Tim Fischer AC – ‘Tango in Trains and Travel’

Tim Fischer was born at Lockhart on May 3^rd1946.  He was educated at Xavier College in Melbourne and conscripted into the Australian Army from 1966 – 1969, serving with the 1 RAR in both Australia and the Vietnam War, before returning to the family farm at Boree Creek in southern NSW.

Tim was elected to the NSW State Parliament in 1971, where he served on a number of Parliamentary Committees and became National Party Whip. He resigned from State politics in 1984 and, in the same year, was elected to the Federal Parliament as the Member for Farrer.  During his time in the Federal Parliament, Tim held a number of senior trade and resource based portfolios; he was elected Leader of the National Party and served as Minister for Trade and Deputy Prime Minister in the Howard Government from 1996 – 1999.

Tim retired from politics in 2001, served as Chair, Tourism Australia from 2004 – 2007 and Australian Ambassador to the Holy See in Rome from 2009 – 2012.  Tim is currently the Chairman of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which has a seed vault in Svalbard, Northern Norway.  Tim is now a successful book author; his other interests include family, farming, charity work, biking and bushwalking in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. Tim lives at Mudgegonga with his wife Judy and their two sons.