Caroline Jones, 2009

Caroline Jones AO (b. 1938), writer and broadcaster, joined the ABC in Canberra in 1963. Five years later, she became a household name in Australia as the first female reporter on the ABC current affairs program This Day Tonight (1968 to 1972). After four years on TDT she debuted as a presenter and reporter on 4 Corners, remaining on the program to 1981. Meanwhile, from 1977 onward she broadcast regularly on ABC radio. As presenter of The Search for Meaning from 1987 to 1994, she became renowned for the gentle tact with which she drew out the stories of her interlocutors; she has since emerged as a low-key spokesperson on Christian issues. Since 1996 she has presented Australian Story. A foundation member of the Australia Council for the Arts, she has been a Reconciliation Ambassador for the Aboriginal Council for Reconciliation since 1998. That year, her book An Authentic Life - Finding Meaning and Spirituality in Everyday Life was an Australian best-seller. Her next book, Through a Glass Darkly (2009) is a heartrending chronicle of her experience of the death of her father. For more than twenty years Jones has been a designated Living National Treasure.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2009