Tom Curtain was born on 30 January 1979 in Mildura, Victoria. He was one year old when his family returned to his mother's family property Old Boyneside, Kumbia near Kingaroy in Southeast Queensland. Ever since it has been home to him, his parents Peter and Moira and his four brothers, James, Patrick, Laurence and Carl. He spent his primary schooling at Kumbia State School and then completed his secondary education as a boarder at Marist College, Ashgrove, Brisbane. Tom had always longed to head up north and after a three-year degree in Applied Science at the University of Queensland (specializing in beef cattle production), he travelled to the Northern Territory in 2001. It was on Heytesbury Beef's Mt Sanford Station working in the stock camp, where he began writing his own songs about life in the bush. Martin Oakes was then the horse breaker on the station and suggested Tom learn the guitar and develop his song-writing skills. Martin was a great inspiration and after breaking in horses with him for a year, Tom wanted to see how far he could go with the music. During this period Tom also worked on perfecting the art of horse breaking, spending time with numerous horsemen both in Queensland and the Territory. He now works as a contract horse breaker and can effectively break in 10 horses in two weeks. He moves from station to station as the bookings take him. Tom began singing his own songs at barbecues on Mt Sanford Station and then at the rodeos and campdrafts around th