The band announced the six-month tour aboard a boat on Sydney Harbour this morning.

The original line-up of Peter Garrett, Jim Moginie, Rob Hirst, Martin Rotsey and Bones Hillman sat at the bow of the Mari Nawi boat on the harbour as they addressed waiting media.

“The Great Circle 2017” world tour will begin in South America in April and take them across the US and Canada, Europe and New Zealand before they return home for 18 gigs in October and November, many of which will be in outdoor venues.

The Adelaide show on the Village Green at the Oval on October 26 will see the Oils supported by Spiderbait and Bad/Dreems.

Shows are expected to include mostly songs from the band’s back catalogue, including hits such as “Power and the Passion”, “Beds Are Burning” and “Blue Sky Mine”.

Band members indicated they won’t be staying quiet about President Donald Trump while in the US.

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“We have a habit of attempting a US tour after a new dangerous, rookie president comes in. We did the Capricornia tour, which was the last tour, when a young George Bush Jr just got in,” Hirst said.

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“And here we are embarking upon a tour in the land of Trump and a time of Trump, a very uncertain period for everyone.”

The timing was “pure happenstance” he insisted, although the group don’t intend to go easy on Trump when they play in the US.

“He’s (President Trump) not a figure who’s engendering a great deal of respect for his own people and you can be sure they’re going to respond, and there’s no way that we won’t say what we think about it either,” Garrett said.

The band, who were always politically outspoken, said the decision to reform at the moment was not because of the political landscape but more that the timing was right.

“Looking at what we’d written, and even just lines that would jump out, sometimes it’s super depressing because you think we just haven’t made that much progress,” Garrett said.

Garrett, who recently quit federal politics, said their songs still seemed relevant, as he pointed to One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson.

“We never thought that we’d see Hanson raise her ugly face again,” he said.

Drummer and songwriter Hirst revealed he has also been meeting with guitarist and fellow songwriter Moginie to work on new Midnight Oil music and had new songs “on the boil”.

“After all there’s a lot to sing about these days,” he said.

Pre-sale tickets for the tour will be available on February 23, with the remaining tickets going on sale on February 27.

The band also announced the impending release of a remastered CD box set called The Full Tank featuring all their existing albums and EPs plus a new four-CD/eight-DVD trove called The Overflow Tank which will include more than 14 hours of previously unreleased and rare material.

-with AAP

The Australian tour dates are:

• Oct 2 – ANZAC Oval, Alice Springs
• Oct 4 – Darwin Amphitheatre, Darwin
• Oct 7 – Kuranda Amphitheatre, Cairns
• Oct 10 – Townsville Entertainment Centre, Townsville
• Oct 12 – Great Western Hotel, Rockhampton
• Oct 14 – Big Pineapple Fields, Sunshine Coast
• Oct 15 – Riverstage, Brisbane
• Oct 19 – Hockey Fields, Coffs Harbour
• Oct 21 – Hope Estate, Hunter Valley
• Oct 24 – AIS Arena, Canberra
• Oct 26 – The Village Green Adelaide Oval, Adelaide
• Oct 28 – Perth Arena, Perth
• Nov 1 – Derwent Entertainmnent Centre, Hobart)
• Nov 3 – Gateway Lakes, Wodonga
• Nov 4 – Hanging Rock, Mt Macedon
• Nov 6 – Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne
• Nov 8 -Win Entertainment Centre, Wollongong
• Nov 11 -The Domain, Sydney