Rob Hirst, the legendary Midnight Oil drummer and songwriter, was appointed Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the General Division in the 2026 Australia Day honours, for significant service to the performing arts through music.
Sadly, six days before the world would hear of his honour, on Tuesday, January 20, Hirst passed away at the age of 70 after a three year battle with pancreatic cancer.
That day, the South West Voice received a note from one of his biggest fans in Campbelltown, legal eagle Patrick Duffy, who obviously was not aware of Hirst’s inclusion in this year’s Australia Day honours.
“Many in Campbelltown of a certain age were saddened to hear of the passing of Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst,’’ said Duffy, pictured below with an Oils album.
“What many might not be aware of is that Rob Hirst was a native son of Campbelltown.
“Hirst was born in 1955 at Camden (as most Campbelltown babies were until the 1970s) and grew up at Kentlyn until the age of seven when his family moved to Mosman.
“He would later write of returning years later and his sadness at the nature and degree of development of his childhood in Someone’s Singing in the Streets:
“There’s a mall where the cricket pitch used to be/there’s a carpark round my favourite tree”
“Yet his idyllic childhood here remained among his fondest memories, and he continues to have family in the Macarthur area today,’’ Duffy said.
“Young people in Campbelltown should check him out if they don’t know him already; not only was he a tremendous success in his fields but he was by all accounts a wonderful human being.
“Not only was he a fearsome and legendary drummer but he wrote or co-wrote many of the Oils greatest songs and had a profound effect on social justice, the environment and indigenous relations in this country in the 1980s and 90s.
“Vale, one of our all time great sons, and a truly great Australian who contributed so much to so many of our lives,’’ Duffy (pictured below) wrote in his eloquent tribute.
I think Campbelltown should have a special park for all the musicians and singers that lived in Campbelltown.
Midnight oil was recently admitted into The Australian Songwriters Awards I was lucky enough to witness that. In 2023 Colin Burgess the first AC/DC drummer he was also admitted to Hall of Fame for Masters Apprentices and he lived his last 7 years in Campbelltown. I am sure there are many others as well. In USA they have a park named Strawberry hills and on John Lennon death memorial each year they meet and play JL songs.
We could meet sing Midnight Oil songs and AC/DC and Master apprentice songs how great would this be people everywhere would come and enjoy remembering them.