Cunnamulla keeps up with the Joneses

Nestled in the heart of the Paroo Shire in south-west Queensland, Jones' Green Grocer and Nursery looks more like a fruit shop you'd stumble across in Brisbane.

That's because, thanks to the dedicated efforts of owners Rodney 'Jock' and Helen Jones, it stocks much of the food one would find at the Rocklea Markets in Brisbane.

Travelling a grand 1600- kilometre round trip every week to Brisbane and back in his trusty truck, Jock Jones is one of the unspoken heroes of the bush for services to his community.

While most hope to kick back and relax on a Sunday afternoon, the born and bred Cunnamulla fella is jumping in his truck to begin his journey east. After sleeping in his truck that night, Jock then rises bright and early on Monday morning to load up his refrigerated truck and make the journey home.

He has been doing this, week in and week out, for four years now. For an outsider, it's easy to be left questioning the purpose of his efforts. For Jock, there is no such question. "We're locals to the community; we care about our town," he said. "What you put in it is what you get back out of it. You could just sit back and let it be a fruit shop, but we want it to be more than that."

Jock and Helen first took over the grocer seven years ago. Then, the fruit and vegetables were brought out on freight liners that were sometimes unreliable in delivery and left the food below the quality Jock would like to serve his customers.

"They weren't on refrigerated trucks so by the time it got to this time of year, things were looking pretty ordinary - you couldn't get strawberries or any of those sorts of things. Now they seem to hold up pretty well and people can get things like blueberries straight off the shelf on Tuesday morning fresh from the market."

Thanks to word of mouth, Jock is now also carting groceries for businesses in other western towns including St George, Bollon, Eulo and Thargomindah.

As such, he has had to upgrade from his six-pallet capacity truck to a 10-pallet one to accommodate the growing hunger for fresh fruit and vegetables.

And while Jock considers himself a "basic man" who simply likes "good quality bananas", he and Helen have begun supplying organic and gluten-free foods in their shop.

"People are quite surprised when they see it, because now they don't have to go to Brisbane to get that stuff - we'll do it for them."