Thanks for joining us. Now it’s good night, nurseBy Karl QuinnWell, that brings proceedings, and our blog, to a close. We hope you enjoyed it, and whether you were a fan of Derryn Hinch or not, found reason to pause for a moment and acknowledge his big, bold, impassioned, principled, messy and marvellous life. I know I did.“Goodbye world”: Derryn Hinch takes his final bow.Eddie JimThey don’t make them like Hinch any more. In truth, they never did make many of them like Hinch, ever. He was an outlier, and in his determination to grasp life by the horns and ride it like mad, you can’t help but find something to admire.It’s time for us to join Hinch in the valediction he bestowed on himself during a television interview late last year as he contemplated his own imminent demise while sitting on his balcony on St Kilda Road. “Good night, nurse, goodbye, world.”Goodbye, Derryn Hinch.Latest Posts2.23pm on Jul 20, 2026That’s life, that’s the lot, that’s goodbyeBy Karl QuinnDerryn Hinch’s long-time friend and assistant Annette Philpott has thanked those who have been a support to her in the weeks since he died on July 10, and in the couple of years of ill-health leading up to it.“Senator Hinch – that was his proudest achievement,” she said. “He called it magic, and he achieved a lot. So, Senator Hinch. I say goodbye … we love you, we know how much you loved us.”Annette Philpott farewells her long-time friend.Eddie JimShe finished, as others have, with a sprinkling of Hinchism.“Thank your mother for the rabbits,” she says. “You’re Derryn Hinch, and that’s life.”2.20pm on Jul 20, 2026‘Good night, Joby. I love you’: Jacki Weaver’s emotional tribute from Outback setBy Karl QuinnVia satellite from the Outback, where she is currently filming, actress Jacki Weaver introduced herself as “Derryn’s third wife and close friend for almost half a century”.She said she wanted to start “by acknowledging sincerely and warmly all the women that Derryn loved, and who loved him in return”. But there were too many, she added, to mention them all by name.Derryn Hinch and then wife Jacki Weaver in 1986.John Lamb“We don’t have the time. And in the immortal words of Steven Spielberg, we’re going to need a bigger boat.”She did, however, make special mention of Annette Philpott, a close friend for 45 years, “who’s been his chief assistant, his carer, his wonderful, wonderful friend”, and the chief organiser of this tribute.1.47pm on Jul 20, 2026‘Nothing subtle about Hinch’: Ray Martin leads a standing ovationBy Karl QuinnRay Martin was at various times a colleague, friend and rival to Derryn Hinch. His tribute bristles with a clear-eyed appreciation of the man’s foible and fabulousness, in equal measure.“He was born with a megaphone for a voice,” he said. “His typewriter was just about as loud. There was nothing subtle about Hinch or his endless opinions.”He had an ego, he said, “that could light up a small city, but he was also very likeable, and I liked him a lot”.Martin launched a couple of Hinch’s 15 books. “Two of them were about Scrabble because he loved words,” he said. “Six were about himself because he quite liked himself as well.”1.31pm on Jul 20, 2026A life is for living, and so is a liverBy Karl QuinnProfessor Bob Jones, director of the Austin Hospital’s live transplant unit, brings a note of sobriety, as it were, to proceedings with his account of Hinch’s journey through imminent live failure, transplant, and an unexpected and well-utilised 15 bonus years.“He was pragmatic, philosophical, and he was several steps ahead of our transplant program,” Jones said. “Perhaps that was the advantage of being a self-reflective journalist determined to deal with the truth.”A transplant is a draining ordeal, but Hinch saw it, Jones said, as “a little bit like replacing the tyres on his well-used Rolls-Royce. Book in, you have the tyres replaced, you leave, turn onto the highway, get back to speed and life as you know it, and that surely is the definitive mark of a successful transplant.” The “extraordinary gift” of a donated liver, Jones says, gave Hinch more than 15 years he otherwise would not have had, and he put them to good use.“His new liver gave him 15 years, his own political party and election to the Senate – an extraordinary achievement for a 72-year-old, much less five years after an organ transplant.“And as a senator, he gave the field of transplantation direct access to the cabinet, the minister of health, and even to the prime minister himself,” Jones adds. “His committed support and publicity surrounding him was an enormous boon to transplantation and organ donation throughout Australia.”1.25pm on Jul 20, 2026Podcast co-host reveals Hinch’s secret fling with Bette MidlerBy Karl QuinnTony Tardio, with whom Hinch enjoyed one of his last media incarnations, as a podcaster (they did 79 episodes together), said a little over three months ago he recorded a 20-minute chat with his old mate. “It was the last interview he did,” he said.“Forrest Gump had nothing on Derryn Hinch,” Tardio says, adding that Hinch’s memory remained prodigious to the end.Tony Tardio, who recorded 79 episodes with Hinch, said the man had a “prodigious” memory. Eddie Jim“He remembered eating goat stew at the Jamaica Games and getting diarrhoea,” he says. “He remembered being at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, in April 1968 for the funeral service of the great civil rights leader Martin Luther King.” Hinch was metres away from Robert F. Kennedy in the ballroom in Los Angeles on the night of June 4, 1968, just minutes before he, too, was assassinated as he was being ushered through the kitchen of the hotel. Days later, at the funeral, “[Hinch] pretended to be a member of the choir to get into the church”.When John Blackman abandoned the radio station in which they had been colleagues to join rival station 3AK, Tardio says, “Hinch thundered on air: ‘3AW hasn’t lost its soul – it’s lost its arsehole’.”Years later, he added, the pair made peace.1.00pm on Jul 20, 2026‘A good-looking rooster’: How the Human Headline was bornBy Karl QuinnDenis O’Kane was the man who brokered Hinch’s transition from newspapers to radio, and arguably did more than most to give birth to the media phenomenon being remembered today.Hinch had been editor of the Sydney Sun when the offer came to move to 3XY in Melbourne, to host a show that would be built around a pairing of a journalist and a disc jockey. He was, O’Kane recalled, “a good-looking rooster” with his shirt unbuttoned most of the way to his navel, his chest hair on full display.Denis O’Kane brokered Hinch’s transition from newspapers to radio.Eddie Jim“It was a bit like Zorro riding into town on his horse,” he said.Incredible as it now seems, when he arrived from Sydney, “no one in Melbourne knew him”. He immediately set about changing that by putting himself unmistakably on everyone’s radar (just imagine what he’d have been like if Instagram had existed back then).“As soon as the Hinch programme was over at midday on 3XY, they hit the town, attending events, clubs,” O’Kane said. “At night time, you’d often see him at the Underground [nightclub], or wherever. He would seek publicity, and therefore stole into the newspapers.” Within months, he said, “it started to work. We’re getting front page stories in the papers about Hinch doing outrageous things”.The Human Headline was born.My favourite line from O’Kane is a quote from Hinch after seeing Olivia Newton-John’s rollerskating epic, a film that many others in the radio game were proclaiming as wondrous.“I saw Xanadu last night. My recommendation: Xana-don’t.”12.47pm on Jul 20, 2026The song Hinch tried to sing at his 80th birthdayBy Karl QuinnNikki Nicholls, who has performed with John Farnham’s band, sings a song that MC Darren James tells us was one of Hinch’s favourites: You are so beautiful.Nikki Nicholls sang a song that Hinch tried to sing at his 80th birthday.Eddie JimIt was, he said, “a song that Derryn loved, and unfortunately for a lot of us, used to try and sing at the drop of a hat after a late night. I think he had a crack even at his 80th birthday.”You can’t blame a man for trying.12.43pm on Jul 20, 2026Hinch loved the trappings of success, especially in liquid formBy Karl QuinnDermot O’Brien, Hinch’s producer on his eponymous current affairs show, has recalled being given his brief by the then owner of Channel Seven, Christopher Skase.“He said: ‘Your job is to make yourself Derryn Hinch’s best friend’,” he said. “Well, Christopher, 38 years later, as his best friend, colleague, and partner in crime – not to mention critic – mission accomplished.”Dermot O’Brien described himself as Hinch’s “best friend, colleague, and partner in crime”.Eddie JimHinch was, O’Brien said, “addicted to three things: notoriety via the media, women, and alcohol, not necessarily in that order” and he loved the trappings of success and fame.“He loved the entertainment-friendly car. Remembering that this was the 1980s, he would not order a bottle of wine under $30 because that’s what he drank at home. It was business or first-class all the way, and with an open bottle of wine waiting in the back of his stretch limo every night for the ride from the station back to the hotel.“I know what Derryn would be saying now if he could,” O’Brien concluded. “And that would be, ‘Wow, what a ride!’ After all, there is no point getting to the end of your life in pristine condition. Goodbye, my friend. That’s life.”Something tells me this won’t be the last time we hear that phrase this afternoon.12.35pm on Jul 20, 2026‘His happiest time’: Brother Des shares childhood memories of a young DerrynBy Karl QuinnFormer radio colleague Craig Willis has read aloud a tribute from Hinch’s brother Des, whose photo happened to be the last thing the man posted on his Facebook page (a welcome relief, Darren James noted, from the endless scroll of gravy-coated food he lately favoured).As young children, the brothers shared a bedroom in New Plymouth, in New Zealand, Des said in his tribute. And young Derryn had two prized possessions: a telescope and a crystal radio set.A tribute from Hinch’s brother, Des, was read aloud at the memorial. Eddie Jim“His happiest time was when atmospheric conditions allowed he could listen totally rapt for what seemed hours to Australian radio stations. I wonder if this passion was a sign of what was to come in relation to where he lived and what he did for a living.” Urging each of those present to remember his brother through a cherished moment, Des suggested: “If we could all gather those memories together, they would fill that bedroom from our youth. You could look at them through a kaleidoscope, and with each twist of the tube, you, as the observer, would see the colourful, constantly changing, multifaceted mosaic that was his life. Kiora. ”1 of 2