Old Boy Tom Cornish '05 never imagined a failed bicycle trip through India would be the catalyst for a global business changing hundreds of lives across Asia.
In 2014, aged 24, he and a friend set out to film a documentary about sustainable tourism in India, planning to ride 3,000 kilometres carbon-neutral. When his friend tore his meniscus a few hundred kilometres in, they traded their bikes for a 16-year-old tuk tuk destined to become scrap metal, and continued the remaining 2,800 kilometres.
The vehicles inspired him to launch the social enterprise Tuktuk Rental in 2016, through which travellers rent tuk tuks from local drivers and explore countries the way locals do. Today the business operates across Sri Lanka, India and Cambodia, generating more than US $3.9 million (AUD $5.3 million) in income for around 800 local drivers.
"All of this money goes directly into the hands of local tuk tuk drivers and their families, some of the lowest paid workers, helping to get food on the table," Tom said.
His work earned him the Tweed Rotary Australian of the Year Award in 2022 for helping recovery efforts in the northern New South Wales floods, and he later led relief when Cyclone Ditwah hit the east coast of Sri Lanka: 213 volunteers supported search and rescue, rescuing over 126 people and providing lifesaving rations to over 526 people.
Source: Grammar News, Winter 2026.
Source: Grammar News Winter 2026. Read the original edition