Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser has died.
The former Liberal politician was 84 years old.
Mr Fraser's office has issued a statement, stating that he passed away peacefully in the early hours of the morning.
"We appreciate that this will be a shock to all who knew and loved him, but ask that the family be left in peace at this difficult time," it read.
Born in Toorak in 1930, Malcolm Fraser had pastoral prowess and politics etched in his DNA.
His grandfather was a farmer and Senator in the early 1900s.
As a young boy, he was raised on family farms in New South Wales and Victoria before falling into politics by accident.
Aged 25, he became Australia's youngest member of Parliament and represented the seat of Wannon in Victoria's Western District until his retirement in 1983.
'Life wasn't meant to be easy'
He won leadership of his party in 1975 and later that year, he used senate numbers to defer budget supply bills for the now scandal plagued government led by Gough Whitlam.
Whitlam himself, planned to call a half senate election to break the deadlock but when he went to government house, Mr Fraser beat him to it.
The Governor General Sir John Kerr had already decided to sack the Prime Minister and Mr Fraser became the nation's 22nd Prime Minister after the historic dismissal in November 1975.
In 1971, Mr Fraser famously said, "Life wasn't meant to be easy".
It proved prophetic.
In his twilight years he was shunned by the Liberal Party faithful for criticising and eventually deserting the very party he once led.
He was a fiscal conservative with a socially progessive heart.
Malcolm Fraser worked to pass land rights legislation for Indigenous Australians.
"No one expected us to do that," he said.
"'Multiculturalism became a reality... There's no fantasy about that."
His government created multicultural broadcaster SBS and his passion for upholding human rights saw him establish a local branch of CARE international.
He continued to lobby for many social causes late in life and was awarded Australia's Human Rights Medal in 1988.
'He was rightly proud of his government'
Tributes have already started flowing in for the late politician.
Politicians have paid tribute to the late Malcolm Fraser, describing him as a man of empathy and courage.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said that flags will be lowered to half-mast on Friday and on the day of Mr Fraser’s memorial service.
"Under Malcolm Fraser’s leadership, self-government was conferred on the Northern Territory, the Commonwealth Ombudsman was established and our first Freedom of Information laws were enacted," he said.
"... He welcomed the re-settlement of tens of thousands of Vietnamese people in Australia who have subsequently added a rich, new dimension to our national life.
"He was rightly proud of his government."
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten described his service as "tireless", saying he "showed international leadership of great integrity".
"He immeasurably enriched Australia’s multicultural society, offering refuge to tens of thousands of vulnerable people driven from Vietnam by the horror of war," he said in a statement.
"He maintained the Whitlam Government’s commitment to the cause of reconciliation and recognising the land rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
"In the long third act of his public life, Malcolm won many new admirers as a powerful voice for human rights and reconciliation and a deep thinker regarding Australia’s place in the world."
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