Tim the Yowie Man is an Australian writer, author and cryptonaturalist who was born in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.
Life and career
Born Timothy Bull, TYM has changed his name by deed poll. He is an Australian National University graduate.
While bushwalking at Mount Franklin in the Brindabella National Park in 1994, Tim saw a yowie. Since then, Tim the Yowie Man has investigated yowie sightings and other paranormal phenomena across Australia and internationally. He also writes regular columns in Fairfax newspapers The Canberra Times and The Sydney Morning Herald.
In 2004, Tim the Yowie Man won a legal case against Cadbury, a popular British confectionery company. Cadbury had claimed that his moniker was too similar to their range of Yowie confectionery. In deciding the case, a Trade Mark Oppositions Hearing Officer ruled that she was “satisfied that a substantial portion of the Australian public would know of the dictionary meaning of yowie and be able to distinguish between use of the term in this sense, and use of the term by (Cadbury).”
In 2012, artist Barbara van der Linden painted Tim’s portrait as part of her Faces of Canberra series, for exhibition during Canberra’s centenary year in 2013. He continues to live in Canberra with his family.
He has acted as a location and historical advisor for international television programs on unusual phenomena and has featured in documentaries about Australian and international mysteries. He is also a member of the Australian Society of Travel Writers, and has hosted a national travel radio show and is a ghost-tour guide.
TYM released his third book In the Spirit of Banjo in December 2014, published by Pendragon Publishing and Design, Canberra.
Publications
Haunted and Mysterious Australia – Bunyips, yowies, phantoms and other strange phenomena, New Holland, 2006
The Adventures of Tim the Yowie Man, cryptonaturalist, Sydney: Random House Australia, 2001, ISBN 174051078X
It’s Alive!, Canberra: National Museum of Australia, 2003, ISBN 187694422 6 (Contributed to.)
In the Spirit of Banjo, Canberra: Pendragon Publishing and Design Australia, 2014, ISBN 978-0-9925061-2-4
