There was a great demand for his forecasts; he received much encouragement in his work as well as aid to finance his observatory so that his work might continue. Nevertheless, Jones failed in persistent attempts to have his predictive methods recognised as soundly based, by any substantial body of accredited scientific opinion.

Much was made of his successes, and, when in recent years, a drought or a wet spell arrived a few months earlier or later than predicted, there was a kindly disposition on the part of men on the land to allow that the quasi-legendary old figure from the hinterland had scored again.

Inigo Owen Jones was born at Croydon, Surrey, England on 1 December 1872 the son of Owen Jones, a civil engineer and a descendant of Inigo Jones, the noted English architect (1573–1652). His father's early training in engineering in London included such instructors as Faraday and Admiral Fitzroy. His mother came from the famed Bernoulli family, and to this parentage Inigo Jones attributed the intense fascination that meteorology and astronomy had for him from early childhood.

Jones's parents migrated to Australia in 1874 and settled some 40 miles north of Brisbane and Jones was educated at Brisbane Grammar School. Clement Wragge, the Queensland Government Meteorologist was so impressed by the boy's interests and ability, while still at school, that he recruited him as an observer and taught him what he could.

Bureau of Meteorology