Walkley Award-winning cartoonist dies aged 53

Celebrated Australian political cartoonist Jon Kudelka has died following a two-year battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. He was 53.

Tasmanian-born Jon Kudelka held a sharp-witted mirror to the nation over three decades working for national media outlets. For two of those, he was a cartoonist for The Australian, where his sharp political commentary earned him two Walkley Awards (2008 and 2018).

His 2018 Walkley-winning image From the Heart depicted Uluru in the shape of an upturned middle finger with the words: “Official government Uluru statement response.”

He was twice named the Museum of Australian Democracy’s political cartoonist of the year, in 2010 and then in 2019, the year he joined The Saturday Paper.

In a statement shared on the cartoonist’s website, his wife, Margaret Kudelka, said the satirist had died on Sunday “peacefully”, surrounded by family and friends. He was deeply respected by both his targets and his audience.

“Jon was deeply loved and admired by many, including fellow Tasmanians, the legions of fans of his inimitable art, countless newspaper readers over 30 years, and even by the politicians he relentlessly skewered in his award-winning cartoons (many of whom have his work on their walls),” she said. “He loved his family, friends, making art in many forms, and firmly calling out political and anti-science bullshit with his typically dry wit and compassion.”

Kudelka was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour in 2024 but maintained his characteristic humour throughout his two years of treatment, his family said. “Jon believed in fully showing up for life and embracing humour even in the hardest of times,” their statement read. “In the past two years, he was heard many times to say, ironically, ‘good times’.”

Last year, in an article for The Saturday Paper, he compared the “noble art of political cartooning” to “threading a needle at gunpoint which I probably flatter myself in claiming I occasionally succeeded at”.

“The downside to all this effort is that, disappointingly, none of your finely crafted little sketches ever bring down the government, even if they absolutely had it coming.”

Kudelka ran a gallery in Hobart’s Salamanca Place, housing his eclectic range of work, from political sketches to pyrography.

He is survived by Margaret, their teenage children Kay and Oskar, and his sister, Liesl.

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