Fed: The passing parade - Australians farewelled in 2007

AAP General News (Australia)
12-13-2007
Fed: The passing parade - Australians farewelled in 2007

AAP Senior Correspondent Doug Conway farewells prominent Australians who died in 2007:



Jan 12 - Former Liberal minister Sir James Killen, 81, who saved the Menzies government
in 1961 by winning his Brisbane seat with a majority after preferences of a mere 130 votes.



Feb 9 - Kayaker Andrew McAuley, 39, lost at sea while trying a record trans-Tasman
crossing. His kayak capsizes just 65 km from Milford Sound.



Feb 13 - Author Elizabeth Jolley, 83, whose works included The Well and Lovesong, was
acclaimed for her novels on themes of loneliness and alienation.



Feb 28 - Billy Thorpe, a rock legend from the age of 16, when Poison Ivy gave him a
national hit with the Aztecs, suffers a heart attack, aged 60.



March 7 - Five Australians are among the 21 people killed in a Garuda crash in Yogyakarta,
Indonesia. They are: Australian Financial Review journalist Morgan Mellish, 36; diplomat
Liz O'Neill, 37; AFP agents Brice Steele, 37, and Mark Scott, 41; and AusAid Indonesia
head Allison Sudradjat, 41.



March 28 - Brisbane skater Morgan Innes, 14, is one of four people drowned when a private
boat and a HarbourCat ferry collide under the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Eight others are
injured including Morgan's coach, Olympian Liz Cain, who loses part of a leg.



April 1 - Liberal senator Jeannie Ferris, 66, from ovarian cancer. Four days later
her ex-husband, with whom she had remained close friends, dies in a car crash.



April 2 - Dr John Billings, 89, founder of one of the world's best known natural contraception
systems.



April 20 - ACT Police Assistant Commissioner Audrey Fagan, 44, is found dead in her
Queensland holiday apartment. She had been receiving counselling for stress over attacks
alleging poor police media management.



April 22 - Stephanie Gestier and Jodie Gater, both 16, found hanging from trees in
the Dandenong Ranges, east of Melbourne, after making a suicide pact.



May 14 - Aaron McMillan, 30, from bone cancer, six years after becoming the youngest
concert pianist to perform at Sydney's Opera House.



May 21 - Melbourne lawyer Peter Hayes, 54, dies in an Adelaide hospital after being
found naked and unconscious in a hotel bedroom by a client and former bikie gang member.



June 4 - Former Queensland deputy premier Tom Burns, 75, who as ALP federal president
was credited with modernising the party in the lead-up to Gough Whitlam's 1972 election
victory.



July 12 - Radio 2UE presenter and former Beauty And The Beast TV host Stan Zemanek,
60, from a brain tumour.



July 31 - Self-made aviation millionaire Steve Nott, 50, of Cairns, in a light plane
crash north of Melbourne.



Sept 13 - Anti-solarium campaigner Clare Oliver, 26, who blamed her fatal melanoma
on her use of solariums.



Sept 21 - Former Labor senator and minister Bob Collins, 61, succumbs to bowel cancer
before child sex allegations against him can be resolved. His family accepts prime minister
Howard's call to forgo a state funeral.



Sept 24 - "It's long enough, it's high enough and it's straight between the posts,"

was the catchcry of rugby league player and commentator Frank Hyde, 91.



Oct 1 - Chris Mainwaring, 41, who won two AFL premierships with the West Coast Eagles,
collapses at his Perth home.



Oct 8 - Trooper David Pearce, 41, becomes the first Australian soldier killed by direct
enemy action in the current deployments to Afghanistan or Iraq.



Oct 12 - Kim Beazley senior, 90, former Whitlam government minister and father of former
Labor leader Kim Beazley.



Oct 23 - "Crazy" John Ilhan, 42, a Turkish immigrant success story who built a $300
million mobile phone empire, dies of a heart attack on a morning walk.



Oct 25 - Special Air Service Regiment soldier Matthew Locke, 33, shot dead by Taliban
extremists while on patrol in Afghanistan's Oruzgan province.



Nov 2 - Network Ten newsreader Charmaine Dragun, 29, found dead at suicide spot The
Gap in Sydney's east.



Nov 3 - Former federal MP Peter Andren, 61, from pancreatic cancer. Called a man of
rare integrity, he represented the central NSW seat of Calare for 11 years.



Nov 6 - Australian soldier Private Ashley Baker, 19, dies of gunshot wound in East
Timor barracks, believed to be suicide.



Nov 23 - Luke Worsley, 26, Special Operations Task Group soldier, shot and killed during
an attempt to take a heavily defended Taliban position in Afghanistan.



Nov 25 - Journalist Matt Price, 46, The Australian's political Sketch columnist, dies
of brain tumours hours after votes are cast in an election he had planned to cover.



Nov 27 - Asbestos campaigner Bernie Banton, 61, from mesothelioma. He was hailed as
a great Australian hero by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd at a state funeral.



Dec 4 - James Kemsley, 59, the artist behind Ginger Meggs, the most syndicated Australian
comic strip, dies of motor neurone disease.



Dec 10 - Gordon Samuels, 84, the former NSW Governor who made headlines when he decided
to continue living at home rather than in Government House.



AAP dc/sp/mn

KEYWORD: YEARENDER OBITS

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