Midnight Oil revealed the news in a social media statement on Tuesday, Jan. 20

Rob Hirst in Sydney in October 2008.Credit : Gaye Gerard/Getty

Midnight Oil’s Rob Hirst has died three years after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He was 70.

The Australian rock band announced his death in an Instagram statement on Tuesday, Jan. 20, alongside a photo of the band.

“We are shattered and grieving the loss of our brother Rob,” the band wrote in the caption. “For now there are no words but there will always be songs. Love Always from Jim, Martin & Pete.”

In a separate statement on Facebook, the band wrote, “After fighting heroically for almost three years, Rob is now free of pain.”

The statement continued, “‘A glimmer of tiny light in the wilderness.’ He died peacefully, surrounded by loved ones. The family asks that anyone wanting to honour Rob donate to Pankind, Pancreatic Cancer Australia or Support Act.”

Hirst was a founding member of Midnight Oil in Sydney in 1972. They released their self-titled debut album in 1978 and went on to win 11 ARIA Awards. They were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2006.

Rob Hirst in Philadelphia, Penn. in June 1988.Bill McCay/Getty

As the band grew in success, Hirst served as a co-writer on several of the band’s hits such as “Beds Are Burning,” “The Dead Heart,” “Blue Sky Mine,” “Forgotten Years,” and “King of the Mountain.”

The band went on hiatus in 2002 and didn’t reunite until 2016 to release two more albums. The band went on to release their last album, Resist, in 2022 and it was followed by a farewell tour.

Hirst began releasing solo music in 2005. Last November, he released his final solo project, an EP titled A Hundred Years or More.

In 2020, Hirst released a collaborative album with his daughter Jay O’Shea, with whom he’d only reconnected with a few years prior. At the time, she shared a lengthy Instagram post explaining the nature of their relationship.

“For those who don’t know, I was adopted as a baby and ten years ago found my birth parents.
The story of how we all came together sounds like bad fiction writing as it’s quite unbelievable,” she wrote.

“We really made this music as a way of getting to know each other better and after much laughing, drinking some good wines and eating too much cheese, these songs were born,” she added. “There were no parameters, guidelines or pressures of what a reunited Father/Daughter collaboration should sound like. Each song is a snapshot. Each song has its own space and story.”

Following the announcement of his death, O’Shea shared a tribute to her father on Instagram.

“There are no words right now to describe the feeling of losing this great friend and Father. We are all just…. heartbroken. Love you so much Dad, J💙,” she wrote.