Kenneth Cook

Kenneth Bernard Cook (5 May 1929 – 18 April 1987) was an Australian journalist, television documentary maker, and novelist best known for his works Wake in Fright, which is still in print five decades after its first publication, and the humorous Killer Koala trilogy.

Born in the Sydney suburb of Lakemba, Cook attended Fort Street High School. After leaving school he worked around Australia in a variety of jobs including laboratory technician, journalist and television documentary-maker, and boatshed operator.

In 1966, with businessman Gordon Barton, Cook founded a new political party, the Liberal Reform Group. Cook was vehemently opposed to the Vietnam War, and stood (unsuccessfully) as an LRG candidate for the seat of Parramatta in the 1966 federal election.

A keen amateur lepidopterist, Cook established the first butterfly farm in Australia on the banks of Sydney's Hawkesbury River in the 1970s.

Cook was married to Patricia Hickie, with whom he had four children, Megan (an accomplished journalistic-style writer in her own right, as Megan Gressor), Kerry, Paul and Anthony. He and Patricia were subsequently divorced. Kenneth Cook died of a heart attack in 1987, aged 57, while on a camping trip with his second wife, Jacqueline Kent. Patricia Cook died suddenly in 2006; daughter Megan Gressor died unexpectedly from post-operative complications in 2007, aged 52; his youngest son Anthony, a prominent lawyer who was well known for his work with indigenous Australians, took his own life in April 2009.