The twinkling eyes and mellifluous voice of Caroline Jones belied the grief and loss underpinning what she called “a gift” that made her an attentive listener who connected profoundly with people experiencing hardship. It was a gift she generously shared with the Australian public over more than 50 years as a journalist, broadcaster, storyteller and mentor.
Jones, who died last week aged 84 after a fall at her Sydney home, paved the way for women in the media. Her own groundbreaking work in the industry encouraged others to confidently follow, and her role as a fierce advocate for young female regional journalists nurtured careers and lifelong friendships. “There’s a special place in heaven for women who help other women” was her motto, and the roadmap by which she lived her life.
Jones became the first female reporter on ABC TV’s current affairs program This Day Tonight in 1968, working in a male-dominated newsroom alongside stalwarts such as Mike Carlton and Bill Peach. She won a Logie award for a hard-hitting series about Sydney’s slumlords and their tenants, but learned a difficult lesson in the process.
“I imagined that [my reporting] would change things for the better … Some of the tenants were evicted [as a result]. I felt it was a great failure on our part and a hard lesson,” Jones said in a 2013 interview.
So, too, the warmth of her personality. She had grace and poise, sheer class, oodles of style. We used to call her "Matron," a joke she genuinely enjoyed. She had no hesitation in hosing down the testosterone, but never with malice.
— Mike Carlton (@MikeCarlton01) May 21, 2022
Jones’s mother took her own life in 1969, an event that deeply affected the young journalist. It sent her on a lifelong quest to find meaning in the world, and revealed her life’s purpose.
“My newly awakened compassion, born of suffering, was still only embryonic but it was a gift because it enabled me to listen to people and, at times, it allowed me to be close to another person in trouble,” she wrote in her memoir An Authentic Life.
In 1972 Jones became the story when it was announced she would be the first woman to host Four Corners. Unprepared for the resulting furore, she let herself be photographed wearing a miniskirt and applying lipstick. The photo appeared on the front page of a Melbourne newspaper under the headline “Brains Now, Beauty Next”. Ironically, that front page is now a reminder of the barriers Jones helped to dismantle.
Jones took most delight in her work with Women in Media. She joined the organisation as co-patron in 2017, and a year later the Caroline Jones Women in Media Young Journalist’s Award was launched. The annual award aims to provide an opportunity for female regional and rural journalists to experience the media and political landscape of Canberra first-hand in a supportive mentoring environment. Jones threw herself into supporting the young journalists and caring for them as though they were family. One pregnant Queenslander heading to Canberra in winter received a package of thermal underwear in the mail, another was sent money to help with babysitting.
Jones was born in Sydney on 1 January 1938, the only child of Nancy and Brian James. After her father left home to serve in the second world war, Jones and her mother moved to the New South Wales country town of Murrurundi to live with a grandmother and aunt until he returned. Jones’s grandfather, Ashley Pountney, had been editor of some of the first newspapers in north-western NSW and Jones always felt she had “ink in her blood”, but it was not until her mid-20s that she secured a position with the ABC in Canberra.
Jones worked as presenter of Radio National’s Search for Meaning, interviewing a range of diverse people across the nation. The program led to Australian Story, which she hosted until retirement in 2016, although she continued to tweet about it with viewers on Monday nights. Jones wrote a series of books based on the radio program and explored the emotions around her father’s death in her last book, Through a Glass Darkly.
Jones became a cherished and respected mentor and friend to many young female journalists in regional and rural communities. Recipients of the award in her name have expressed nothing but admiration for the way she nurtured and supported them, and often their children too.
Elly Bradfield, a Queensland regional reporter and recipient of the 2020 award, said: “One of the saddest things Caroline ever said to me was that back in her day, you had no choice; you either had a family or a career but you couldn’t have both.
“I’ve always felt that I want to stay in the regions but there aren’t a lot of incentives to do that. Caroline’s support helped me to realise the importance of what we are doing. She was almost a cheerleader from the sidelines and had a real soft spot for regional journalists. She lifted us up and always made the time for us.”
Others also benefited from Jones’s generosity. She taught primary school children in western Sydney how to read and was personally invested in Mahboba’s Promise, a charity helping Afghan women and children. In 1988 Jones was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for her contribution to radio and television journalism.
Jones married and divorced in her early 20s and had no children, yet her legacy is indelibly stamped on a generation of young women in the media.
Part of the Women in Media prize is the opportunity to ask the first question at the National Press Club, and a highlight for winners was to see Jones beaming from the front row, watching with pride as the question was delivered. As 2022’s winner, Brooke Littlewood from Western Australia, was announced at the Press Club this week, a bunch of flowers was placed on Jones’s empty chair.
• Caroline Jones, journalist; born 1 January 1938, died 20 May 2022
