‘Irreplaceable’: Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst dies
Rob Hirst, founding member and drummer of Midnight Oil, has died at the age of 70 after a nearly three-year battle with pancreatic cancer.
In a post on the band’s Facebook page, the Australian band said Hirst died peacefully “surrounded by his loved ones”.
“After fighting heroically for almost three years, Rob is now free of pain; ‘a little glimmer of light in the wilderness,'” the group said.
“He died peacefully with his loved ones.”
Iconic Australian rocker Jimmy Barnes paid tribute to Hirst in a social media post, saying he had a “tremendous impact” on Australian culture.
“He was the engine that powered one of the greatest live bands of all time,” Barnes wrote.
“Rest in peace, dear Rob. You are irreplaceable, one of a kind, and you will be greatly missed by me, my family, and the rest of this great country.”
Barnes’ Cold Chisel bandmates also expressed their condolences.
“Rob was an incredible drummer and songwriter and a good friend to all of us in Cold Chisel. Vale Rob,” the band said.
Hirst’s role as one of the main songwriters in the Oils was not always properly appreciated, and attention often turned to the band’s dominant frontman, Peter Garrett.
Yet most of the band’s long list of hits bear the signature of Hirst’s songwriting: Beds Are Burning, The Dead Heart, Blue Sky Mine, Power and the Passion and too many more to mention.
The band capped off 2022 with a show lasting close to four hours at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion, going through a set list that Hirst likened to the Dead Sea scrolls.
Six months later he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The prognosis was short; Maybe another six months if he’s lucky.
Hirst, who turned 70 last year, surpassed these predictions.
“It’s been two and a half years since the diagnosis,” he told AAP in November last year.
“I feel very lucky to have gotten to this point; who knows, maybe I’ll have a little more time, which would be a bonus.”
In late 2025, Hirst released his EP, A Hundred Years or More, with his former songwriting partner, guitarist Jim Moginie, and distinguished drummer and percussionist Hamish Stuart.
“I always thought that if I stayed fit, had a pretty good diet, got enough sleep and didn’t get pulled up by my ankles from the Manzil Chamber (the legendary Kings Cross dive) too often, I would spend less time in hospital waiting rooms and more time enjoying life,” Hirst said.
“I don’t have a lot of breathing power, so I can’t play the big rock ‘n’ roll set anymore, but I can strum and write songs, and I’m lucky I can still do that.”
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