Reading the comments to the story I found this "funny" addition regarding the author of the obit..
"AP, Yahoo, and all of the other sites need to update this article because there is additional information. The author of the obituary cannot apologize, get fired, or anything else as he is DEAD and has been so since a few years before Colleen McCullough passed away. The obit had been written a few years ago as is often done for famous people. It was not edited (or fully edited) before "The Australian" published it inside of the paper with other obituaries."