Beloved in Australia and his native New Zealand, comic and satirist John Clarke

John Clarke, a comedian and political satirist beloved in Australia and New Zealand, has died at the age of 68.

Mr Clarke’s family said he died of natural causes while taking photographs of birds in the Grampians National Park, a threehour drive from his home in Melbourne, Australia.

Friend and former colleague Ross Stevenson said Clarke died of a heart attack.

His death led to people from both countries reminiscing about the skits and songs Clarke performed which often touched on the essence of life Down Under.

One of Clarke’s finest hours came during The Games, a mock-documentary from 2000 about that year’s Sydney Olympics.

After Australia’s then-prime minister John Howard refused to formally apologise to indigenous Aboriginal people for past atrocities, an actor who happened to have the same name as the nation’s leader read out a moving apology on the show.

The apology resonated, and was later read out in the Australian parliament, becoming part of the official record.

Stevenson, who co-wrote the show, said the apology was Clarke’s idea.

“Every word of it was his,” Stevenson said. “It’s remarkably brilliant and poetic.”

Clarke was perhaps best known for his 27-year collaboration with Bryan Dawe, producing weekly satirical political interviews.

Born in Palmerston North, New Zealand, Clarke achieved fame in his home country before moving to Australia in the 1970s.

He created the persona Fred Dagg, a gumboot-wearing farmer and archetypal good bloke.

New Zealand’s prime minister Bill English took time during a media conference to pay tribute to Clarke, saying he was “a man who showed us how to laugh at ourselves and created a rural vernacular for New Zealand”.

John Clarke was 68.