THE word "legend" is befitting of Tommy Tomasi, an immigrant from Italy who has certainly made his way in the world, especially since his arrival in the Snowy Mountains.
From a competitive skier in his Italian homeland to being a partisan soldier in World War II, tortured and then imprisoned in a German concentration camp, Tommy’s life has been a journey.
And if you’ve ever had the chance to listen, he loves to recount his stories, all with an infectious passion. It's like you were on the journey with him through all those years.
On Thursday 23 July, Tommy will celebrate his 100th birthday with friends and former colleagues in his beloved Thredbo. Nowadays, he lives in a nursing home in Forster, NSW, and will travel to Thredbo with a carer.
WORLD WAR II
As a guest speaker at the 2023 Jindabyne Anzac Day luncheon at the Banjo Paterson Inn, Tommy spoke about life during World War II. It was a fascinating insight into detail and the perils of war.
Tommy recalled how, when Mussolini oversaw northern Italy, he shut down the schools and assigned every young man from 16 to join the army. “I was only sixteen and a half, and when I was told I had to join, I said not me.” That decision would shape the next chapter in Tommy’s life.
He consulted with his dad on what to do, and then Tommy joined the partisans.
His father, being a station master on the railways, offered Tommy familiarity with the trains and the area. “That was a critical situation for both myself up in the mountains and himself with his wife and my sister. They had eyes on him because they knew I was a partisan.”
Tommy’s specialty was blowing up railway bridges. “Any time we get a message that the Germans were coming through the border, that was my job. Unfortunately, that’s when I got caught.”
“I make one mistake. I went to visit my girlfriend and there was a knock on the door. I’ll go and open it, lucky that I took my guns off. Because as soon as they found you with any guns, they would shoot you on the spot. I thought that was the end of me, the finish. There was about six of them with machine gun, I thought I was finished.”
He was jailed for seven days, tortured during questioning, but he would not divulge any information. Then, with other prisoners, he was shipped by train into German territory at Stalag 7, a camp for political prisoners.
He would escape the camp during an American artillery attack. On returning to Italy, he advised his family he was leaving, despite his father’s disapproval. “I applied for 27 different countries, and Australia was the first one to come, I got the permit.”
ARRIVING IN AUSTRALIA
Arriving in Fremantle in 1949, he worked for a time at a Kalgoorlie gold mine, where he demonstrated his skill with gelignite. Then, in 1952, seeing a photo of the Chalet at Charlotte Pass in a tourist bureau, he set out on a journey across the country, driving to NSW with two other Italians.
“Eventually I get to Cooma and I stay at the Alpine Hotel, and of course as soon as I walk into the bar, there’s bloomin languages by the hundreds, different nationalities. That was the Snowy (Scheme) personnel.”
In 1952, he was employed by the Snowy Mountains Authority (SMA) as a linesman. Having been a junior racer in Italy, he soon had a job as a ski instructor at Charlotte Pass, where he would also meet Tony Sponar, who founded Thredbo, and his future wife, Joyce Sloane. They were married, and after two seasons at Charlotte Pass, Tommy rejoined the SMA as a hydrographer for the next ten years.
THREDBO SKI PATROL
In 1957, with the opening of the Thredbo ski resort, Tommy and Danny Collman recognised the need for a rescue service for injured skiers, and Tommy was seen as the driving force behind the establishment of the Voluntary Patrol. The Thredbo Volunteer Ski Patrol became official on the June long weekend in 1958 with Tommy, Danny and Doug Thatcher as the first patrollers. In 1971, the ASPA (Australian Ski Patrol Association) was formed, of which Tommy was a founding member, together with George Freuden.
Tommy hung up his Thredbo ski patrol jacket in 2017 at the age of 91.
Tommy moved his family to Sydney in 1963 to take up work, starting the Fleets ski shop, before working as a product manager for Spalding and becoming a well-known figure in the ski industry. He escorted ski groups to the US and Europe for decades and acquired a multitude of skiing friends. “That was my best job I ever had, I used to take my ski tours for 36 years.”
During his time in Sydney, he would return to Thredbo every Thursday for ski patrol duties, driving back home on Sunday.
In 1983, he was made a life member for 25 years of service. In 1985, Kosciuszko Thredbo awarded him a Lift Pass for Life, and in 2001, the National Museum of Australia included Tommy among the 101 Australians chosen to represent Australia in the permanent Eternity Exhibition.
When he retired in 1990, Tommy returned to Jindabyne, where he lived until recently.
Tommy and Joyce had four children, two boys and two girls, Peter, Terry, Toni and Mick, with Peter being the Thredbo mountain manager for a long period, and Mick being involved in grooming and snowmaking.
In 2015, Tommy was recognised as one of the Faces of Thredbo, along with a select few who have made a huge contribution not only to Thredbo Resort but also to the alpine and snow industry.
He has seen a lifetime of changes at Thredbo and said he had been in 17 books, so he is as much a part of Thredbo folklore as anyone of his generation.
