Family Life and Post-political Career
In 1992 Fischer married Judy Brewer, and they had two sons called Dominic and Harrison.
In 1999 he surprised his colleagues by resigning as party leader and as a minister, and by announcing that he would retire at the election due in 2001. His decision to quit politics was motivated partly by the demands of his family, in particular that his son Harrison has autism (Fischer himself has "high functioning" autism ). After his retirement, he returned to farming at Boree Creek, and became involved in charity work, assisting organisations such as the St Vincent de Paul Society, the Fred Hollows Foundation and Autism New South Wales.
In 2004, Fisher was appointed chairman of Tourism Australia. His term as chairman ended on 30 June 2007.
In 2005 Fischer received Australia's highest civilian honour, when he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).
Fischer is noted as a tireless advocate for rail transport and is probably Australia's best known railfan. He had a childhood hobby of studying rail gauges of the world. Since retiring from politics he has continued his association with rail as Special Envoy to the Adelaide to Darwin railway line and travelled on the first freight train and first Ghan passenger train to Darwin in 2004.
Fischer was made a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE) in 2001. He served as Chairman of the ATSE Crawford Fund supporting international agricultural research from 2001 to 2006.
In 2007 he led the Rail Freight Network Review into rail freight in Victoria, as commissioned by the Victorian Government.
On 21 July 2008 Tim Fischer was nominated by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as the first resident Australian Ambassador to the Holy See since 1973, when diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Australia were first established. Tim Fischer worked closeley with the Vatican on all aspects of the canonisation of Australia's first Roman Catholic saint, Mary MacKillop. He retired from the post on 20 January 2012.
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