Simon Varwell came to the Illawarra in July 2005. It was the third stop in what has become a 28-leg world tour of locations with Mullet in their name.

With 14 of the locations under his belt, Mr Varwell has published a travelogue of the first seven, titled Up the Creek Without a Mullet.

"Many of the mullets I visited were fairly insignificant and out of the way places," said Mr Varwell, of Inverness.

"Mullet Creek near Bundaberg was ... just a dried up ditch along a fairly minor road.

"In a sense, that's part of the appeal - visiting places I might not otherwise think of going to and being surprised as a result.

"It's been a fascinating experience throwing caution, cost, prejudice, preference and convenience to the wind and letting a figurative throw of the dice decide where I am to travel to.

"The mullets that stood out were the ones where I met interesting people. I [met] a number of lovely folk in Dapto who told me more about the area - one of whom had emailed me to say her family loved the idea of the mission, her husband had a mullet, and they wanted to meet me."

The 32-year-old became a keen spotter of the mullet haircut in 2001 when he was travelling through parts of Eastern Europe - "hotbeds of mulletry" - with a friend.

The pair made a game of it, with one point for every male mullet they saw, two for every "skullet" (receding mullet), three for each "femme brulee" (female mullet) and four for the elusive "chullet" - child mullet.

He decided to take it further when he discovered there was a place in Albania called Mullet.

This, and locations in Ireland and Australia, comprise the first seven stops in the book.

A sequel, due out next year, will chart trips to England, Canada, New Zealand and the West Coast of the United States.

Mr Varwell believes there is another book in the remaining mullets of the US, the Caribbean and the Falkland Islands, not all of which will be easily accessible.

"Mullet in Haiti, for instance ... that's not going to be easy."

Mr Varwell, who has never sported the "hideous" haircut, will be joined in future travels by his new wife.

"She thinks it is a fun mission," he said.