Early Life
Jones was raised on a dairy farm near Oakey in south-east Queensland, and attended primary school at Acland State School, before attending Toowoomba Grammar School as a boarder.
After leaving school, he trained as a teacher at the Kelvin Grove Teachers College (now part of the Queensland University of Technology) in Brisbane. In 1961 he taught first at a state school, Ironside Primary, then in 1963 obtained a position at the Brisbane Grammar School for boys. He studied part-time University of Queensland for a Bachelor of Arts degree, which he was awarded in 1969.
In 1970, Jones was appointed Senior English Master at The King's School, Parramatta in Sydney's west, where he coached the rugby union side to victory in 1974. Jones was later asked to leave. Later that year, another parent at Kings, Doug Anthony, leader of the Country Party (now the National Party of Australia) in the Australian Parliament, offered Jones a position with the party in Canberra. The next year, he sought party preselection as the candidate for the parliamentary seat of Eden-Monaro, but lost the election.
In 1976, at the age of 35, Jones completed a one year teaching diploma at Worcester College, Oxford. He won a University Blue for tennis.
He was the candidate for the July 1978 by-election for the NSW state seat of Earlwood for the Liberal Party of Australia, formerly held by deposed Liberal leader Sir Eric Willis. He lost what had been considered a "safe seat". He contested the seat for the Liberal Party at the 1978 New South Wales state election held in October. The ALP candidate was returned with a greater majority. Jones worked for several years as a speech writer for NSW Opposition leader John Mason, meanwhile standing for preselection for the Federal seat of North Sydney.
In 1979, Jones moved to Canberra, where he was a speech writer for the Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Fraser, until early 1981. He then moved back to Sydney to be Executive Director of the Employers' Federation of NSW, which he held until 1985.
Read more about this topic: Alan Jones (radio Broadcaster)
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