Judy Small, now based in Melbourne was born in
Coffs Harbour, New South Wales. She moved to Sydney in 1972, studying psychology and began her career as a singer and songwriter in the early 1970s, inspired by the
folk revival boom of the 1960s and describing her influences as such folk singers as
Joan Baez,
Peter, Paul and Mary and
The Seekers. One of her successful ballads is "The White Bay Paper Seller", based on newspaper seller and Sydney icon Beatrice Bush. Apart from her own repertoire she is a renowned interpreter of song both traditional and contemporary. After an informal performance at the
Vancouver Folk Music Festival in 1982, where she sang “Mothers, Daughters, Wives”, now perhaps her most well-known song, she became a full-time singer-songwriter. Over the next 16 years, she regularly toured throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Australia and New Zealand. In 1990, she received the "Mo" Award -
Mo Awards for Australian Folk Performer of the Year and in 1997 was the
Port Fairy Folk Festival Artist of the Year. She was also invited to Beijing for the United Nations Women's Conference NGO Forum -
UN in 1995, where she sang to thousands of women from all over the world. People had been asking for some years for Judy to release an album recorded live, so they could hear her introductions and the stories of her songs, which have become as much a part of her show as the songs themselves, so a concert was recorded at The Artery in Melbourne, and subsequently released as a double CD Collection set, "Live at the Artery" spanning her 35-plus years of music. Judy Small retired from full-time performance in 1998. She became a family lawyer in Melbourne working in private practice for 6 years before joining
Victoria Legal Aid in 2004, but continued to write new songs and to perform regularly. In March 2013, she was appointed as a Judge with the Federal Circuit Court of Australia, and retired from performing, saying that “judges don't have political opinions that they express in public”. Judy retired from the Bench in April 2020 and sang occasionally until the end of 2024, when she retired from performing altogether for health reasons. She lives in Melbourne with her wife Charlotte Stockwell whom she married in
Wānaka, New Zealand on 10 May 2014. Judy was Co-Chair and then Chair of Midsumma Festival, Australia's pre-eminent LGBTQIA+ arts organisation, from September 2019 to May 2025. She currently sits on the board of family counselling and education organisation Better Place Australia. ==Music==