydney with his parents Tom and Esme, and his sister Sue.

He was educated at Drummoyne Boys High School and the Sydney Law School.

He was admitted to practice in 1969 and was employed with the NSW Public Solicitor’s office but shortly afterwards answered an ad to head to Darwin as a solicitor with the law firm Cridland & Bauer working for George Cridland.

Tom arrived in what was to be his lifelong home, Darwin, in March 1970 and never left.

He was present and involved one way or another in almost every significant event in the Territory since he arrived.

He embraced the Darwin spirit of community and quickly became involved in so many facets of community life here including sailing, “gentlemen’s” (D-Grade) cricket, golf, horse racing and the theatre.

Perhaps the most remarkable of his many remarkable contributions to the Northern Territory community, beyond the law, was in the performing arts.

In 1970, Tom auditioned for a part in The Country Wife with the local amateur theatre group, when he met Ken Conway.

It was the start of a life long partnership and friendship in the arts.

Tom Pauling’s family have remembered their patriarch as a “force of nature”. Picture: Supplied

Together with Ken and other committed thespians, he helped save Browns Mart from a destiny as a rose garden, and turned it into a theatre venue.

Tom secured an Arts Council grant to engage a professional director in residence.

In 1970, he went to Sydney and found Bryan Nason who came to Darwin to stage The Legend of King O’Malley.

Tom joined Bryan’s theatre company and coined its new name “The Grin and Tonic Theatre Troupe”.

In 1972 Tom turned his back on the law, sold everything apart from his house, a guitar and a banjo, and went on the road in Queensland with Grin and Tonic, performing Shakespeare in schools from the back of the Red Truck.

After a year of touring, when the dividends were distributed Tom received the princely sum of $36. He returned to the law shortly afterwards.

But, Tom remained deeply immersed in local theatre and the performing arts, after his return from Queensland.

He performed in at least 34 productions with the DTG, later Darwin Theatre Company (DTC), including 11 Shakespeare plays.

Shakespeare was Tom’s great love. He holds many collections of Shakespeare's works, and he won the hand of his wife Tessa by reading aloud Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116.

Tom and Ken Conway created the concept of ‘Clipboard Theatre’, an innovation in which the actors could bring their lines on stage.

This encouraged the performance of diverse works without learning and remembering the lines - which proved increasingly useful the older Tom and Ken got.

Tom played a significant role in the creation of what is now the Darwin Entertainment Centre (DEC), serving as its inaugural chairman and performing in several major productions, including HMS Pinafore, Pirates of Penzance, Oklahoma and Jesus Christ Superstar.

The expense of staging Pinafore with a full-sized ship strained the centre’s budget so much that Tom and the managing director sang the budget to the tune of ‘Money Makes the World Go Around’, in order to soften the blow for the board.

Local playwright Stephen Carleton captured the mischievousness and vigour that Tom brought to the theatre world when he said:

“Has anyone ever danced the line between the establishment and bohemia as deftly as Tom Pauling? And yet dance it he did.”

Beyond the theatre, Tom played an active role in the management, evolution and curation of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, helping to shape the Maritime Museum and many exhibitions and events.

The Museum and its staff became both inspiration and outlet for Tom’s great love of Charles Darwin’s life and works, with staff scientists and historians regularly receiving his requests to identify unusual creatures.

Tom Pauling was a passionate thespian. Picture: Supplied

As a Board Member of MAGNT, Tom curated the “Off the Rack” exhibition to showcase the museum’s collection of nationally significant fine art (including, Tom Roberts, Arthur Boyd and Arthur Streeton) which had been languishing unseen in storage.

Tom’s house is filled with paintings, and books on art.

His great love of Aboriginal art brought him into contact with a painting by Nora Napaljarri Nelson called Milky Way Dreaming.

He instantly recognised this as the ideal centrepiece for the new Supreme Court building then under construction.

Through Tom’s vision, and some grit and determination, this extraordinary installation in the form of venetian glass mosaic came to life.

Former Chief Minister Marshall Perron recalled:

“Had it not been for Tom’s standing with Cabinet, the Milky Way Dreaming would not be there.

“Not only did he personally put the case for it to be installed with its eye watering budget, but he came back for more at the worst possible time.

“It was, without doubt, the respect for Tom and his unbounded enthusiasm for this artwork that cabinet reluctantly approved the funds required.”

Tom considered the Milky Way Dreaming Mosaic in the Court to be one of his proudest achievements.

Of course, it was the law that brought Tom to this community and it was in the law that he made his most indelible mark.

His first case in the Territory was Milirrpum v Nabalco, acting for the Aboriginal plaintiffs claiming native title to land at Gove at the site of the Nabalco mining lease.

That case was the progenitor of land rights law and ultimately, recognition of native title that came with the Mabo decision of the High Court 20 years later.

Tom co-founded the independent bar in the Northern Territory in 1974. Among many cases, he was counsel for the accused in Rv Anunga, in what became the seminal case on the admissibility of confessions made by aboriginal persons in police interviews.

Tom Pauling celebrating Charles Darwin's birthday.

In 1984, he was appointed Queen's Counsel, aged only 38.

Tom was an incredible advocate, at once an ‘everyman’ and a sophisticated and accomplished legal mind.

He could ‘dance with the paupers and dine with the kings’. And he often did both.

He was appointed Solicitor General of the Northern Territory in 1988 and remained in that role for 20 years.

He won many cases in the High Court securing important constitutional rights for Territorians.

A faithful servant of the Northern Territory Government and a leading national expert on land rights and native title law, he held the respect of Prime Ministers and State

Premiers as well as Territory Ministers.

Tom was appointed the Northern Territory’s 19th Administrator in 2007, after 39 years in the law.

He and Tessa relished the chance to bring their creative energies into that senior statesman role, and were warmly embraced by Territorians of all walks of life for their sense of irreverence, fun and humanity.

When he retired as Administrator in 2011, people would ask ‘what are you going to do now?’. Tom would say “I’ve got a new job. I’m going to be a full time grandpa.”

In 2008 Tom was appointed an officer of the Order of Australia for significant services to the Northern Territory.

A loving and attentive husband, father and grandfather, Tom imbued his family with a passion for life, learning, nature and community.

The family grew bigger as Tom and Tessa took in and mentored the children of family friends for their senior high school years at what came to be known as ‘The Pauling Finishing School’.

Tom spent 45 years building a magnificent garden oasis at their home in Philip Street Fannie Bay, with countless barefoot trips to nurseries and Bunnings, and a huge array of rare plants, including a palm so enormous that the books warned against its domestic planting.

Its eventual removal at great expense required a very large crane and many truck loads to the dump.

He reveled in the process of gardening, knew the latin name for almost every plant, yet despised maintaining the irrigation system.

Tom was truly a man of words - they inspired him, filled him, served him, and poured out of him (often late into the night).

His training as an actor and lawyer gave him an enormous capacity to remember, organise and compose ideas and language, and he used this ability tirelessly to advocate, defend, inspire and connect with his fellow humans.

Tom was famously unflappable, except when the All Blacks were thrashing the Wallabies, and he was uncontactable when watching Rugby Union (“I’ll call you later, I’m in Church”).

To us, he seemed immortal.

Written by Ken Conway, Duncan McConnell, Fred Pauling, Tessa Pauling