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Outback drama

It's a hard and lonely life on an outback cattle station - but the stars of this new reality series absolutely love it.
A cheeky crocodile snaps its jaws after being woken by stock farmer Milton Jones and his four-year-old son Milton Junior.
On the horizon a fleet of choppers buzzes overhead as they zoom over a waterfall-laden ridge and the thundering sound of a herd of cattle echoes across the cliff faces. Welcome to Coolibah Station, home of the Joneses.
Since purchasing the property with a wad of cold-hard cash back in 1988, straight-shooting Milton Senior has worked his butt off, living and working on the land of his 1.3 million-acre property in the Northern Territory.
Wrangling crocs, battling bushfires, drought and mustering cattle with the help of his 42-strong helicopter fleet, there's never a dull moment at the station.
"Making ends meet and making money is always hard work," Milton tells TV WEEK from the station, located more than 200km from the nearest town, Katherine.
"During the wet season we are trapped here, it's like an island. The river comes up three months of the year and you're isolated. We started out here with nothing, but [now] we're doin' alright."
Now, Milton and his family, along with everyone putting in the hard yakka at the station, have opened up their door to share their piece of paradise with the rest of Australia in Keeping Up With The Joneses.

Meet the clan

Milton Jones, 42
Raised in the Northern Territory and with mustering in his blood, this boss, husband and father left school at 16. Married to his second wife Cristina, Milton has three kids: teenagers Beau and Alex, plus Milton Jr. While he admits he can be a tough nut, he's always fair. "I think I am probably a hard bastard," he says with the trademark chuckle viewers will learn to love.
Cristina Jones, 35
Managing accounts and the homestead is all in a day's work for this horse lover. After meeting Milton at a Campdraft, a country horse racing event, more than eight years ago, she was initially recruited to help her now husband with his books, but love soon blossomed. "He fell deeply in love with me," she laughs.
Little Milton, 4
A little man growing up in a very adult world, this happy-go-lucky youngster is the life of the property. Rarely mixing with kids his own age and set to begin School Of The Air this year, his upbringing is unique.
"He doesn't like school much, he would rather go and do what his dad's doing," Cristina says.
Little Milton will no doubt be the series fave.
Hamish Mundel, 30
Boys and their toys! There's nothing that gets Hamish more excited than packing up his road train and hitting the highway.
Hamish comes to muster at the station every year with his wife, Kristie. "He is a likeable critter," Milton says of his brother-in-law. "He is talented, a good truck driver and great with the horses."
Jeff O'Connor, 20
With a twinkle in his eye, this Sunshine Coast lifesaver causes quite a stir when he first arrives at Coolibah. He has his chopper licence and wants to roll with the big boys.
"You've got to earn your stripes and he probably won't last here," Milton says. "He's a hardworking, bubbly guy, but he really lacks common sense."
Trevor Easton, 60
"He has his good and bad points," Milton says. Known as the "cranky chef" of Coolibah, this "ten pound Pom", who arrived in Australia in 1971, is the man behind slaughtering livestock and feeding the drovers who work at the station. "I left last year because I'd had enough, but here I am," Trevor confesses.
Raine Pugh, 22
This jillaroo has a heart of gold, but she knows how to mix it with the big boys.
"Just because I'm a girl it doesn't mean I can't be as good as any man out there," says Raine, the daughter of a croc farmer.
"She's a good kid," Milton says, adding, "She has come from nowhere and has never had much. She appreciates the job and a wage."
Kristie Mundel, 28
While her man works the land, Kristie helps Cristina around the sprawling rural property with household chores, including collecting the weekly food delivery and helping with Little Milton's schooling.
Kristie gets a surprise when her husband treats her to a riverside dinner for their one-year anniversary.

Fast facts

1. Coolibah is more than 1000 km and a six-hour drive from the nearest city, Darwin.
2. There are more than 5000 crocodiles lurking in the wetlands of Coolibah.
3. While 1955 Aussie movie Jedda was filmed at Coolibah, the Joneses turned down Baz Luhrmann's offer to shoot his 2008 epic Australia on the station. "We weren't keen on their attitude, so we said no," Milton admits.
4. In 1991, Milton and the station hands camped on the roof of the homestead due to rising floodwaters.
5. The Joneses can make up to $100,000 per road train load of cattle and they usually send nine at a time.
6. The helicopter musterers did 20,000 flying hours last year. There have been six helicopter-related deaths over the past four years.
7. A cowboy hat from country music legend Willie Nelson hangs in the homestead - a gift for Milton who met him 15 years ago.
8. There are more than 15,000 cattle to muster on the station.
9. The Joneses only make it to Darwin four times a year.
10. Teenagers Beau and Alex attend a boarding school in Brisbane and return to the station in the holidays.

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Tonight's highlights included dropping a station hand by static line onto a crocidile nest to harvest croc egs.... and a 20 year old newbie pilot wearing board shorts who arrived without a hat.

--> New outback drama: Keeping Up With The Joneses - TV Week - TV News

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And so on. Great TV, but what a goose

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What........................no "black hat"?

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what I assume was a licenced pilot

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Carry the ringer on the strop, off the hook, to pick up croc eggs. Great idea, I bet CASA loved that

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For a start, this was a thread about the facets and adventures of Mr Jones that are able to be aired on TV without seeing him make a reappearance on Australia's Hardest Prisons!

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For all of you that haven't messed around and done sh1t you're not supposed to do in a helicopter you are either very green,

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You lot make me laugh...

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A TERRITORY cattleman has shrugged off threats to prosecute him for towing his son on a waterski with a helicopter.

Milton Jones, 46, said the Canberra-based Civil Aviation Authority was wasting its money.

"It's a witch-hunt," he said.

The authority has asked for unedited footage of the waterski-ing stunt shown in Network Ten's Keeping Up With the Joneses.

Mr Jones, who owns the 700sq km Coolibah station on the Victoria River, said he was towing his 15-year-old son Beau.

"He was home from boarding school. I only see him for a few weeks each year and we were just having a bit of fun.

"It was perfectly safe. I've been flying for 20 years and am very experienced. All the yahoo has gone out of me by now."

Mr Jones, who also owns the Albatross helicopter company and the Top Springs Hotel, said he was endorsed for low-level flying. The safety authority took out a search warrant to obtain the raw footage.

But Mr Milton's lawyer obtained an order for the video to be sealed and handed to the Federal Court.

A judge will decide next month if the authority can see the footage.

It is believed that several viewers complained about the waterski-ing scene in the reality television show, which was shown in 15 episodes last year.

Mr Jones became a hero in the hospitality industry last year when his Top Springs Hotel became the first liquor outlet to be prosecuted under federal emergency intervention laws for failing to record personal details of customers buying more than $100 worth of takeaway grog.

The law, which was lifted late last year, was despised by hoteliers - they said it was time-consuming and did nothing to reduce alcohol abuse.

Darwin magistrate Dick Wallace dismissed the charge, saying the law was "unworkable".

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REALITY TV pilot and farmer Milton Jones could be banned from flying for a year over alleged safety breaches committed while filming his hit TV series.

pAviation authorities will begin their investigations into the star of Keeping Up With The Joneses on Wednesday, with the Northern Territory-based flight company boss facing fines of thousands of dollars.

Jones is alleged to have committed a host of safety breaches during the 10-episode series, which screened on Network Ten last year, including using a helicopter to tow his 15-year-old son Beau for water-skiing.

The investigation was launched when Civil Aviation Safety Authority investigator Mark Haslam allegedly saw on the program in November a series of safety breaches.

He then watched seven other episodes - available on Channel 10's website - and allegedly identified more breaches.

In March, the authority was granted a warrant to raid the offices of Jones's production company, WTFN, where they seized DVDs containing raw footage and out-takes.

Jones failed in an attempt to have the warrant overturned in the Federal Court this month.

CASA will begin its investigation on Wednesday when an injunction preventing the authority from examining the DVDs expires.

The court also heard that Jones allegedly breached regulations by using a helicopter to collect crocodile eggs without an appropriate licence. He is also accused of drinking alcohol within eight hours of flying and leaving a helicopter unattended with the engine running and rotors turning with children in the back.

The investigator told the court CASA needed to view the unedited footage to prove the offences had been committed - or whether they simply appeared to have occurred because of "an editing issue" or "poetic licence" for TV broadcasting purposes.

A court spokesman said that Jones had not lodged an appeal.

A Channel 10 spokeswoman said the remaining episodes of the series would be screened this year. Jones did not return telephone calls from The Sunday Telegraph.

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Bluey and family

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