Tom Carter OAM is a Victorian nurse, community organiser, and long-standing advocate in Australia’s HIV response. Working at the Melbourne Communicable Diseases Centre and Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital in the 1980s, he was among the first in the country to deliver HIV diagnoses and provide care in a climate of fear and stigma. Carter co-founded numerous pioneering support and advocacy initiatives, including the Victorian AIDS Nurses Resource Group, AIDS Line, VIVAIDS, the Prostitutes’ Collective, the Men’s Service, the Condom Action Group, the AIDS Housing Action Group, and ACT UP Melbourne. In 1985, alongside Phil Carswell, he began the Candlelight Memorial in Melbourne, a tradition that became a national event honouring those lost to AIDS and affirming the resilience of people with HIV. His decades of service have been recognised with the Medal of the Order of Australia.
