Australian town crier has loudest shout in the world after growing up as the 'quiet kid'
Oyez, oyez, oyez!
If you find yourself in Canberra, Australia anytime soon, you might just hear Joseph McGrail-Bateup before you see him.
That’s because the native is officially the loudest man in the world.
This May, he broke the record for loudest shout by an individual (male) with a reading of 122.4 dB (C-weighted).
Joseph, the official town crier for Canberra and Queanbeyan, can shout as loud as a rock concert and match the noise levels of a military jet taking off.
That comes in handy considering he often has to shout over the noise of sports car engines at events in his hometown.
The record breaker, also known as Lord Joseph, was appointed the official town crier of Canberra in 2017.
He was asked to town cry at car shows, fetes, and other events, but got very serious about it when he joined the Ancient and Honourable Guild of Australian Town Criers in 2022 and started taking part in competitions.
“In the first year I managed to take some places in the event, but in 2024 I took first place away for the loudest cry at 98 dB,” he said.
“The words that are used in these competitions are ‘oyez, oyez’. At the beginning of this year I was wondering what I could do that was a little bit different, so not being unfamiliar with Guinness World Records – I am also a former holder for archery – I looked up shouting and here I am, six months later with the record.
“My daughter and I worked together to find the best word to hit the decibels. The previous word was ‘quiet’ but that wasn’t quite loud enough and we ended up settling for the word ‘now’.”
Read more stories like this in our section dedicated to Human Body records.
Joseph says he’s “ecstatic” to be back in the record books, after previously earning a title for the fastest time to shoot 10 arrows into a 40 cm target from an 18 m distance with 1 min 0.03 sec in 2019.
Of course, his job comes with some hazards.
He confessed: “Have I ever lost my voice through shouting or town crying? Yes, I have. Generally it’s after competitions or a day where I’m doing a car show and out there yelling all the time and yelling over sports cars is quite an interesting thing, but it’s a lot of fun and sometimes I can be louder than the sports cars sitting next to me.”
This is a record Joseph would have never imagined he’d break as a youngster.
He said: “When I was a kid I didn’t really have a loud voice, I was very shy, withholding all that stuff until I left school and I joined the theatre. It was very clear then that I needed to pipe up, make myself loud.
“So, I trained in the theatre where you didn’t use microphones or anything like that and I got loud and as the years went by, louder.”
It’s amazing what you can do when you put your mind to something.