This is a profile of an adventurous family. Lauren and Justin Jones and their two kids, Morgan (6) and Dylan (2), live on a 240ha property in the remote north of Bruny Island where they have sheep, chickens, pigs, a colony of quolls living under their toilet, possums and birds aplenty. They bushwalk and garden (badly); Lauren does long, looping runs, their collar-wearing sheep trying to follow; Justin (aka Jonesy) spearfishes a couple of times a week, bringing home cray, abalone, kingfish and more.
This lifestyle is one ‘the Jonesies’ consciously created, moving from Sydney in 2020 after lives spent mostly in cities. The catalyst for the change? A three-month, 1,800km trek across the outback, from the Red Centre to the coast of South Australia, towing 15-month-old Morgan in a cart.
The documentary about the trip (Expedition Parenthood) ends with a wonderful, goose-bump-inducing voiceover from Lauren. “Parenthood is one of the craziest adventures ever. First your life completely unravels, and you lose yourself in the process. Then the magic happens and you find yourself again, reinvented, reborn. You set out in search of adventure, but it’s only when you slow down [and] surrender that you realise adventure was there all along.”
Adventure is something the Jones’ have taken into their life, giving it a satisfyingly broad definition: an activity with an unknown outcome. It can be in the outdoors (which is nice—we all need nature, too), but also in sports, the arts, business, whatever. And adventure is relative to your experiences, wants and needs.
Which fits in well for this piece. Because while this is a profile of a particular family, it’s also something more: A look at adventurous lives and what that even means, and how you
