Hedley Thomas

Hedley Thomas is an Australian investigative journalist and author.

Thomas was born to Diana and Hedley Robert Thomas. Thomas' father is a former Royal Australian Air Force pilot and instructed retired senior commander of the Royal Australian Air Force, Angus Houston.

Thomas went to a number of different primary and high schools across Australia, finishing year 12 at Keebra Park high school in Southport on the Gold Coast.

Thomas is married and lives in Brisbane. He has two children. In 2002 Thomas and his family were victims of a death threat and a drive-by shooting.

Soon after completing high school, Thomas started his career as a newspaper copy boy for the Gold Coast Bulletin in 1984.

After nine months as a copy boy he started a journalism cadetship at the Gold Coast Bulletin, then in 1988 moved to The Courier-Mail in Brisbane. After a year, he moved to London as a foreign correspondent for News Limited Australia for two years. As a 22-year-old journalist there he covered historic events such as the fall of the Berlin wall and the Romanian Revolution.

Thomas returned to The Courier-Mail in late 1991, working there for 18 months. Thomas then moved to become the News Editor at the Hong Kong Standard for six months, before moving to the South China Morning Post in late 1993. There Thomas served in a variety of roles, including Senior Reporter, Deputy Features Editor, and Senior Writer.

In 1999 Thomas returned to Brisbane and The Courier-Mail. In 2006 Thomas moved to the Brisbane bureau of The Australian.

After winning the Gold Walkley in 2007, Thomas left journalism in early 2008 to work in the resources sector, with a role in communications, investor and government relations. Thomas returned to journalism and The Australian around 2010.

Thomas has written "Sick to Death", a non-fiction book published by Allen & Unwin about the Jayant Patel case.

Thomas recently covered the AWU affair.

Thomas has won several major awards in journalism, including the 2007 Gold Walkley for highlighting the flawed police pursuit of Mohamed Haneef, an innocent doctor accused of being a terrorist.

Other awards include:

• 2012 Queensland Clarion Award for Journalist of the Year
• 2012 Queensland Clarion Award for Best Investigative 2012 for highlighting evidence overlooked by the judicial inquiry into the operation of the Wivenhoe Dam during the 2011 Queensland floods
• 2007 Walkley for Best Print New story, for the Haneef story.
• 2005 Walkley for Best Print News story, for exposing Dr Jayant Patel, Bundaberg Director of Surgery.
• 2005 Sir Keith Murdoch Award, for the Patel story.
• 2003 Walkley for Best Print Feature, on Di Fingleton, jailed Chief Magistrate of Queensland.
• 1999 Walkley for Best Investigative Writing (with Paul Whittaker) for exposing the "Net Bet affair".
• In 2012 he received an Honorary Doctorate of Journalism from John Henningham's Jschool School of Journalism in Brisbane.

Thomas has also won many other journalism awards in Queensland and Hong Kong.