Thomas Mannix Casey (12 March 1921 – 25 September 2003) was a politician in the State of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

History

He was born in

Quorn, South Australia Quorn is a small town and railhead in the Flinders Ranges in the north of South Australia, northeast of Port Augusta. At the , the locality had a population of 1,230, of which 1,131 lived in its town centre. Quorn is the home of the Flinders R ...

, where his father James Casey may have been proprietor of the Hotel Austral, then farmed at "Amelia Park",

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

. He was educated at

Unley High School Unley High School, located in Netherby, South Australia. History Unley High School was founded in 1910 as one of the first public high schools to be established after Adelaide High School in 1908. Initially it was under the control of the He ...

. He was chosen the

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

candidate for the seat of

Frome Frome ( ) is a town and civil parish in eastern Somerset, England. The town is built on uneven high ground at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills, and centres on the River Frome. The town, about south of Bath, is the largest in the Mendip d ...

in the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...

in November 1960 following the unexpected death of sitting member

Mick O'Halloran Michael Raphael O'Halloran (12 April 1893 – 22 September 1960) was an Australian politician, representing the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party. He served as Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of South Australi ...

. Tom was not even a member of the Labor Party, but as a respected local identity was considered to have a better chance of following the idiosyncratic O'Halloran than an outsider from the Union movement. After a redistribution erased his majority and made Frome a notional LCL seat, Casey resigned in May 1970 to contest a Central No. 1 district seat in the Legislative Council. He held the seat until September 1979, when he resigned, having successfully made the transition to the single-electorate Council in 1975. He served for a month in 1968 as Minister of Agriculture and Forests, then again from 1970 to 1975; then from 1975 to 1979 as Minister of Tourism, Recreation and Sport, Minister of Lands and Minister of Repatriation.

Family

He married Margaret Mary Crick of

Thorpdale, Victoria Thorpdale is a town in the Gippsland area of eastern Victoria in the Shire of Baw Baw. Famous for its potatoes, it is located amongst the rich farmland of the Latrobe Valley. Thorpdale spuds are eaten around the country and also exported oversea ...

in February 1946, and settled on the family farm "Amelia Park", near

References

Members of the South Australian House of Assembly Members of the South Australian Legislative Council 1921 births 2003 deaths People from Quorn, South Australia 20th-century Australian politicians {{Australia-politician-stub