Ann Jones | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1983 (age 41–42) |
| Education | Australian National University, Canberra |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist, radio & TV presenter |
| Years active | 2014 – present |
| Organization | Australian Broadcasting Corporation |
| Known for | Presenting nature programmes |
Ann Jones (born 1983), also referred to as Dr Ann, [1] is an Australian environmental journalist, who is a radio and television presenter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
She is best known for presenting ABC Science programmes, like the podcast series What the Duck?!, some episodes of Catalyst , and the Radio National show, Off Track.
Ann Jones was born in 1983 [2] as the youngest of three children, having two older brothers, and grew up in Scotsburn, rural Victoria [2] [3] on a hobby farm. [2] Her mother, a teacher who returned to university to become a nurse, was the sole parent of the family until she married when Jones was 11-years old. [2] Jones' stepfather, hailing from Daylesford, is an enthusiast of nature, inspiring Jones to a large extent. [2]
As a child, Jones attended Scotsburn Primary School, before going to Chile for her final year of high school in the O'Higgins Region. [2] She went to various tertiary institutions, including the University of Queensland in Brisbane, [4] and the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Perth, [2] earning a PhD in History [5] at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. [6] ANU Press published her book, No Truck with the Chilean Junta! on the Pinochet reign in August 2014, [6] her specialist academic subject being trade union internationalism and the labour movement, [7] primarily in-relation to Latin America. [6]
She resides in Sydney, New South Wales, [4] and has two pets, a Maine Coon cat named Bubbles, and a freshwater prawn named Prawn Connery. [1]
Ann Jones began her broadcasting career as a local radio presenter for the ABC in Port Pirie, South Australia, [2] and later in regional Victoria. [8] Since 2014 she presented the Radio National programme Off Track, [2] often recording, producing, and editing for the show as well, [9] one of the 2016 episodes, Flying for their lives was a co-production with the BBC World Service, tracking the migration of Australian shorebirds through China to Alaska, [8] Off Track concluded in 2022. [10] A similar series, Nature Track, also presented by Jones, began in 2021. [11] [12] She briefly hosted the long-form podcast interview series Conversations in the absence of Richard Fidler from late November to early December 2016. [8] Jones began hosting Noisy by Nature, an ABC Kids podcast [13] [11] in 2019. [14]
In 2020 Jones debuted on television when she presented part of Reef Live. [2] In 2022 she began the ABC Listen podcast, What the Duck?! [15] for which she was nominated for Moment of Factual Clarity by the International Women's Podcast Awards in 2024 [16] as well as a spin-off series Sex is Weird, [17] presented Southern Ocean Live, [11] [18] and the television special Meet the Penguins. [11] She has also worked on and presented several episodes of the ABC's long-running science programme, Catalyst [5] as well as presenting several of the series' spin-offs, such as the two-part series co-presented with Paul West Australia's Favourite Tree in 2022, [19] The Secret Lives of Our Urban Birds, [20] [21] The Soundtrack of Australia [22] and Project Wild in 2023, [5] and the 6-part series Dr Ann's Secret Lives, first airing from 15 July to 19 August in 2025. [1] Jones also presents the ABC Science YouTube series, How Deadly, its spin-off How Deadly: World, [5] and How Extra. [13] [11]