Tim the Yowie Man was so named after spotting a yowie in the rugged Snowy Mountains of Australia. He has since carved out a curious career as mystery investigator and cryptonaturalist (the study of strange and hidden phenomena) and is an authority on paranormal and unusual phenomena in Australia.
Tim has an extraordinary enthusiasm for all things spooky and has dedicated the past fifteen years to travelling the length and breadth of Australia in search of haunted and unexplained happenings.
He acts as a location and historical advisor for international television programs on unusual phenomena and has featured in documentaries about Australian and international mysteries.
A member of the Australian Society of Travel Writers, Tim has hosted a national travel radio show and is a ghost-tour guide. He now writes a weekly column for The Canberra Times and is a correspondent for 666ABC Canberra Breakfast discussing ‘exploring the region’
Q1) What are your memories of being an active child?
We lived on a hobby farm on the outskirts of Sydney so I was lucky to have lots of room to run amuck. With the help of my dad, I built goal posts out of some scrap wood and ran around for hours every weekend practising goal kicks (rugby league). If I was lucky sometimes my sister would fetch the ball for me. My sister and I also built a racing track for our BMXs which kept us amused for hours. We even erected pretend road signs which if we didn’t obey we had to do extra chores like putting the bins out (or worse, cleaning out the chooks!) On hot summers’ days I splashed for hours in the pool.
Q2) What did you enjoy the most and what did you enjoy the least about being an active kid?
The best part was being outside in the fresh air (or playing in the mud when it rained!). The worst thing about being active was that I always seemed to be hungry.
Q3) Did your family do active things together?
Not really. Both mum and dad worked so it was hard to line up activities for all of us to do together. Our annual family holiday was different though – on that we spent a lot of time at the beach and also on short bushwalks. I still remember my first bushwalk – it was to the Erith Coalmine in Bundanoon. I wrote a poem about the walk which ended up being published in the school magazine.
Q4) Was healthy eating important in your family?
Yes. My parents liked the old ‘meat and three veg for dinner’ and we loved tucking into lots of fresh fruit. We lived between two lettuce farms so every meal (sometimes even breakfast!) came with lettuce. We had our own vege patch and I recall getting up at the crack of dawn on weekends to tend to my very own patch of strawberries. I was distraught when one day I discovered the local possum had eaten them all! I also enjoyed collecting fresh eggs from our hen house.
Q5) Now, how do you balance a busy yet healthy lifestyle?
I make a healthy lifestyle a priority and set aside times in my diary dedicated just to being active. Due to the desktop nature of so many jobs these days, unless you make an effort to be active, it’s very easy (and unhealthy) not to.
Q6) Why do you believe it is important for kids to be physically active and eat healthy?
If you eat healthy your body thanks you for it and enables you to have more energy to have more fun. Eat healthy doesn’t mean you can’t have you favourite dessert every once in a while, just not every night!
It is biology really, kids are still forming a lot of their body until the age of around 18 – their brain and nervous system, circulatory system. The last think their little bodies and brains need is to waste time ‘handling’ high sugar, low levels of nutrients and high fat levels. Their bodies should be focussed on developing and growing, not to fighting useless or harmful substances (like too much sugar or food additives)
Q7) As an ACTIVATOR for the Physical Activity Foundation, how do you hope to make a difference to the future health of our Canberra kids?
I hope to show how fun it is to be active by exploring, discovering and playing in what I reckon is the world’s best playground – Canberra and surrounds!
Q8) What is your ACTIVATOR message to Canberra kids?
Get out there – you never know what you might discover!
- You don’t have to be a sportsperson to be active.
- The human body was designed to be active, not to sit down all day.
Canberra has some of the world’s finest infrastructure for getting out and enjoying the great outdoors. Physical activity doesn’t need to be confined to structured activities like school sporting teams. Go for a walk, cycle, swim, paddle or run. Why not hire rollerblades and go for a lap around one of the lakes.
We have more open green space than any other city in Australia, nearly every suburb has a hill or reserve where you can explore or even indulge in a bit of yowie hunting…
November 27th, 2014
