Thelma Thorne is the second eldest child of Thomas George Pitman and Victoria Nita Jane Cooley. She was born at Botany Road, Mascot and went to school in Mascot and then La Perouse. At fifteen, Thorne started work, including a stint at the Kelloggs factory. Thorne went to Walgett with her husband and was shocked at the extent of the racism and segregation in the town; she became involved in the protests when the Freedom Riders came to Walgett. Thorne started working at the Walgett Central School as a cleaner when her sons started there but she soon became an Aboriginal Education Assistant and worked there full-time for twenty-nine years. Thorne won the Director General's Award in that time. Thorne's husband, Eric, was the first Aboriginal Justice of the Peace in Walgett.
