According to the locals, Joe was born in outback Australia, to a Jillaroo by a traveling John Deere salesman. He was never given a last name because of a dispute between the Jillaroo's husband and the delivering nurse.

Joe started life working a cattle station west of Dubbo. After a brief attempt at school he headed to the Queensland coast and got a job as a deckhand on a yacht bound for the Caribbean and the famous Antigua Race Week. It was in the Caribbean he got his sea legs, racing and chartering yachts around the islands. He then met the daughter of a wealthy English coffee plantation owner named Rosie, who persuaded him to go back to Kingston with her to watch the Aussie cricket team play the all conquering Windies in the 1984 World Cup.
 

Joe liked the place so much he purchased a little house on the beach and turned it into a Beach Bar where all the expats hung out on Friday nights, drinking Red Stripe and listening to reggae music. Pretty soon Joe and Rosie had a jumping joint that was always full to the rafters with drinkers, party makers, and the odd celebrity. He combined this with an old style original, O'Mahoney road side diner he purchased from Pennsylvania and added "Joe's Diner" to the now famous "Jamaica Joe's" bar.

The rest is not quite history because Joe became homesick after 20 years looking after all the celebrity types who now frequented Jamaica Joe's. Rosie became pregnant to the short order cook, his prized '73 Pontiac Firebird was torched and rap music was becoming more popular than Reggae music. A chance meeting with a film crew heading down-under to film a salt water fly fishing extravaganza was all he needed.

Jamaica Joe met up with the founder of another Australian Icon Restaurant chain on this salt water fly fishing trip to Cape York where they both hooked up the same 26 kilo Giant Trevally. Over a cold Corona and a few Red Stripes that night they solved all the world's problems, became invisible and decided to meet up at "Jamaica Joe's" and his famous "Joe's Diner" when it opened in Australia. The rest is now history in the making.