John Clarke and Bryan Dawe at the 2008 TV Week Logie Awards at Crown Casino. Credit:Justin McManus "He was such an insightful, generous, gorgeous human being, and I'm so fortunate and honoured to have been his friend and co-conspirator for so long." It is almost impossible to imagine the Australian political landscape without John Clarke in it, but that's the new reality following his death from a heart attack while hiking in the Grampians in western Victoria on Sunday. Only on Friday had Clarke, who was 68, filmed his final scenes for season two of Shaun Micallef's​ comedy series The Ex-PM, in which he had a recurring role. Just the day before that, the most recent of his satirical interviews with Dawe had gone to air on ABC TV, with the New Zealand-born Clarke playing the role of the treasurer.

Tributes have flowed for John Clarke, who died suddenly on Sunday. Credit:Rodger Cummins For decades, Clarke has been there to skewer the pomposity and doublespeak of politicians on our behalf – even if many of them wore that skewering as a badge of honour. "His laconic wit was rarely wide of the mark. I should know," Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Monday in response to news of Clarke's death. John Clarke made millions laugh countless times with his satirical take on politics and daily life. Credit:Paul Kalina "With lethal accuracy he made politicians and prime ministers his prey. With Bryan Dawe, his weekly take-down of the absurdity of political life became required viewing.

"His satire served a noble purpose. It spoke truth to power. It made our democracy richer and stronger. It kept politicians on their toes. And best of all it made us laugh along the way." Australian comedy giant Barry Humphries expressed sadness at the death of his friend and fellow comedian. "How dare he die! John wasn't just funny, he was original and he was very, very nice," Humphries said. "He deserves a state funeral." Clarke didn't just have the respect of his peers, he was also a mentor to many of them. Frank Woodley recalled the advice he received from Clarke when the latter served as a script consultant on The Adventures of Lano and Woodley, the sitcom he and Colin Lane made for the ABC in 1997.

" 'Trust your instincts. You boys know what you're doing.' I can still hear John's distinctive dry voice saying that to me as if it was yesterday," Woodley said. Charlie Pickering, host of the ABC's The Weekly, said Clarke and his writing and performing partner Dawe set the bar against which all other political satire in this country had to be measured. "John and I once talked about how writing a good comedy script was somewhere between poetry and physics," Pickering said. "Whatever that middle ground is, John Clarke deserved the Nobel Prize." Max Gillies, for whom Clarke wrote The Gillies Report in 1984, said his friend and colleague had "an incalculable gift" for comedy.

"At school we were told sarcasm was the lowest form of wit, but John Clarke spent his whole life giving the lie to that. It was in his comic bloodstream, a deep sense of outrage that kept his blood pumping and the electricity in his brain firing." Clarke, who was born in Palmerston North in the north island of New Zealand, was married to Helen, with whom he had two children, Lorin and Lucia. The family on Monday issued a statement expressing their gratitude for the words of sympathy that had poured in from all corners. Loading "John died doing one of the things he loved the most in the world, taking photos of birds in beautiful bushland with his wife and friends," the statement read. "He is forever in our hearts."

With Stephanie Peatling, Robert Moran, Broede Carmody