Tom was born in Bathurst, NSW in 1951 in one of Australia’s post-WWII refugee camps. His parents Zdeny and Philomena had fled Czechoslovakia in 1947 after intense cross- border encounters through Germany, Switzerland and Holland.

His early years were spent in Parramatta. After being educated at The King’s School and North Sydney Boys’ High, he studied law at Sydney University, where he won an Australia–Britain Society scholarship that took him on an overseas study tour.

In 1976 he joined the Royal Australian Navy as a naval legal officer, serving in most Australian States and in the United States during the 1990–91 Gulf War. After twenty years he established a full-time career as a mediator and facilitator, and served as the Northern Territory’s Anti- Discrimination Commissioner before settling in Brisbane in 2002.

An early pioneer of mediation and alternative dispute resolution, mentored by the late Sir Laurence Street, Tom is accredited internationally in India, PNG, Hong Kong and New Zealand. In 2019 he received the Australasian Mediator of the Year award.

Finally, in 1976, whilst at sea in the Pacific Ocean with the Navy, he wrote his first poem and found a way to express his own artistic creativity. Five collections have followed.