Much-loved journalist Mungo MacCallum was warm and witty to the end

Political journalist, author and commentator Mungo MacCallum has died, aged 78.

Journalist Mungo MacCallum has died, aged 78.

Political journalist, author and commentator Mungo MacCallum has died, aged 78.

MacCallum was remembered on Thursday as a giant of Australian journalism, a larrikin spirit whose wit and irreverence punctured the hubris and pretence of the political establishment.

A veteran of the Canberra press gallery, MacCallum worked for The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC in a career that spanned more than 50 years.

Laurie Oakes, one of his contemporaries, wrote in tribute: “A brilliant man. At uni switched ­effortlessly between studying ­English and mathematics. Could have done anything. We were lucky he opted for journalism where he was one of a kind; funny but always with serious purpose.”

MacCallum grew up in Sydney’s posh harbourfront suburb Point Piper and attended the elite Cranbrook School and the University of Sydney. His uncle was outspoken anti-communist Liberal MP Bill Wentworth, a minister in the Gorton government.

But despite his privileged background, MacCallum was known for his passionate and often left-of-centre views. Former prime minister Gough Whitlam once described him as a “tall, bearded descendant of lunatic aristocrats”.

MacCallum had suffered ill health for many years — a heart attack, throat cancer, advanced emphysema and prostate cancer. But he continued to write a column up until his death for his local Byron Bay paper, The Echo.

As the newspaper remembered on Thursday, it was “a political column that was well-informed, often surprisingly clairvoyant and always written with elegance and wit. Above all, his columns were unambiguously on the side of the angels.”

Typically, the irrepressible MacCallum used his blog to write a final farewell last week: “I never thought I’d say it, but I can no longer go on working,” he wrote.

“It takes all my effort to breathe and I’m not managing that too well. And now my mind is getting ­wobbly — hard to think, let alone concentrate.

“So I am afraid there is not much point in continuing to push the rock up the hill. I shall retire to my La-Z-Boy recliner, and doze over the television, watching (or not) old sporting replays, propped up by drugs, oxygen and the ­occasional iced coffee. I am rapidly winding down.

“I am sorry to cut and run — it has sometimes been a hairy ­career, but I hope a productive one and always fun. My gratitude for all your participation.”

MacCallum is survived by his partner Jenny Garrett.