Word On Books
with Jeremy Fenton
The Adventures of Tim the Yowie Man, Cryptonaturalist
By Tim the Yowie Man, Published by Random House
 I have to admit to approaching Tim the Yowie Man's first book with a huge amount of scepticism and a total lack of seriousness. It is, after all, the purported adventures of the world's foremost cryptonaturalist.
Wondering what a cryptonaturalist is?
It's a made up word (by the Yowie Man himself - taking his cues from the word cryptozoology) that means "one versed in the study of rare, strange and hidden phenomena predominantly from the natural world".
Yes, we're talking yowies (obviously), the Loch Ness Monster, big cats in Australia, bunyips, the Min Min Light, bears in Queensland, the Hawaiian Lava-Tube Monster, and the producers of 'reality' television show Survivor II- The Australian Outback.
Strange animals and natural effects aside, our Tim came to the attention of the wider world in 2000 when he revealed the supposedly top secret location for the shooting of the Australian Outback version of CBS's ratings winner, Survivor. After spilling the beans on national media in both countries, he proceeded to haunt the show from a hidden location of his own (at one stage hiring a helicopter and dropping chocolate bars to the 'starving' contestants - making him CBS's public enemy number one.)
Tim comes across as a weird and wonderful counterpart to everybody's favourite crocodile hunter, and professional idiot, Steve Irwin. Like Mr. Irwin he wears an unofficial uniform while doing what few others do (or would want to do - such as trying to provoke potentially dangerous beasts into showing themselves!).
A brash and extroverted character unto himself, the Yowie Man is a world apart from such unassuming predecessors as Australian cryptozoologist Rex Gilroy. He's certainly not afraid of self-promotion, and by all accounts has turned a bizarre fascination into an on-going paying proposition of sorts.
Thankfully the Yowie Man reveals himself to be as big a sceptic as anyone, he may be hunting some of the most ludicrous ideas and myths around but that doesn't mean he's into self-delusion. It's a lesson that nearly all the other writers on such material have missed (try any book by Charles Berlitz for example).
What looks from the outside to be yet another exploration of the idiotic and 'spooky' turns out to be a book that goes a long way towards debunking its subjects - that it does so with typically rough Australian charm and a laconically dry wit makes it an enjoyable read (even if very much on the light and whimsical side).
Personally, I guess I'm a bit like Mulder from television's The X-Files: I want to believe. But really I think I'd have to find a yowie under the front porch and Nessie in the bath before I'd come close to accepting that this already strange planet is populated by even stranger beasties.
However, as Tim says, keep an open mind and a healthy degree of scepticism. Oh, and always "remember to keep your eyes on the track".
"Thankfully the Yowie Man reveals himself to be as big a sceptic as anyone, he may be hunting some of the most ludicrous ideas and myths around but that doesn't mean he's into self-
delusion. "
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