{"id":426131,"date":"2026-01-20T19:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T19:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/426131\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T19:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T19:50:15","slug":"midnight-oil-drummer-rob-hirst-dies-after-pancreatic-cancer-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/426131\/","title":{"rendered":"Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst dies after pancreatic cancer battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated January 20, 2026 \u2014 8:34pm,first published 5:38pm<\/p>\n

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Midnight Oil\u2019s frontman Peter Garrett has joined a growing chorus of music giants paying tribute to Rob Hirst, the Oils\u2019 drummer who has died at the age of 70.<\/p>\n

Hirst had been fighting advanced pancreatic cancer. In a post to their Facebook page, the band said he died peacefully, \u201csurrounded by loved ones\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter fighting heroically for almost three years, Rob is now free of pain \u2013 \u2018a glimmer of tiny light in the wilderness\u2019,\u201d said Garrett in a statement repeated on the band\u2019s Facebook page.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are shattered and grieving the loss of our brother Rob. For now there are no words, but there will always be songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tributes have begun flowing from fellow rock royalty, with Jimmy Barnes saying on social media: \u201cRob Hirst has had a massive impact on Australian culture. He was the engine driving one of the greatest live bands of all time. RIP, dear Rob. You are irreplaceable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dom Turner, the blues guitarist with whom Hirst played in The Backsliders, said he was devastated at \u201cthe passing of my musical brother\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cRob had incredible musicality, intelligence, boundless physical and creative energy, a fantastic sense of humour and a passion for life. I am honoured and blessed to have had over 20 years of adventures with Rob.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hirst was one of the founding members of the seminal Australian band that formed in the 1970s and was led by frontman Peter Garrett. The Oils became famous around the world with hits including Power and the Passion (1982), Beds Are Burning (1987) and Blue Sky Mine (1990).<\/p>\n

Hirst co-wrote the latter two of these hits and many others, cementing the band\u2019s global reputation as politically aware rock stars.<\/p>\n

Hirst was diagnosed with stage three pancreatic cancer in 2023, six months after the last ever Oils gig at Sydney\u2019s Hordern Pavilion.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Midnight<\/a><\/p>\n

In an interview with this masthead in November<\/a>, Hirst spoke of selling his beloved drum kit for $90,000 \u2013 bought by Oils fans, as it turned out, who donated it to the Australian Music Vault in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

The battered black Ludwig kit, which Hirst played while performing with the Oils from 1979 until 2022, sold for $90,000 at auction \u2013 $80,000 above reserve \u2013 thanks to the fundraising clout of \u201crusted-on fans\u201d known as the Powderworkers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t really thrash the drums any more,\u201d Hirst said at the time.<\/p>\n

He was \u201changing in there\u201d, he reported, in an upbeat way. \u201cI\u2019m looking at the bush and the jacarandas are all out. It\u2019s a lovely time of year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musician and journalist Sean Sennett remembered Hirst as a lovely friend and curious man.<\/p>\n

Sennett met Hirst at a songwriters\u2019 workshop at Mount Macedon in the \u201990s. They wrote a song together, but it took them 15 years to record it because of how well they got on.<\/p>\n

\"MidnightMidnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst has died at the age of 70.Robert Hambling<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we just got waylaid by great conversation. We used to chat all the time. He would want to know about my kids, we\u2019d talk about music, books, the politics of the day, and every conversation I had I\u2019d always get a laugh out of him,\u201d Sennett said.<\/p>\n

Sennett said Hirst would push him out of his comfort zone, always wanting to walk to the lighthouse at Byron Bay instead of driving there. His active streak continued even as he underwent cancer treatment and his condition became terminal.<\/p>\n

\"HirstHirst during his Midnight Oil days.Fairfax Media<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember the day that I heard about [his diagnosis], I was devastated,\u201d Sennett said. \u201cYou hear how quickly people pass away from pancreatic cancer, but he had such a will to live. And I said to him last Thursday, \u2018Rob, you\u2019ve made well people look bad!\u2019 He\u2019d be out there doing his garden or writing songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hirst, an accomplished singer and songwriter in his own right, recently released the EP A Hundred Years or More, with guitarist Jim Moginie, his former schoolmate and Oils colleague, and drummer Hamish Stuart.<\/p>\n

On the EP, Hirst plays acoustic guitar, his songs drenched in psychedelic sunshine and melody. \u201cI realise it\u2019s quite an existentialist bunch of songs, with titles like Are We There Yet? and A Hundred Years or More,\u201d he told this masthead late last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose I\u2019ve been thinking about lifespan and longevity \u2013 legacy, even. And, of course, that comes out in the songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sennett said he was glad that Hirst\u2019s achievements with Midnight Oil \u2013 as a songwriter and vocalist as well as a drummer \u2013 we were recognised in his lifetime.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody knew his voice from those massive choruses \u2013 the \u201cdo do do\u201d on The Dead Heart, or Kosciuszko. I think Midnight Oil fans were aware that he and Jim [Moginie, guitarist] wrote so many songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean geez, what a drummer. I introduced him to Max Weinberg from Bruce Springsteen\u2019s band. Max is one of the great drummers in rock, and he saw Rob and went, \u2018You\u2019re a great drummer\u2019. Even Eddie Vedder [of Pearl Jam] mentioned to me he thought Rob was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hirst attended Mosman Primary School in Sydney, where he was a prefect in 1967 along with cricketer Allan Border and actor Tom Burlinson.<\/p>\n

In his 2015 book Big Blue Sky, Garrett said he joined the band after seeing an ad in The Sydney Morning Herald that Hirst and Moginie had placed looking for a lead singer, before auditions were held in November 1973.<\/p>\n

Hirst is survived by his wife, Lesley Holland, and his daughters Lexi, Ella and Jay.<\/p>\n

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