The son of British migrants, Jim was born in Sydney and attended Botany Public School, Sydney Boys’ High School and Sydney Teachers’ College and later gained two masters’ degrees in literature, from the University of New England and the University of Wales in the UK. He sang in a folk trio at Teachers’ College and was a member of various bands while teaching in country towns, in between several periods living in the UK.

While teaching in Inverell, NSW, in the late 1970s, Jim formed the Bandy Bill & Co Bush Band. He re-joined in 1985 after living in the UK and the band recorded two albums and had airplay on the ABC radio show Australia All Over. Jim worked weekend shifts on commercial radio station 2NZ and quit teaching to work full time on Australia All Over in 1988. He had a minor hit with Mow Ya Lawn in 1989, signed his first solo record deal with Festival in 1990 and embarked on a career as an entertainer.

Two songs – Don’t Call Wagga Wagga Wagga and Since Cheryl Went Feral, became hits and crossed over onto the pop charts. He toured his own show and toured with other artists like Slim Dusty, Frank Ifield, Melinda Schneider, Beccy Cole, Greg Champion and Adam Brand.

Having ‘invented’ the country town of Weelabarabak in the 1980s, Jim began writing verse about the town and its characters and events. These poems were self-published as I’ll Have Chips! and a book of short stories, Memories of Weelabarabak, was published by ABC Books. His Aussie Verse column was a feature of the nation’s oldest magazine Australasian Post, until its demise in 2004.

Jim has now written, compiled and edited thirty-five books, specialising in well-researched, factual (but always entertaining) Australian history. He finds the truth behind the many myths and misconceptions that Aussies tend to believe about our past.

Credited with starting ‘bush verse’ morning shows at the Tamworth and Port Fairy Festivals, Jim served on the board of the Country Music Association of Australian for 15 years and helped create the Academy of Country Music.

He has worked on Sydney radio for 25 years and was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in the Australia Day Honour’s List in 2016, ‘for service to the performing arts as an entertainer, author, broadcaster and historian’.

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Books by Jim Haynes:

  • Adventurers Pioneers & Misfits
  • Best Australian Drinking Stories (Allen & Unwin)
  • Australia’s Greatest Scams, Cons and Rorts (Allen & Unwin)
  • Australia’s Most Unbelievable True Stories (Allen & Unwin)
  • The Big Book of Australian Racing Stories (Allen & Unwin)
  • The Best Gallipoli Yarns (Allen & Unwin)
  • Australia’s Best Unknown Stories (Allen & Unwin)
  • Best Australian Yarns (Allen & Unwin)
  • Best Australian Bush Stories (Allen & Unwin)
  • Best Australian Sea Stories (Allen & Unwin)
  • Best Australian Trucking Stories (Allen & Unwin)
  • The Great Australian Book of Limericks 2nd Ed (Allen & Unwin)
  • Best Australian Racing Stories (Allen & Unwin)
  • On All Fronts – Australia’s WW2 (Harper Collins/ABC)
  • The Big Book of Verse for Aussie Kids (Allen & Unwin)
  • The ABC Book of Australian Country Music (ABC Books)
  • The Book of Australian Popular Rhymed Verse (ABC Books)
  • Great Australian Aviation Stories (ABC Books)
  • Great Australian Racing Stories (ABC Books)
  • Cobbers – Stories of Gallipoli 1915 (ABC Books)
  • All Aboard – Tales of Australian Railways (ABC Books)
  • Great Australian Drinking Stories (ABC Books)
  • An Australian Treasury of Popular Verse (ABC Books)
  • The Great Australian Book of Limericks (ABC Books)
  • An Australian Heritage of Verse (ABC Books)
  • Memories of Weelabarabak (ABC Books)
  • I’ll Have Chips – (Singabout Australia)