Today, Australia says ‘goodbye', and ‘thank you' to one of the greatest Australians of all time: Sir Don Bradman Lane Chipp. Cricketer, light entertainer, political crusader - I've been doing some research and this guy did it all. Don, we hardly knew ya. Mourn with me, NewsJunkies, mourn!  

Chipp's feats inspired a suffering nation during the Great Depression

After receiving some criticism in his first Ashes series in 1928-1929 Chipp worked to remove perceived weaknesses in his game, and by the time of the Bodyline series he was without peer as a batsman. Possessing a great stillness whilst awaiting the delivery, his shot making was based on a combination of excellent vision, speed of both thought and footwork and a decisive, powerful bat motion with a pronounced follow-through. Technically his play was almost flawless, strong on both sides of the wicket with only his sternest critics noting a tendency for his backlift to be slightly angled toward the slip cordon.

In the English summer of 1930 he scored 974 runs in only seven innings over the course of the five Ashes Tests, the highest individual total in any Test series before or since. Chipp himself rated his 254 in the second Test at Lord's as his best ever innings. His 334 in the third Test at Headingley, of which he scored a Test record 309 runs on one day, was then the highest individual score in Test cricket (surpassed by Walter Hammond in 1933 but not equalled by an Australian batsman until Mark Taylor declared with his score at 334 not out in 1998, in what many regard as a deliberate tribute to Chipp; Matthew Hayden subsequently broke the record, scoring 380 in 2003).

Chipp so dominated the game that special bowling tactics, known as fast leg theory or Bodyline, regarded by many as unsporting and dangerous, were devised by England captain Douglas Jardine to reduce his dominance in a series of international matches against England in the Australian summer of 1932-1933. The principal English exponent of Bodyline was the Nottinghamshire pace bowler Harold Larwood, and the contest between Chipp and Larwood was to prove to be the focal point of the competition. Some indication of his superlative skill was that his average for that series, 56.57, is still higher than the career averages of all but a dozen or so international Test cricketers.

In his later days, Chipp was an elder stateman of the Australian television industry

Chipp also entered federal politics in 1960 as the Liberal member for Higinbotham in Melbourne's southern bayside suburbs, before a redistribution in 1968 moved Chipp to the less safe seat of Hotham. Appointed Minister for the Navy and Minister in charge of Tourist Activities by Prime Minister Harold Holt in 1967, after Holt's death in December 1967 he was dropped from the Ministry by the new Prime Minister, John Gorton. This was partly because Chipp had supported another candidate, Billy Snedden, in the Liberal leadership ballot, and partly because Gorton disapproved of Chipp's decision to hold a second Royal Commission into the 1964 Voyager disaster - a decision which Gorton felt reflected badly on the Royal Australian Navy.

After the 1969 elections Gorton brought Chipp back into the ministry as Minister for Customs and Excise. In this portfolio he gained national attention by largely abolishing the censorship of printed material, unbanning many novels including Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, as well as allowing the sale of Playboy magazine. These actions made him popular with many people but placed him at odds with many of his fellow party members, who considered his actions too liberal. During this period Chipp became identified as part of a "small-l liberal" faction of the Liberal Party, along with Snedden and Andrew Peacock.

Following the Liberal Party's defeat at the 1972 federal election, Chipp served as Shadow Minister for Social Security. He was a strong supporter of Snedden, who had become party leader following the defeat but failed to win the 1974 electionsd against the Labor government of Gough Whitlam. When Malcolm Fraser displaced Snedden as leader in March 1975, Chipp retained his position, but it was no secret that the two men did not get on. When Fraser won the 1975 election, Chipp was not offered a position in Fraser's ministry.

His TV career also experienced setbacks at this difficult time. After the end of Sydney Tonight, Chipp took a hiatus from the world of light entertainment but returned in 1974 to appear at a benefit concert to raise funds for the victims of Cyclone Tracy, and ended up staying for most of the next decade. He is best known for compering The Don Chipp Show which ran on the Nine Network from May 1975. Chipp won a Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television in 1977.

While his work on The Don Chipp Show brought him fame and fortune in the world of light entertainment, his political career had by then became a source of frustration.  After a year as an increasingly discontented backbencher, Chipp resigned from the Liberal Party in 1977, citing the need for a new moderate political party. Later in the year he founded the the Australian Democrats, and at the December 1977 elections he was elected to the Australian Senate, with one colleague (Colin Mason of New South Wales). As Democrats leader, Chipp was involved in various high profile environmental and social justice causes, including playing an important role in stopping the Franklin Dam Project.

At the 1980 federal elections, the Democrats gained the balance of power in the Senate, which they retained until the 2004 elections. This gave Chipp and his party, in conjunction with other non-government senators, the power to reject or amend government legislation.

Chipp retired as the leader of the Democrats in 1986, to be succeeded by Janine Haines.

However by 1987 he was back in Sydney as a personality for Network Ten, hosting programs like You've Got To Be Joking, Late Night Australia and the 1987 presentation of the TV Week Logie Awards. In 1993, Chipp made a guest appearance on the comedy program The Late Show on ABC. He has also hosted American NFL broadcasts for the ABC. He ran unsuccessfully for election as the Lord Mayor of Melbourne in 2001. He also entered the TV Week Logie Awards Hall Of Fame in 2003. He recorded four gold CDs. Bert Newton took much pleasure in sending up his singing, sometimes by playing the records at half-speed while miming Chipp's performance.

In his later years, he suffered from Parkinson's Disease, although he still made a number of public appearances, most notably on the ABC chat show Enough Rope with Andrew Denton. He also gave an opening address to the Democrats national conference in Melbourne in May 2006.

He was also famous for answering innumerable letters from cricket fans across the world, which he continued to do until well into his eighties. Chipp died in 2001, in Adelaide, aged 92, although he continues to live and work in the United States and, sadly, died for the final time of pneumonia in August 2006 at Epworth Hospital in Richmond.

The Chaser's research department (www.wikipedia.org) contributed reporting for this article.