Obituary for Derek Raoul Hentze

• Author: Peter McQueen
• Position: An obituary delivered by Peter McQueen at the funeral service held at St John's Uniting Church, Neutral Bay, on 22 November 2007
• Pages: 14-15

DEREK RAOUL HENTZE: 1937–2007

Peter McQueen*

I knew Derek for over 25 years, having first met in 1981 at a meeting in Sydney of the New South Wales

Branch of the Maritime Law Association of Australian and New Zealand (MLAANZ).

At that meeting, Derek gave a talk on current maritime law issues which had been the subject of an international

maritime law conference which he had recently attended in London.

In typical Derek fashion, his talk was strong on content, concise, perceptive and sprinkled with humour. I

remember he gave us a detailed description of the room of his hotel in the West End of London, observing how

small and dark it was and how could they charge so much for such a room!

Derek was admitted as a solicitor, attorney and proctor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales on 24

November 1961 (almost 46 years ago to the day). He continued to hold a current practising certificate

throughout his life.

After practising in private law firms and on his own account in the first half of the 1960’s, Derek joined

Brambles Industries Limited where he was the Senior Legal Officer responsible for legal aspects of various

acquisitions and joint ventures by Brambles in Australia and also in respect of its expansion into Europe with

Chep and Cleanaway. The position at Brambles, a listed public company, gave him the opportunity to hone his

skills as a corporate lawyer. He became the ‘complete’ in-house counsel.

In 1984 he joined Caltex Australia Limited, another listed public company, as both the Group Secretary and

Group Corporate Solicitor, where he has responsible for all secretarial, legal and insurance services to the Caltex

Group. This was a demanding position and, from my perspective as an external lawyer instructed by him, he

conducted himself in the role with efficiency, courtesy and good humour. His work included advising on trade

practices law, corporations law, petroleum retail marketing legislation, acquisition of properties for service

stations, depots, terminals and equipment, maritime law matters relating to the ships operated by the Caltex

Group and environmental laws, including cleanups and rehabilitations.

His last hurrah at Caltex was his intimate involvement in all negotiations relating to the legal and secretarial

aspects of the Caltex/Ampol merger in the mid-1990s.

He retired from Caltex in 1995 and then worked part time for a number of years for Thomas Miller Australasia,

the manager of various international mutual marine and transport insurance companies on legal and insurance

matters.

I had the privilege of working with Derek during his time at Brambles, Caltex and Thomas Miller, providing

legal advice and representing these companies in various litigation matters, as my law firm was retained by

those companies.

Derek and I shared a passion for maritime law. He often reminded me how lucky we both were to be able to

work in an area of law which we both enjoyed so much and how lucky he was as his employers were involved

in matters maritime. Derek was very knowledgeable on his maritime law, as is indicated by his associate

authorship of the standard maritime law text, The Law of Tug, Tow and Pilotage, the lead author being his good

friend from the USA, Alex L Parks.

High amongst Derek’s loves in life was MLAANZ, being the Australasian maritime law industry body, which is

represented here by a past President, Stuart Hetherington. The current President of MLAANZ, Frazer Hunt, has

asked me to extend the deepest condolences from all members of MLAANZ to Joan and Derek’s family and

friends.

Derek, I know, would have been very happy to know that I was going to talk to you today about MLAANZ.

* An obituary delivered by Peter McQueen at the funeral service held at St John’s Uniting Church, Neutral Bay, on 22 November 2007.

(2008) 22 A&NZ Mar LJ 14