Milton James grew up in rural South Australia, the son of a Signalman who was proud of his working class heritage. Milton's working life began in the mining industry, followed by qualification and considerable experience in the agricultural industry. In 1978, he travelled to India to work as a volunteer on a remote community development project in the poorest villages in the poorest state of India. This experience stirred him into studying social work and he began developing his career in rural South Australia and Victoria, with a particular passion for working with young people and Aboriginal families. In 1994, having just completed further studies in social work and working in Canberra, a visiting Aboriginal friend and mentor, the late Molly Dyer from Horsham in Victoria, noting his despondent state of mind, said to him; "Milton, this is no place for you. You don't belong here. You belong on the frontier." No sooner were these words spoken, Milton and his family left to work in the Torres Strait. Some years later, it occured to Milton that he had overshot the real frontier - remote area social work where young Indigenous people are truly deprived and where conventional forms of intervention had never operated successfully.

Phillip Duncan is a Team Leader at the Cairns Youth Justice Service Centre who has provided Youth Justice services to clients and their families for over twenty years. He describes himself as an eclectic human services practitioner and line manager, who draws upon a wide range of disciplines and evidence based practice to service clients.
He continually seeks innovative and effective ways to provide better services to clents. Phillip has a strong professional focus on bridging the gap between rural, urban and remote Indigenious clients and the mainstream Australian community.
He is a strong supporter of the Boys from the Bush and has worked with Milton James its founder since its inception. he looks forward to the challenges of providing professional input with the roll out of the national Rural & Remote Area Work Scheme.

Jacqueline James has a background in law and public policy. She has worked in Indigenous related fields for several years. She has worked as a legal policy officer for the federal government on administration and reform of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 and as a legal consultant to Cape York Indigenous leader, Noel Pearson, and his organisation, Cape York Partnerships. She has volunteered for the Boys from the Bush scheme since its inception. Jacqueline's research interests include discrimination issues, workplace rights, rights of children, and government ethics.

Scott Milne and Milton James grew up in the country town of Loxton in South Australia, they both worked with troubled youth and disadvantaged groups in a variety of contexts. They undertook their Social Work degrees together and after completing their qualifications both worked in Canberra in the child protection field. Scott and Milton first seriously began to explore solutions to indigenous concerns during the 1980’s. In the mid 1990’s Scott worked as a hospital and community health Social Worker in Canberra and Milton moved to the remote Torres Strait. They continued to keep in contact and whilst in 2000 Scott ran a national conference on Indigenous issues entitled: Social Workers Putting Aboriginal Reconciliation into Practice, Milton was working in the Torres Strait and searching to build a new beginning for troubled indigenous youth on the frontier. The Boys From The Bush formed in the imagination and Milton’s journey trekked into remote area Social Work, where young indigenous people are truly deprived and where conventional forms of intervention had never operated successfully. At each step, Milton and Scott discussed progress.  

Steven Rothfield is deeply committed to working in partnership with Indigenous leaders and has been personally involved in over 20 projects in Indigenous communities over the last 5 years in Victoria and Queensland.
He has had extensive business experience which included being the joint managing director of the Bryant and May Group which marketed and distributed branded consumer packaged goods in Australia and New Zealand with well-known brands such as Redheads matches, Wilkinson Sword razors, Antrid pest control and Love and Care detergents.
Previously Steven was the general manager of Pedersons a national office products chain, a senior management consultant at PA Consultants for over 5 years specialising in business feasibility, corporate planning and organisation reviews for both private, philanthropic and public sector organisations such as Dulux, CSIRO and Wesley Central Mission, a range of sales and technical specialist roles in the General Electric and Honeywell computer companies and a lending officer with AIFC a merchant bank.
Steven has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Melbourne University and an MBA also from Melbourne University where he graduated with distinction and the prize in Financial Management.

Ross Walters is a long standing friend and professional colleague of Milton James. Ross played a key role in helping Milton to establish the Opged and Muri programs in the Torres Strait and the Boys from the Bush program on Cape York. Ross is a Torres Strait Islander raised on the mainland.  He is a qualified secondary school teacher.  Since 1972 he has worked in Brisbane, Toowoomba, Bathurst Island and Cairns.  He was the School Principal at Wangetti Education Centre for eight years and more recently has been a teacher at Djarragun College at Gordonvale south of Cairns. Ross provides invaluable insight into the nature of young Indigenious people and their family dynamics. He is also very experienced at managing difficult behaviour in at-risk adolescents.

Greta Galloway is a social worker currently employed as a senior lecturer at James Cook University on the Cairns campus. Greta has experience working with children and families both in Australia and in South Africa. Greta has been involved in a number of projects with Indigenious people, including the facilitation and writing up of an Indigenious women's healing workshop; developing an anti-violence package for Aboriginal families and is currently involved in a project elucidating healing practices helpful to Aboriginal people experiencing violence and abuse in their lives. Greta always works from a stance of acknowledging the shared historical space between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and non-Indigenious Australians; a space which has privileged non-Indigenious people at the expense of the first nations people of this country.