Remembering Caroline Jones (broadcaster)
Caroline Mary Jones AO (born Caroline Mary James; 1 January 1938 – 20 May 2022) was an Australian radio and television journalist and social commentator who had a career in the media industry for over 50 years.
Jones joined the Australian Broadcasting Commission, now known as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), in Canberra in 1963 and later became the first female reporter for the daily This Day Tonight current affairs television program.
She then became a presenter on Four Corners, a weekly current affairs television program, from 1972 to 1981. From 1987 to 1994 she presented a spirituality-focused radio program called The Search For Meaning on ABC Radio National, on which she interviewed people about their lives.
In 1996, Jones began hosting the weekly biographical program Australian Story on ABC television.
During 1988, Jones worked alongside Aboriginal broadcasters at Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association in Alice Springs as they produced their first cultural and current affairs programs for television. In 1998 she was appointed an Ambassador for Reconciliation by the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation.
In December 2016, Jones announced that she would leave the ABC and step down from her role on Australian Story, although stating that she would not be retiring.
Jones was a foundation member of the Australian Council for the Arts, formed in 1973, as well as a foundation member of the Australian Classification Review Board, formed in 1970.
Jones was born on 1 January 1938 and grew up in Murrurundi, New South Wales. She married and then divorced early in her adult life. Later in her life she was received into the Roman Catholic Church. Jones died following a fall at her home in Sydney on 20 May 2022, at the age of 84.
R.I.P.