The Honourable Justice Catherine Ena Holmes was appointed as a judge on 16 March 2000 to the Supreme Court of Queensland

Supreme Court of Queensland

The Supreme Court of Queensland, which is based at the Law Courts Complex, is the superior court for the Australian State of Queensland and sits around the middle of the Australian court hierarchy...

, which is the highest ranking court

Australian court hierarchy

There are two streams within the hierarchy of Australian courts, the federal stream and the state and territory stream. While the federal courts and the court systems in each state and territory are separate, the High Court of Australia remains the ultimate court of appeal for the Australian...

 in the Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n State

States and territories of Australia

The Commonwealth of Australia is a union of six states and various territories. The Australian mainland is made up of five states and three territories, with the sixth state of Tasmania being made up of islands. In addition there are six island territories, known as external territories, and a...

 of Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

.

Education

Holmes graduated with an Economics

Economics

Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

 degree from the Australian National University

Australian National University

The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...

 in 1976. After this, she moved to Brisbane

Brisbane

Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

 and enrolled in the University of Queensland

University of Queensland

The University of Queensland, also known as UQ, is a public university located in state of Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest and largest university in Queensland and the fifth oldest in the nation...

 Law School. She graduated from law school in the early 1980s, joined the office of the Official Receiver in Bankruptcy before completing the Legal Practice Course at the Queensland Institute of Technology.

Early career

In 1982, Holmes began her employment with the Prosecutions Section of the Deputy Crown Solicitor's Office; during this time, she was appointed to the Bar. In 1986, she began private practice. The focus of her practice was criminal and administrative law. She was a member of the Anti-Discrimination Tribunal and in 1998-99 was appointed as Counsel Assisting the Forde Commission of Inquiry into Abuse of Children in Queensland Institutions.

Judicial career

Justice Holmes was appointed to the Supreme Court of Queensland

Supreme Court of Queensland

The Supreme Court of Queensland, which is based at the Law Courts Complex, is the superior court for the Australian State of Queensland and sits around the middle of the Australian court hierarchy...

 on 16 March 2000 and from 2005 until her elevation to the Court of Appeal, was the judge for the Mental Health Court. On 26 May 2006 Holmes was appointed to the Court of Appeals Division.

On 18 January 2011, it was announced that Justice Holmes would be appointed to head an inquiry into the 2011 Queensland floods

2010–2011 Queensland floods

A series of floods hit Australia, beginning in December 2010, primarily in the state of Queensland including its capital city, Brisbane. The floods forced the evacuation of thousands of people from towns and cities. At least seventy towns and over 200,000 people were affected. Damage initially was...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/17/3114735.htm?section=justin. The following day the Bar Association

Bar association

A bar association is a professional body of lawyers. Some bar associations are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in their jurisdiction; others are professional organizations dedicated to serving their members; in many cases, they are both...

 of Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

 criticised the appointment, making the following comments:

Since 1987 the Queensland judiciary has adhered to a convention that a serving judge ought not accept appointment to head a commission of inquiry... It is clear that the present inquiry involves real potential for political controversy as to administrative conduct of successive state and local government administrations since (the last major flood in) 1974...It must be recognised that commissions of inquiry, by their nature, will find themselves examining issues of a character not contemplated upon commencement. The issues for inquiry may become far more politically charged than first imagined.http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/bar-attacks-flood-inquiry-judge-appointment/story-fn7il3q4-1225991277712

However, the Chief Justice

Chief Justice

The Chief Justice in many countries is the name for the presiding member of a Supreme Court in Commonwealth or other countries with an Anglo-Saxon justice system based on English common law, such as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the Court of Final Appeal of...

 of Queensland, Paul de Jersey

Paul de Jersey

Paul de Jersey, AC, QC was appointed Chief Justice on 17 February 1998 of the Supreme Court of Queensland, which is the highest ranking court in the Australian State of Queensland.-Education:...

defended the appointment, arguing that it was appropriate because of the apparent absence of any suggestion of political or institutional corruptionhttp://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/bar-attacks-flood-inquiry-judge-appointment/story-fn7il3q4-1225991277712.