In fact Mr Pearce has clocked up hundreds of thousands of kilometres during his 37-year career, as the only magistrate to have sat at every local court in the state.

From Wollongong to Wilcannia, Broken Hill to Batemans Bay, Dubbo to Sydney’s Downing Centre, the magistrate known in legal circles as ‘Fierce Pearce’ has presided over 400,000 criminal cases.

This week as he finished his last day on the job – at the same Liverpool courthouse he spent his first day as a 17-year-old clerk – he reflected on a fulfilling career.

‘’I’ve had a wide experience of seeing life in country towns, in regional centres and cities, and listening to people’s stories and having to make decisions based on what I hear,’’ Mr Pearce said.

‘’It’s always a difficult exercise to sentence people, having to weigh what they’ve done with their reasons and try and find an appropriate sentence while at all times trying to be just and fair.

‘’However I also have great respect for people who have no choice as to whether they’re going to be a victim of crime – who are walking down the street when they’re suddenly attacked.

‘’In my role as magistrate I take that into account; that these victims, their stories, are often not spoken of.’’

It’s a professional ethos that stems from personal tragedy, after his brother Wayne Pearce was murdered almost 25 years ago.

‘’My elder brother was murdered in Orange in 1993 – the young girl only got 14 years for murder,’’ he said.

‘’So having gone through that you do understand the tragedy of people’s lives. As a magistrate you have to be able to tune into the emotions of people and try to deal with it objectively but with some degree of compassion and understanding.’’

Mr Pearce was born in Glen Innes, attending boarding school in Lismore before starting his career as a clerk at Liverpool in February 1963.

He won a public service scholarship to study law through Sydney University and while studying, spent time as clerk and registrar at Parramatta and Wollongong courts and the Downing Centre.

In December 1980, he was commissioned as a magistrate at age 35 along with another magistrate also retiring this week, Peter Miszalski. Mr Pearce took his full time appointment to the bench in 1981 and Mr Miszalski in 1982.

Mr Pearce spent four years at Griffith local court – in the turbulent years which included an inquest and special inquiry into the still unsolved death of anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay.

‘’At a young age I experienced working in an environment where there was a lot of mistrust of the legal system because of Donald Mackay,’’ Mr Pearce said.

‘’The community was lovely but you had to be careful. I remember just prior to the inquest three or four big black cars pulled up outside my place at night and some men piled out laden with wine and fruit, as they thought I was going to be the coroner. I had to order them off the property.’’

In 1987, Mr Pearce returned to Wollongong, where he would stay until 1993, feeling the heat not only from those he sentenced – but the late editor of the Illawarra Mercury, Peter Cullen.

‘’As today, the press was very much into law and order and I felt the pressure of the press and the articles being written,’’ he said.

‘’But my role was not to engineer some social program – I was there to apply the law.’’

Mr Pearce remembers ‘’a lot of murders, a lot of coronial work’’. One case that stands out was the murder of Nowra boy John Ashfield, who was tortured and bashed to death with a hammer by his mother and boyfriend in 1993.

After Wollongong court, Mr Pearce became the state’s relieving magistrate and so began 20 years of travelling far and wide. He’s had interesting characters appear before him – including former detective and convicted murderer Roger Rogerson for a speeding fine and 2011 Sydney Harbour Bridge protester Michael Fox.

However in 2014 he and his family were placed under police protection after he was wrongly accused of being the magistrate to grant bail to Lindt Cafe gunman Man Monis. Radio journalist Derryn Hinch was forced to issue a public apology over the incident.

Mr Pearce admitted the job could have its downsides – and had only got tougher over the years with the rise of methamphetamine and more violent crimes.

‘’It can be a lonely job – you have the barristers and prosecutors arguing at the bar table, the people in the dock, the parents and loved ones nearby and the media,’’ he said. ‘’They’re all looking at one person – that’s you. It’s like a theatre – and you’re the principal actor.’’

In his retirement he plans to spend more time with his family – including wife Audette; children Brendan and Stuart (also lawyers) and Sue (a teacher). 

Mr Pearce has received several letters of congratulations, including one from Chief Magistrate Judge Graeme Henson.

‘’I believe you are and will likely remain the longest serving judicial officer of the pre and post-modern era,’’ Judge Jenson wrote.

‘’Judicial office is an isolating environment with many personal and professional challenges. Over 20 years in a relieving role … has undoubtedly required a level of resilience and determination beyond the normal.

‘’Your unstinting commitment to your role and the way in which you have carried the burdens of office is to your great credit.’’

Wollongong lawyer Jeff David also farewelled a man he’s appeared before countless times.

‘’I first got to know Darryl when I started practising in Wollongong in 1979, and soon after he became the youngest magistrate appointed in NSW,’’ he said.

‘’In NSW 85 per cent of all people who come in contact with the law do so before the local court, so magistrates are seeing what was once described as ‘’the tide of human misery’.

‘’They’re seeing people at their worst and it can have an impact, and Darryl I’m sure has struggled with that, but has enjoyed a long career.’’

In NSW it’s a requirement that magistrates retire on reaching the age of 72, though they can be appointed as an acting magistrate until age 77.