Rod Blackmore
New South Wales magistrate

Rodney ("Rod") David Blackmore OAM (born 7 August 1935), is a former senior magistrate in the Australian state of New South Wales. He is perhaps best known for his work with children and adolescents. Blackmore's last judicial posting was as the Senior Magistrate at the Children's Court of New South Wales, serving from 1978 to 1995.
Biography
Youth and early legal career
Blackmore was born in Deniliquin where his father Cecil was clerk of the court at the time of Rodney's birth. His parents deliberately named him "Rodney David" to achieve identification (via his initials) with the author of Lorna Doone. He came from a legal family; both his father, Cecil Hargreaves Blackmore, and paternal grandfather, Hugh Moffitt Blackmore, had served as New South Wales magistrates (Cecil was a Stipendiary Magistrate 1946–1960). Rodney's mother was Lydia Mabel Norris. Cecil Blackmore was appointed as clerk of the court in Grafton from 1937 to 1943, after which the family moved to Haberfield in Sydney.
After being educated at Grafton, New South Wales Public School (1940) and Haberfield Demonstration School, Rodney Blackmore was selected to attend Summer Hill School Summer Hill in opportunity class and then at Fort Street Boys' High (1947-1951) (see List of Fortians). On 12 April 1958, Blackmore married Elizabeth Anne James at Summer Hill Methodist Church, Sydney, where they had met due to Blackmore's playing organ for a number of local Sydney churches.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Rod Blackmore” is new South Wales magistrate. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Blackmore, South and Wales, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “new South Wales magistrate” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7356121. VIAF identifies the subject as 94161567. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1935, 1978, 1995 and 1946.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Rod Blackmore”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Rod Blackmore primary sources, Rod Blackmore archive and Blackmore research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Rod Blackmore”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Rod Blackmore” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.