1

1

The subject of his conversation includes such things as raising sponsorship for a drag racing team, getting involved in a new airline that will cater specifically to the needs of backpackers and setting up a cruise ship operation in the Great Barrier Reef. The list of things he has done is diverse and unpredictable. Simply following a routine and going through the motions it appears is not something that appeals to him.

John grew up in North Wales and became a teacher but didn't keep that up for long. While a student and teaching in Llandudno, he also worked for Parisellas, selling ice creams and drove a taxi at night. After doing that for five years, he joined the Wales Tourist Board to run their information centres in North Wales and then marketing and public relations with The National Trust. Before coming to Australia, he set off to New York with his wife Lyn and two children to start up the Wales Tourist Board's marketing operation in the USA.

Having been settled in Australia for some time now, he feels that there is huge potential for the Welsh community here, but there are also problems it must contend with. One of the major issues faced by Welsh settlers he says, is just determining what it means to be Welsh once they have decided to call Australia home.

“I think one of the dilemmas is deciding about being Welsh-Australian or Australian Welsh and what that priority is,” he says. “As time passes by, then you're naturally going to become more Australian-Welsh and lose a little bit of interest in the Welsh side of things.”

There is, he believes, a large group of young successful people who have Welsh heritage of some sort and are interested in their roots but don't feel that the Welsh community has enough to offer them. He believes more attention should be paid to promoting a culture that is also relevant to them and reflects the complex situations of these contemporary Australian-Welsh.

“As the Welsh community in Australia we've got to present the right sort of opportunities to people who are not going to get alienated by the fact that they think they're going to be absorbed and drowned in a Welshness that's from the past , forty or fifty years ago.” “All the young people here today in the corporate world know a different Wales and a different Cardiff and a different Llandudno or whatever.” “They see the Welsh community as being associated with the past and the Wales they left behind and one associated with their parents or grandparents.”

And, in the more recent past, some of the activities that John has helped to organise have shown that these people are willing to be involved in events that are relevant to them. During the last British Lions tour, he was involved with Gwlad in setting up an event for Lions supporters at the Sydney Rugby Club which saw close to a thousand fans drinking the venue dry, and in promoting the massed Lions and Sydney Welsh choir concert which drew close to a thousand people.

More recently, to coincide with the Rugby World Cup in Australia, he organised a Max Boyce concert at the Opera House for BBC TV. The response was amazing and he views the 2500 people who came along to watch a “fairly “mature” and to many a not-that-well-known Welsh performer” as proof that a great deal more can be achieved.

What the young people do not want, he says, is to be pinned down. “They don't want to be organized, they don't want to join a club, they just want to have things on an occasional basis that they can plug into if they want to and if not, simply not bother,” he says.

With the efforts he has made to add to the Welsh community, John can understand. He tried to establish an Australia Wales Foundation that alongside trade and welfare would help organise social events in pubs and clubs. But in all his endeavours, he has found there was little support for these activities to maintain the high levels of interest raised around the times of the big football tournaments, and he like others doesn't have enough time to continue doing so much on his own.

“I think that Sydney and Melbourne are carpet bombed with Welsh connected young people and the only future for Welsh communities is to provide the sorts of social events and the sort of facilities that these young people need which is not dominating them. It's Welsh oriented but it recognises and appreciates their Australian-Welsh culture and introduces them to visiting people from Wales,” he says.

There may be a limit to what Jones can do with little support in an organising capacity but nothing hinders his flow of ideas. He begins to talk about his dream for a Welsh pub or club in Sydney that would be a conduit for visiting bands like the Manic Street Preachers, Karnataka, Fernhill, Rag Foundation, Kentucky afc, Elin Fflur or the Super Furry Animals and even heaven forbid Goldie Looking Chain whose hilarious take on gangster rappers has seen them hit the top 5 in the UK charts, but definitely “not harps and singing every night!” You can practically here his mind whirring away as he takes another sip of his pint and looks into the distance - it must be another exciting idea forming in his never restful mind!