Rob Hirst was not the figurehead of Midnight Oil – but he was its backbone

By David Nichols, Professor of Urban Planning, The University of Melbourne

The death of Rob Hirst from pancreatic cancer at the age of 70 is the close of a long and, in many ways, surprising career.

Hirst was the drummer and songwriter who, though far from the figurehead of Midnight Oil, was nonetheless an integral part – perhaps the backbone – of one of the most consistently adventurous and principled groups of the last half-century.

For most, Midnight Oil means Peter Garrett. But it was Garrett who answered an ad to join Farm, Hirst’s band with Jim Moginie and Andrew James, in 1972. Were it not for his arrival, the group might not have gone…

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