Inigo Owen Jones

Inigo Owen Jones (1 December 1872 – 14 November 1954) was a meteorologist and farmer in Queensland, Australia.

Early life Inigo Owen Jones was born in Croydon, Surrey, England to Owen Jones, a civil engineer, and Emilie Susanne, née Bernoulli. Emilie's mother was said to have been a Dorothy Inigo-Jones, on which basis it has been claimed Inigo Owen Jones is descended from the architect Inigo Jones; however, the latter never married and there are no records of descendants. His mother was from the Bernoulli family of mathematicians, and Inigo attributed his interest in meteorology and astronomy to this background.

In 1874 Jones's parents migrated to Australia, settling on a property called Crohamhurst in the Glass House Mountains north of Brisbane in eastern Queensland. He became interested in meteorology while working on the family farm. The property was named after Croham Hurst in Surrey, England, owned by Lord Goschen.

Meteorology The Queensland Government meteorologist Clement Lindley Wragge was so impressed with Inigo's ability as a schoolboy that he recruited him as an assistant in 1888.

Inigo Jones became a full-time forecaster and lecturer in 1927 and founded the privately operated Crohamhurst Observatory in south-east Queensland with financial assistance from the Colonial Sugar Refining Company. An Australian Senate hearing was told in 1938 that Jones was a "wonderful patriot" and that he was "held in the highest esteem by the big man and also the small man on the land". and yet farmers credited and worked their farms using his long-range forecasts.

Later life

Jones died at home on his farm at Crohamhurst, Queensland and was buried in the nearby Peachester cemetery.

Legacy

His assistant Lennox Walker expanded Jones' theories and continued marketing long range forecasts until 2000, when he passed the business over to his son Hayden Walker.

The Crohamhurst Observatory was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register in 2008.