Gutnick's father, Rabbi Shneur Chaim HaKohen Gutnick, was born in Zolotonosha, Ukraine, in 1921. He studied at the Telshe yeshiva in Lithuania until 1940 when the country was annexed by the Soviet Union and, via the far east, came to Cairns, Australia in 1941. After serving in the Australian Army until 1944 Gutnick married Rose Chester in 1945 and the couple had six children together, two daughters and four sons, Channah, Peninah, Rabbi Mordechai Gutnick, Rabbi Moshe Gutnick, Avraham, and Joseph. Joseph Gutnick was born in 1952. His father died in 2003 after an influential life in the Australian Jewish community, having become president of the Rabbinical Council of Victoria in 1967.[3]