A newspaper ad led to one of the best Aussie rock bands of all time

They were the voice of a generation who used their music to put the spotlight on some of the biggest issues affecting Australia and the world.

Midnight Oil has long been considered one of Australia's most loved and successful rock bands, with their songs becoming anthems.

Now, as fans and the remaining band members mourn the death of founding member Rob Hirst after a battle with cancer, let's take a look back at Midnight Oil, from humble beginnings in Sydney to chart-topping international act with 20 million record sales.

The early days

Midnight Oil's earliest beginnings can be traced to 1971 when drummer Hirst, bass guitarist Andrew James and keyboard player/lead guitarist Jim Moginie started performing together.

Hirst, from Camden, on the outskirts of Sydney, was still a school boy when the trio held their first public performance in a school hall in Sydney's northern suburbs.

They performed under the name Schwampy Moose and played mostly covers of Beatles songs.

They later adopted the name Farm, which stood for F---ing All Right Mate, and continued to play together throughout their late teens, with their repertoire including covers of songs by bands including Cream, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Led Zeppelin.

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Seeking a lead singer

In 1973, Hirst, by then a uni student at University of Sydney, placed an ad in The Sydney Morning Herald looking for a lead singer to join their trio.

That ad was answered by Peter Garrett, who was two years older than Hirst and brought a fresh perspective to the band.

The new line-up saw Garrett on lead vocals, Hirst on drums and vocals, Moginie on guitar, keyboards and backing vocals and James on bass guitar.

Garrett, who also played synthesiser, started introducing a more progressive rock sound, thanks to influences of bands including Jethro Tull and Yes.

At the time, the singer was studying at the Australian National University in Canberra, so they would only play when their schedules permitted.

But they soon gained a following among the Sydney Northern Beaches surfing community where they would play, often around the same time as another Aussie band that would make it big – INXS.

By 1975, Farm was touring Australia's east coast.

Becoming Midnight Oil

In 1976, they changed their name to Midnight Hall after it was pulled out of a hat.

It had been the suggestion of the band's temporary keyboard player, Peter Watson, who was reportedly inspired by the Jimi Hendrix song Burning of the Midnight Lamp.

The term "burning the midnight oil" was already a common phrase.

Watson went on to play keyboard with Aussie band The Venetians.

The following year, guitarist Martin Rotsey joined the line-up.

It was around this time that Gary Morris became the band's manager and unofficial sixth member.

He was instrumental in the band forming their own record label, Powderworks, through which they released their self-titled debut album in November 1978.

It contained the single Run by Night, which was released early the following year.

A second album, Head Injuries, followed in 1979, and reached gold album status, but coincided with a change of line-up after bass-guitarist James left the group due to ill health and was replaced by Peter Gifford.

It was their fourth album, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, released in 1982, that brought wider fame.

It rose to number 3 on the Australian album chart and spawned two hit songs, Power and the Passion, and US Forces.

It also contained hits When the Generals Talk and Best of Both Worlds.

Power and the Passion contained a blistering one-minute long drum solo at the hands of Hirst, but few realised he was also one the band's main songwriters, providing both the music and lyrics of many of their biggest hits.

Their sixth album, Diesel and Dust, contained one of their most famous songs, Beds Are Burning, which addressed the plight of Indigenous Australians, and contained the contentious line, "It belongs to them, let's give it back".

It reached number one in New Zealand, South Africa and Canada, number six in Australia, and number 17 in the US.

It has been named one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

Today, it is Midnight Oil's most popular track on Spotify, with more than 400 million streams.

The band started the next decade with the album Blue Sky Mining, which featured the hits Forgotten Years, King of the Mountain, and Blue Sky Mine.

Their eighth studio album, Earth and Sun and Moon, was released in 1993, and peaked at number two on the ARIA charts.

Albums Breathe (1996), Redneck Wonderland (1998) and Capricornia (2001) followed, before the band announced they were going their separate ways in December 2002 so Garrett could concentrate on a political career.

Disbanding and reforming

Garrett had narrowly lost a 1984 bid to become an Australian senator under the Nuclear Disarmament Party.

In 2004, he successfully contested the Sydney seat of Kingsford Smith for the ALP and became the Opposition's spokesman on Climate Change.

He later served as a minister under Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, before retiring from politics prior to the 2013 election.

During Garrett's stint in politics, the other band members continued to work as musicians.

Hirst had founded the band Ghostwriters with former Hoodoo Gurus bassist Richard Grossman.

He was also a member of Backsliders.

However, Midnight Oil did get back together a number of times, including for a 2005 concert to raise money for the victims of the Boxing Day tsunami the previous year.

In 2006, they came together to be inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.

In 2009, they reformed to play two concerts at the Royal Theatre in Canberra before headlining the Sound Relief concert in Melbourne the following day to raise money for the victims of Victoria's deadly bushfires.

Then in 2016, the band announced they would reform and embark on a tour in 2017 – their first in a decade.

The Great Circle Tour started and ended in Australia and included 77 concerts across 16 countries.

A documentary, Midnight Oil: 1984, followed in 2018.

The band also embarked on a warm-up tour of Australia ahead of its European and UK shows in 2019, and was the headline act of the Big Red Bash festival in Birdsville, Queensland.

In 2020, they released their first new music in 18 years. The album, The Makarrata Project, reached number one in Australia and was nominated for five ARIA Awards.

It was followed by their 13th studio album, Resist, in 2022.

They then embarked on what would be their final national tour which ended on October 3, 2022, with a show at Sydney's Hordern Pavilion that went for more than three hours and included a 40-song set list.

It was followed by the release of the 2024 documentary, Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line.

Heartbreaking losses

In 2020, bass guitarist Bones Hillman, who had replaced Peter Gifford in 1987 after he left the band due to ill health, died at his home in the US following a battle with cancer.

At the time, the surviving members of Midnight Oil announced his death in a statement on social media.

"We're grieving the loss of our brother Bones Hillman, who has passed away at his home in Milwaukee today after a cancer battle," the statement said.

"He was the bassist with the beautiful voice, the band member with the wicked sense of humour, and our brilliant musical comrade.

"He played and sang on every Midnight Oil recording since Blue Sky Mining and we did thousands of gigs together.

"We will deeply miss our dear friend and companion." They ended the post with the Maori word for goodbye and signed the statement Jim, Martin, Peter and Rob.

Then just six months after their farewell concert, Hirst was diagnosed with stage three pancreatic cancer.

Midnight Oil revealed on January 20, 2026, in a series of posts on Facebook, that Hirst, 70, had died.

"After fighting heroically for almost three years, Rob is now free of pain – 'a glimmer of tiny light in the wilderness'," they wrote.

"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."

Just two hours later, they released another statement, this time including a photo of the band's three remaining members with Hirst.

"We are shattered and grieving the loss of our brother Rob," the band wrote on Facebook alongside a photo of Hirst with his bandmates.

"For now there are no words but there will always be songs. Love Always from Jim, Martin and Pete."

Hirst co-wrote many of their best-known songs, including Beds Are Burning, The Dead Heart, Short Memory, King of the Mountain, and the anti-war anthem Forgotten Years, which was an ode to his father and grandfather.

He was survived by his wife Leslie Holland, and their two daughters.

He was also the father of an older daughter, country singer Jay O'Shea, who was adopted after her birth when he was just 17.

The two only reunited in 2010 and later released an album together called The Lost and the Found.

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