… and I haven’t realised my head is missing?

By far the longest chapter in my upcoming and latest loss-leading book (at top and below) is Waiting for the Axe to Fall.

It covers the time period since the learned, fair and just, and totally professional District Court judge hearing my appeal against a Magistrate’s Court conviction for speeding in a school zone declared, I believe without equivocation, that he would bring down his ruling no later than Friday April 17, four days after the appeal hearing the Monday before, April 13.

So here is my draft of another section under that forever-expanding Waiting for the Axe to Fall…. chapter.

4.30pm 15 May 2026,

The District Court registry has just closed for another week and still no word from it as to when the appeal judge will give his reasons for dismissing my appeal. Yes, I’m still the glass-half empty sort of chap than a half a century of cynical journalism has taught me to be.

It’s a fairly important anniversary, marking exactly four weeks have passed since the day of this self-imposed and pretty unequivocal deadline provided by his learned honour – one which I fully accepted must surely have meant the judge had heard everything he needed to know and was making it clear he’d need only a few days in which to sharped his judicial axe one way or the other, metaphorically speaking.

I guess it’s now fairly clear that the matter may be more complex than first appeared and anyone who’s gotten to this point would surely agree with that. Where we stand right now, with a certificate that may have never existed and a transcript that might be missing a vital part, I’m rather chuffed that a decision to write a book about this, taken way back when, has raised broader questions for me about process, transcripts, self-representation, evidence service and appellate procedure in the Queensland system beyond what I might have hoped for.

And here we are, exactly a month later and my mind has had to accept the possibility – the remotest of possibilities – that our learned jurist might rule in my favour after all! And I’ll be up for the cost of redoing the book’s cover and the sentiments and forecasts expressed on it. And it is true that at this exact point in time, I think my chances have improved slightly, and a favourable appeal outcome is now about the same odds as Delta Goodrem winning this weekend’s Eurovision!

But then it struck me! What if the appeal judge in the District Court handed down his decision, as he predicted back on April 13, within just a few days or even a week or two later?

And through no fault of his at all, it wouldn’t be the first time in this interesting judicial journey of mine that I’ve been forgotten or ignored or not alerted of something in good court-ordered time.

Don Gordon-Brown

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