Larrikin cartoonist Larry Pickering ‘refused to accept death’

Larry Pickering is remembered as an irrepressible promoter of free speech despite later scandals.

Larry Pickering, second from left, with rugby league great John Raper, left, adman John Singleton, broadcaster John Laws and former MP John Brown.

Larry Pickering, the political cartoonist who led an iconoclastic style of satire that saw him rise to be the unchallenged master of his profession in the 1970s, was yesterday remembered as an irrepressible promoter of free speech despite later controversies over alleged financial scams and other scandals.

Pickering died on Monday night at the age of 76 surrounded by family at his Gold Coast home. He fought a long battle with cancer after he was diagnosed in 2016.

Fellow cartoonist Paul Zanetti said Pickering’s spirit kept him fighting. “He refused to ­accept he was going to die,” he said.

Pickering, left, enjoying a beer with mate Singo.

Pickering, a four times winner of the coveted Walkley Award for his cartoons, enjoyed his best years skewering politicians including Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser.

His success, cartoonist and contemporary Patrick Cook said, was in not taking the subject matter too seriously: “He was never known to be highbrow about the issues of the day — he was looking for the imp in the story.”

Pickering worked for titles including The Canberra T imes, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian before leaving full-time cartooning in 1981.

A Pickering cartoon from 1977.

He then embarked on a variety of ventures, including a failed tomato growing operation.

Always keen on horse racing — his horse Rising Fear ran second in the 1986 Melbourne Cup — Pickering was alleged to have concocted a variety of scams that cost those who invested in them considerable amounts of money, including one scheme with racing software said to be able to predict the winner.

Pickering in 2012. Picture: Russell Shakespeare

He denied wrongdoing, but in one television interview, said: “I may have been what they call a scammer in the past, but I thought I had a legitimate product.”

Pickering continued cartooning and acerbic political commentary on his blog, the Pickering Post, until close to his death.

A Pickering cartoon depicting Julia Gillard.

The platform was hailed as a refuge from political correctness by its supporters, but condemned by its critics as an ultra-right, ­misogynist, and homophobic for attacking Julia Gillard among others with particularly vile and obscene drawings.

He was placed under police protection in 2015 after posting a cartoon of the prophet Mohammed on a spit roast and skewered by a pencil.

Pickering had three wives and 11 children. He is survived by his wife, Carol.