Pioneers, linguists and soldiers populate the Joyce family tree

Barnaby Joyce’s New Zealand ancestors spawned one of the great military families in the Otago region.

‘When Barnaby sets his mind to something, he just goes and goes,’ says friend Mark Grady. Picture: James Croucher

On one side of the ditch, Barnaby Joyce’s New Zealand ancestors spawned one of the great military families in the Otago region; in Australia on his mother’s side, his links go back to settlement in the NSW Riverina.

The Arragon family, of which his great-grandmother Bridget Anastasia Roche was one, owned Springdale station near Adelong in the state’s southeast since the area was marked by pioneers.

In New Zealand, grandfather Lieutenant Colonel JP Joyce fought at both Gallipoli during World War I and the Pacific in World War II, rising to become ­director of artillery for the nation’s armed forces. After World War II, he was asked by the government to select a place to train the country’s soldiers, settling on Waiouru.

His was quite the worldly family, despite being constrained to the towns of Hampden and Adelong in NZ and Australia for much of their history, with Mr Joyce’s mother showing a rare gift for languages when she left high school.

Jim and Marie Joyce.

A boarder at Loreto Convent in Kirribilli, Marie Roche secured A-passes in Latin, French and Eng­lish and a B in Italian despite studying it for only 18 months. She eventually studied arts at the University of Sydney, specialising in languages, where she met her husband-to-be James Michael Joyce, who had arrived from NZ on a scholarship to study veterinary science.

Barnaby Joyce’s great-grandfather, Samuel Greenwood, who died in 1895, is buried at Bingara in his seat of New England.

Not many of Mr Joyce’s friends knew this family history. He never talked about it and, according to one of his best mates, Mark Grady, never copped so much as a Kiwi gibe during their youth.

Mr Grady, a Tamworth solicitor, met the now Deputy Prime Minister when they were boarders at St Ignatius Riverview in Sydney and went on to the University of New England together, where he studied economics and Mr Joyce studied accounting.  

Lt Col JP Joyce who fought at Gallipoli.

While studying, he helped Mr Joyce get a job as a bouncer.

“I was behind the bar at the Wicklow Hotel and they said they needed someone to kick people out and I said ‘I know just the guy’,” Mr Grady, a groomsman at Mr Joyce’s wedding, told The ­Australian.

“His dad Jim Joyce has been here since Captain Cook, basically.

“When I heard the news I just thought, ‘This is bullshit’. He’s never considered himself a Kiwi, he never even talked about it.”

Mr Grady, who admits to not particularly liking Mr Joyce’s politics, said nevertheless he was concerned for a friend and spent Monday night reading High Court case law on section 44 of the ­Constitution.

“It’s funny sitting here, because I only ever thought Barnie would be an accountant. There was never any hint of politics for him,” he said.

“But that’s the thing — when he sets his mind to something, he just goes and goes and goes. He will work until he drops. He’s the hardest worker you will ever see.”

Tough grind won’t see the ­Nationals leader out of a constitutional mess, however, and his ­future hangs on an interpretation from the High Court.