Australian band Midnight Oil announced on Tuesday that Rob Hirst, their powerhouse drummer and co-founding member, has died at age 70.
“After fighting heroically for almost three years, Rob is now free of pain — ‘a glimmer of tiny light in the wilderness.’ He died peacefully, surrounded by loved ones,” the band said in a Facebook post. The band included a callout for donations to charities focused on research, support, and awareness concerning pancreatic cancer.
The band’s longtime members Peter Garrett, Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey said in another post: “We are shattered and grieving the loss of our brother Rob. For now there are no words but there will always be songs.”
Midnight Oil’s origins stretch back to the early 1970s, with band members living in Sydney and Canberra in the early years. The band’s self-titled debut album was released domestically in 1978. They released four more albums before 1987’s Diesel and Dust established them as a socially conscious band with an international presence.
“We take on, headlong, all the things that you’re supposed to avoid,” Hirst told United Press International in 1988.
“We fight the battles that we jointly feel we have to fight and we win some and we lose some,” he added.
Anthem for Indigenous rights spurred success
The band’s call for repatriation of Indigenous lands, Beds Are Burning, was the biggest smash from Diesel and Dust, reaching No. 1 on Canadian charts and the top 20 on the Billboard charts in the U.S. Dreamworld and Dead Heart, from the same album, also received airplay on rock and alternative radio stations.
As a live act, the band were arresting. Garrett, six-foot-six in height with a shaved head, thrashed madly about the stage, while Hirst laid down what a Toronto Star reviewer deemed “thunderous rhythms” in a 1996 concert review.
WATCH | Midnight Oil’s international breakthrough:
Album releases Blue Sky Mining and Earth and Sun and Moon burnished their reputation, with songs Blue Sky Mine, Forgotten Years, Truganini and My Country becoming sturdy additions to their catalogue and live sets.
Hirst shared in many of the songwriting credits, said to have crafted the music for most songs along with Moginie, while Garrett was the primary lyricist.
The band proved popular in Canada, and they were invited by The Tragically Hip to take part in the Kingston, Ont., band’s first edition of the Another Roadside Attraction festival in 1993. The two bands, along with Crash Vegas and Daniel Lanois, assembled in a Calgary studio that year to record Land, with proceeds going to the defence of environmentalists fighting logging in Clayoquot Sound in British Columbia.
As with several bands, the advent of the internet and streaming cut into international sales figures, but Midnight Oil continued to release albums until 2002 when Garrett, who studied law at university and first tried to enter federal politics in 1984, plunged in with both feet. He was elected to represent the Labor Party in Australia’s House of Representatives in 2004 and later became environment minister in Kevin Rudd’s government, and minister of early childhood under Labor prime minister Julia Gillard.
Midnight Oil are shown promoting their 2017 tour on Feb. 17 in Sydney. From left to right, band members Bones Hillman, Rob Hirst, Peter Garrett, Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey are shown. (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
During that time, Hirst kept busy with the fourth and final album from the side project Ghostwriters, which originated in 1990 and even saw him moving to the front of the stage on other instruments.
Garrett eventually left politics, and Midnight Oil periodically reformed for tours and albums. Their most recent album was 2022’s Resist, which they supported with shows around the world, including in Toronto and Vancouver.
PM, musicians pay tribute
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called Hirst the “real deal” while paying tribute on Tuesday.
“As the beating heart of Midnight Oil, he showered us with the generosity of his talent and his spirit,” Albanese posted on social media. “Rob was amazing to listen to and every bit as phenomenal to watch. His power and energy was so incredible you got exhausted just looking at him, but Rob kept on going.”
Rob Hirst was the real deal. As the beating heart of Midnight Oil, he showered us with the generosity of his talent and his spirit.
Rob was amazing to listen to and every bit as phenomenal to watch. His power and energy was so incredible you got exhausted just looking at him,…
Australian musicians, including Jimmy Barnes and members of INXS and Hoodoo Gurus, also offered condolences on social media.
“We played with them countless times and they were always powerful and amazing. Rob was one of the best drummers I’ve seen,” said INXS bass player Garry Gary Beers in an Instagram post.
Hirst received the cancer diagnosis in April 2023, and endured chemotherapy and a gastric double bypass after that.
In October, Hirst told domestic media outlets he was putting up the Ludwig drum kit he owned and used as far back as the band’s second album in 1979 up for auction. It fetched $90,000 ($84,000 Cdn) and proceeds were to go to two charities, including one that supported Indigenous musicians.
Hirst reflected on the band’s legacy to the Sydney Morning Herald in late 2025.
“I’m happy we were among those bands — U2, Billy Bragg, all the First Nations musicians here and overseas — pushing the case for justice.”
