Eoin Harrap Cameron (4 January 1951 – 23 June 2016) was an Australian radio personality in

Perth, Western Australia Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

and member of the

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. Until August 2015 he presented the

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's Perth local station

720 ABC Perth ABC Radio Perth (call sign: 6WF) is the on-air identifier of a radio station located in Perth, Western Australia, operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and broadcasting at 720 kHz AM. It is the flagship ABC Local Radio station ...

breakfast show, regularly receiving top ratings for the most popular breakfast radio show. In August 2015 he took extended leave while recovering from surgery as a result of a 2013 car accident. In January 2016 he announced that he was retiring, but would return to the studio "temporarily ... to say a proper goodbye to listeners". His last day at the ABC was 11 March.

Radio personality

Cameron started his first job in radio at age 18, at the Albany radio station 6VA in 1969. Following that he worked at many Perth radio stations including 1080 6IX, 94.5 and

6PR 6PR, known as 882 6PR, is a commercial radio station based in Perth, Western Australia. Owned by Nine Entertainment, its focus is on news, talk and sport, and is Perth's only commercial talkback radio station. It commenced broadcasting on 14 Oc ...

, as well as

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station 3DB. His last 14 years, until his retirement, were as breakfast presenter for

, where he consistently topped the ratings for that time slot. He was described by colleague Geoff Hutchison as having a "delicious need to delight and offend in equal measure", and known for regularly ignoring

political correctness ''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...

. He made minor television appearances in ''The Grant and Cameron show'' and ''The Entertainers'', both on Channel 9.

Parliamentarian

In 1993, Cameron stood for the seat of Stirling in the federal election, winning the seat for the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

but immediately went into opposition with leader

John Hewson John Robert Hewson AM (born 28 October 1946) is an Australian former politician who served as leader of the Liberal Party from 1990 to 1994. He led the Liberal-National Coalition to defeat at the 1993 Australian federal election. Hewson was ...

losing the election. He held the seat in the 1996 election that brought

John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the s ...

to power, before losing to

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

's Jann McFarlane in the 1998 election. Cameron supported Hewson who he referred to as Huey and reckoned Hewson would win the leadership spill he initiated that he ultimately lost to

Alexander Downer Alexander John Gosse Downer (born 9 September 1951) is an Australian former politician and diplomat who was leader of the Liberal Party from 1994 to 1995, Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1996 to 2007, and High Commissioner to the United King ...

in 1994.

Writer

Cameron wrote a number of books including: * ''Rolling into The World – Memoirs of a Ratbag Child'' (2003) * ''The Sixties – An Irreverent Guide'' (2004) * ''The Voice of the Great South'' (2005)

Personal life

Cameron was born in

Mount Gambier, South Australia Mount Gambier is the second most populated city in South Australia, with an estimated urban population of 33,233 . The city is located on the slopes of Mount Gambier, a volcano in the south east of the state, about south-east of the capital Ad ...

, the second of ten children. He left school at 14 and did a variety of jobs including farm labourer and

roustabout Roustabout (Australia/New Zealand English: rouseabout) is an occupational term. Traditionally, it referred to a worker with broad-based, non-specific skills. In particular, it was used to describe show or circus workers who handled materials ...

. His family moved to Western Australia when he was 16. Cameron was married, and had three children. Cameron had

bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...

, which he believed to had been a cause of his sexual assault from his Headmaster at a Catholic boarding school. In 2013 he was involved in a car crash and suffered serious back injuries, requiring multiple operations over the next two years and two metal discs to help hold his spine and support his body weight. As a result of Eoin's ongoing health battles, He was forced into an early retirement from the

in 2016. On 23 June 2016, Eoin Cameron died following a heart attack in

Albany, Western Australia Albany ( ; nys, Kinjarling) is a port city in the Great Southern region in the Australian state of Western Australia, southeast of Perth, the state capital. The city centre is at the northern edge of Princess Royal Harbour, which is a ...

. His death was announced on the ABC throughout the night.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cameron, Eoin 1951 births 2016 deaths Australian radio personalities Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Stirling Writers from Perth, Western Australia People from Mount Gambier, South Australia People with bipolar disorder 20th-century Australian politicians