The Australian Ambassador to the United States, former Liberal Party leader Andrew Peacock, has announced that he will relinquish the post early in the new year.

This week, the Washington Post reported on Peacock under the heading “Strutting Out of Town in Full Feather”:

Unless your column is nice to me, you better bring a bloody food-taster, mate,” Australian Ambassador Andrew Peacock advised us yesterday when we asked about the goodbye party he’s throwing for himself tonight.

Though we firmly believe he was joshing, how could we not be nice? During his three years in Washington representing Down Under, the 59-year-old bachelor-ambassador was wonderful copy–quickly establishing himself as one of this city’s more amusing and colorful characters. Not only does he talk salty and exude Crocodile Dundee charm, he hosted fabulous dinners at his gracious Massachusetts Heights residence and managed to squire Shirley MacLaine and Madeleine Albright.

“She’s a special friend,” Peacock said when we asked if he’s going to miss the secretary of state.

But he seemed to be quoting reincarnation theories of Warren Beatty’s big sister when he added: “In the end we all die, but then we return in a continuing process of endless adventures.

In December, Peacock will head back to Melbourne for a posh but as-yet-undisclosed job in the private sector. “I love Washington,” he said. “And what I don’t like about this city, I’ll keep to myself.”