Early Life
His father, James Joyce, was a New Zealander who moved to Australia to study veterinary science at the University of Sydney, where he met Barnaby's mother, Marie, and they made their living as farmers.
Barnaby Joyce was born in Tamworth, New South Wales, and was brought up at Woolbrook. One of six children from a sheep-and-cattle farming family, he attended St Ignatius' College, Riverview, in Sydney.
Joyce graduated with a commerce degree from the University of New England in Armidale, and served in the Australian Army Reserve from 1994 to 1999. At university Joyce met his wife, Natalie, and they married in 1993. After graduating, Joyce moved around northern New South Wales and Queensland, and at one point worked as a bouncer. Joyce worked in the accounting profession before entering Parliament and is an FCPA (Fellow of CPA Australia). The Joyces have four daughters and now live in St George in western Queensland, where Joyce had an accounting business.
A Roman Catholic, Joyce served as President of the St George branch of the Society of St Vincent de Paul 1998–2004.
Read more about this topic: Barnaby Joyce
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“I could be, I discovered, by turns stern, loving, wise, silly, youthful, aged, racial, universal, indulgent, strict, with a remarkably easy and often cunning detachment ... various ways that an adult, spurred by guilt, by annoyance, by condescension, by loneliness, deals with the prerogatives of power and love.”
—Gerald Early (20th century)
“For universal love is as special an aspect as carnal love or any of the other kinds: all forms of mental and spiritual activity must be practiced and encouraged equally if the whole affair is to prosper. There is no cutting corners where the life of the soul is concerned....”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)