It was while working for the Queensland Treasury Department in 1949 and studying for his accounting degree at Queensland University that Earle Rawlings’ future became clear.
The Under-Treasurer’s son was a court reporter and encouraged Earle to study high-speed Pitman shorthand. It was a logical choice for Earle because he had already reached 100wpm in high school. After six months of service in the Air Force National Service, he buckled down to increase his Pitman speed, graduating in 1954. He was appointed Queensland’s Chief Court Reporter in 1974, the youngest person to hold that position.
He supervised a staff of as many as 94 reporters and 40 typists serving the Court of Appeal, Supreme Courts, District Courts, Industrial tribunals, Royal Commissions, and all government reporters.
A local publication, ‘The Corrections News Supplement’ quoted Earle as saying that when he first started working as a court reporter, “We had no female court reporters because it was deemed that women should not be subjected to the ‘indelicate’ evidence given in court. There were no female judges or magistrates and females did not serve on juries. Today there are no male court reporters in Queensland.”
Earle counts his attendance at more than 20 National Court Reporter Association conventions in the United States as highlights in his career as he had the opportunity to meet ‘many of the all-time greats of the profession’, and make many friends such as Irving Kosky, Al Weinstein, Eugene Olsen and Mary-Louise Gilman.
After his first visit to the United States in 1975, Earle said he was convinced that machine reporting would supersede Pitman as he observed CAT systems being trialled. At the time, all the Queensland court reporters were Pitman writers.
Earle purchased two Stenograph machines and two books on theory for $100 each (machines cost about $250 then). Fifteen years later, when Queensland converted to machine shorthand, the court system invested $2 million in Stenograph equipment.
Though a big supporter of machine shorthand, Earle did not retrain. At this time, at the age 40, he supervised a $4 million budget, was not an active reporter and supervised reporters flying two hours to jobs 1,200 miles away doing exclusively daily copy.
In 1985 Earle set up the Court and Parliamentary Reporting course, a two-year, full-time program which trained students to become machine shorthand writers.
During the time of retraining Pitman writers to machine shorthand reporters, overseas staff were employed to ensure the court and transcript workload was covered, reporters from America, Canada, England and Zimbabwe. Guaranteed jobs were awaiting the new graduates.
Earle Rawlings retired in 1990 and has spent his time since then working with the Pine Rivers Community Corrections Area Office as a volunteer supervising offenders on home detention and community service projects. He also worked with the Aspley Scout Group which he helped establish in 1962, was president of the Aspley Lions Club, helped build the Kidspace playground near his home and has been a member of the Nudgee Golf Club since 1959. He also is a member of the Classes for Seniors at the Aspley Uniting Church where he established a computer course for seniors.
Earle has been married over 40 years, has two children and four grandchildren.
In 1994 he was the first court reporter to be inducted into the SRAA Hall of Fame. “Nothing could be better than that,” Earle said.
When he retired, Earle was publicly recognised for having brought together in Brisbane the largest number of computer-trained court reporters in any centre in the world.
Earle Rawlings received the Order of Australia Medal in 2002 for service to court reporting, particularly through the introduction of technology to assist the transcription process, and to the community of Aspley through service, youth and sporting organisations.
Earle currently works as a tour guide, escorting bus loads of tourists from ships or aircraft to hotels and to visit tourist spots around South East Queensland.
2009 - Earle Rawlings is 75.
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