Peter Batey, the Coolac larrikin who founded the iconic and irreverent Bald Archy Prize, died while driving home on Friday, the organisation announced on social media.

He was 85.

"The unthinkable has happened," Fran Henke posted as the Bald Archy Prize on its Facebook page.

"Bald Archy founder, theatre director, actor and Australian legend Peter Batey OAM has died.

"Driving home from Cootamundra yesterday his car left the road."

Police confirmed a man believed to be in his 80s was pronounced dead at the scene of a single-vehicle crash on Muttama Road at Coolac on Friday afternoon.

The car had left the roadway and collided with a tree, police said. Investigations into the circumstances surrounding the crash were being undertaken and a report is being prepared for the coroner.

Mr Batey was born in Benalla in 1933. He went on to be a founding member of Melbourne Theatre Company, inaugural artistic director or the South Australian Theatre Company and first director of the Victorian Arts Council.

He moved to country NSW, settling at Coolac, where in 1994 he started the Bald Archys, the world's only art competition judged by a cockatoo - a satirical take on Australia's most famous art prize, the Archibald.

The joyful competition celebrated 25 years of success in 2018.

"I'd noticed lots and lots of government subsides and grants given to the arts and nothing seemed to be happening in our region, and I thought, 'well let's do something, we'll have an arts festival in my garden'," he told The Daily Advertiser last year.

Mr Batey also served on the old Gundagai Shire Council, before it joined with Cootamundra to form a regional council under the controversial mergers implemented by the state government. He was elected as an independent in 2012.

He was also a former Daily Advertiser columnist, regaling readers with his kitchen exploits and sharing recipes each Saturday with Food for Thought.

From the archive:

Food for Thought: Fresh tastes

Food for Thought: Speeding up the pastry process

Food for Thought: The only way is green

Food for Thought: Kitchen surprises

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