Former prime minister Bob Hawke, a legend of the Australian Labor Party, died peacefully in his home on Thursday at the age of 89.
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Mr Hawke's wife, Blache d'Alpuget, said in a statement we had lost a "great Australian - many would say the greatest Australian of the post-war era."
Australia's larrikin prime minister was known for his often quirky gestures that endeared him to the public.
In 1983, during an annual cricket match between the prime minister's staff and the Canberra press gallery, Mr Hawke was hit in the eye by a bouncer bowled by journalist Gary O'Neill, from the Melbourne Herald. Mr Hawke was taken to hospital, but returned before the end of the match.
"That was Gary O'Neill from the [Melbourne] Herald, so I expect a good run in the Herald for the next couple of weeks," he said at the time.
In 2012, he was captured skulling a beer in the stands of the SCG as India played Australia.
In the Hunter, Mr Hawke was patron and a regular player at the Jack Newton Celebrity Classic where he founded a tradition of leading the party in a rendition of Waltzing Matilda on every occasion he arrived to play.
The annual Classic has attracted a who's-who of sports entertainment celebrities each year since its inception in 1979. Mr Hawke rarely missed it.
Read more: Bob Hawke was Labor's greatest winner
The former PM's rousing renditions of a baritone Waltzing Matilda had become such a tradition at the event that, in 2014 when he couldn't make it due to ill health, actor Nathaniel Dean organised the celebrity-studded congregation to sing in his honour.
This video footage of Mr Hawke's speech and rendition is from 2017. Mr Hawke was 87.
Clarification
An earlier version of this report referred to Gary O'Neill as being a journalist from "the Herald". To clarify, he was from the Melbourne Herald.