by Crikey intern Elly Keating

Firstly, a mention must be made of the overwhelming coverage in our papers this week of the death of Richard Pratt, billionaire tycoon and a fair dinkum Aussie. One problem: he isn’t dead yet.

We had tributes flowing left right and centre on Wednesday, with many public figures like Victorian Premier John Brumby and AFL star Chris Judd telling us how great Pratt was. The Herald Sun lead the pack, with seven pages of coverage of Pratt in its edition on Wednesday morning. You can read Crikey’s Wrap of the coverage here.

It is interesting; however, that Pratt rarely rates a mention in today’s press. One does wonder if the Australian media will have anything left to say when he does actually slip away to meet his maker…

But we feel the Friday edition would not be complete without a nod to the best ‘expert’ of the week: Tim the Yowie Man.

Up north, where talk normally centres on crocodiles or dingoes, this week it’s all about the Yowie.

Australia first noticed Tim the Yowie Man in 1994 when he claimed to have seen Australia’s equivalent of Big Foot. The Canberra cyrptonaturalist now appears to be the nation’s pre-eminent expert on Yowies.

This week he has out done himself. Referring to reported sightings of Yowies in the Territory over the last 15 years, Tim told The Northern Territory News, how difficult it is to identify the real thing:

“One … turned out to be a hairy naked human running across the Stuart Highway near Alice Springs,” he said. That old chestnut.