King's Birthday Honour

Included in the 2025 King’s Birthday listings was the following: 

Member of the Order of Australia (AM) to:

Peter Meldrum Biscoe KC, NSW Land and Environment Court judge (2006-16), for significant service to the judiciary, to the law, and to local planning. 

The Old Virgilians Association and St Virgil's College extend their congratulations to Peter on this auspicious achievement.

Peter attended the Marist Brothers College at Mosman, prior to the family moving to Hobart where he commenced his secondary education at St Virgil’s College in 1956. He was an outstanding student and matriculated in 1960. (In those days, it was possible to gain university entry with five years of secondary education – although most university aspirants took six). 

Peter represented the College in swimming and rugby. Peter was awarded a Commonwealth scholarship, attended the University of Tasmania and went on to graduate with an LLB (Hons) in 1967. He represented Tasmania in water polo and surf lifesaving and won several state swimming titles. He was captain of the Park Beach Surf Lifesaving Club. He also represented the University of Tasmania in rugby union, in debating and mooting, in which latter pursuit he won the trophy for the best individual speaker at the 1966 intervarsity competition. He was President of the University students’ Sports Council.

Upon graduation Peter practised law in Hobart (with the firm of Crisp Wright and Brown) and London before winning a scholarship to undertake an LLM at Tulane University, USA, which he completed in 1970. He went on to practice in New York, London and Sydney as a solicitor/barrister.

His success at the bar saw him ‘take silk’ in 1991. He held the position of QC until 2006 when he received his appointment to the Bench as a Judge of the Land and Environment Court of NSW -  a position he was to hold with distinction until his retirement on 13 March 2016. In addition, he was an acting Judge of the Supreme Court of NSW periodically between 2006 and 2011. After retiring from the Bench, he was Chair of the Northern Beaches Local Planning Panel from 2017 to 2024. He was the author of two legal books, one of which is the leading work in an area of commercial law and ran to three editions in 2005, 2008 and 2023.

Peter is married to Alison and has four children, Amber, Richard, Diana and Nicholas.