He was born in Quorn, South Australia, where his father James Casey may have been proprietor of the Hotel Austral,[1] then farmed at "Amelia Park", Peterborough.
He was chosen the Labor candidate for the seat of Frome in the House of Assembly in November 1960 following the unexpected death of sitting member Mick O'Halloran.
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.
[2] After a redistribution erased his majority and made Frome a notional LCL seat, Casey resigned in May 1970 to contest a Central No.
[3] He married Margaret Mary Crick of Thorpdale, Victoria in February 1946, and settled on the family farm "Amelia Park", near Peterborough.