Australian Dictionary of Biography

John Portus, c1966

Courtesy of Ann Barson

John Hereford Portus (1913–1997), lawyer and Commonwealth conciliation commissioner, was born on 12 May 1913 at Cessnock, New South Wales, only child of New South Wales-born parents Garnet Vere Portus, Anglican priest and historian, and his wife Ethel Mary, née Ireland. In December 1914, after a year in Adelaide, the family moved to Drummoyne, Sydney, and John was educated at Sydney Grammar School (1929–31). He gained a credit in his Leaving certificate examinations in 1931 and enrolled at the University of Sydney (BA, 1935; BEc, 1968), where he was later a joint recipient of the Pitt Cobbett prize for constitutional law (1935).

In 1935 Portus moved to Adelaide with his parents before using a bequest from Justice Henry Bourne Higgins, a family friend, to continue his studies at New College, Oxford (BA Hons, 1937). It was also because of his personal friendship with Higgins that he ‘became intensely interested in industrial arbitration’ (Portus, quoted in Cockburn 1997, 130). He also toured extensively in Europe and attended the Berlin Olympics in 1936, where he was impressed by the power of Nazi propaganda and likened Germany to ‘a drunk man with a revolver’ (Portus 1936). After graduating with second-class honours in jurisprudence, he was called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn, London, in May 1938. He returned to Adelaide and was appointed secretary of the Law Society of South Australia (1939–40), which included the administration of the Poor Persons Legal Relief Scheme. Sharing his father’s enthusiasm for adult education, he delivered lectures on international and European affairs to groups such as the League of Nations Union. He also participated in public debates and gave radio talks, on one occasion debating the idea of ‘The United States of Europe.’ In April 1939 he was admitted as a solicitor to the Supreme Court of South Australia.

Volunteering for service in the Royal Australian Air Force in World War II, Portus enlisted on 3 February 1941, trained as a navigator, and was commissioned in November. From May 1942 he navigated Sunderland flying boats with No. 10 Squadron, based at Mount Batten, near Plymouth, England. He was one of the survivors of the shooting down of his plane in the Bay of Biscay on 1 August 1943 while attacking and destroying a German U-boat. For ‘courage and devotion to duty in the face of the enemy’ (NAA A9300), he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. In November he was promoted to temporary flight lieutenant and the next month repatriated on medical grounds. On his return to South Australia, he married Margaret Carys Harding Browne, a nursing orderly with the Australian Army Medical Women’s Service who later became a social worker, on 19 February 1944 at Baptist Church, North Adelaide. That same year, on 4 August, he was demobilised at his own request.

In July 1944 Portus was appointed as a Commonwealth conciliation commissioner on the recommendation of Attorney-General H. V. Evatt. His duties initially focused on South Australia, but expanded in 1947–48 pursuant to the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1948 to include the Northern Territory and a wide range of national industries, such as workers in professional occupations, wool and airline workers, storemen and packers, and later bank officials. Highly respected within the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, his decisions on points of law were generally affirmed if appealed to the High Court of Australia. On several occasions he was called to sit upon a full bench deliberation, such as the National Wage Cases in 1974 and 1975, which saw women awarded equal minimum pay rates and the reintroduction of quarterly wage indexation. When he retired in 1978, he was the longest-serving member of the Federal industrial tribunal.

Portus was committed to bringing unions and employers together. In 1962 he was inaugural president of the South Australian branch of the Industrial Relations Society (vice-president 1964–69), and later served as chairman of the National Institute of Labour Studies at Flinders University. He also lectured part time in industrial law at the University of Adelaide (1961–81), where his book The Development of Australian Trade Union Law (1958) served as the standard text, and was visiting professor at Cornell University, United States of America (1965). His interest in industrial affairs extended internationally, and in 1961 he attended the International Labour Organization’s Asian regional seminar in Kuala Lumpur on the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes. Like his father, he was actively involved with the Workers’ Educational Association of South Australia (president 1967–69), for which he initiated a course on industrial arbitration (1938–39) and tutored in industrial relations. For many years, he served on the WEA executive (1970–74, 1976–81) and chaired (1963–81) the trade union postal courses: one of the earliest formalised trade union education programs in Australia. In 1966 he was appointed OBE. He died on 18 November 1997 in Adelaide and was survived by his wife and five children. His ashes were scattered.

A political liberal with sympathy for the underdog, Portus was unpretentious, personally engaging, and committed to the public good. Known for his ‘dry, sharp sense of humour’ and ‘easy informality,’ he was also described as a ’shy, sensitive,’ and ‘private sort of person’ (Cockburn 1978, 5). He was passionate about sport, especially Rugby Union, in which he represented the University of Sydney, Oxford University, and the University of Adelaide; he also coached the university’s rugby team. In retirement he played tennis and enjoyed gardening and poetry. He was made a life member of the WEA in 1981, and was also a long-time member of the Wongana Circle, a discussion group of Adelaide intellectual men. For his support of the Adelaide Law Review, the John Portus prize was established to be awarded annually to the best student contribution.