But how well does Sydney remember him and celebrate his legacy?

His spark burned so brightly in life but after he has gone, there is little to remind us that this was his hometown.

The only lasting physical tribute to the charismatic INXS frontman is a modest memorial in a suburban cemetery in North Ryde.

Of course, this is not a comment on his musical legacy, which endures very well.

It’s a question of how we as Australians care to commemorate our best and brightest, those who contributed most to our nation’s modern identity and culture.

And if Hutchence’s example is anything to go by - it seems that we have a long way to go when it comes to celebrating the lives of our national icons

Around the world, the resting places of famous writers, singers, actors, political leaders and notorious crooks often become sites of pilgrimage for adoring fans.

Think Elvis, Jim Morrison and James Dean or John Lennon, Frank Sinatra and Eva Peron.

Above: Kel Hutchence’s ashes, who died in 2002, are interred in the same memorial as his son Michael in North Ryde

Yet in Australia our heroes and villains, poets and pioneers are very much left to rest in peace.

Some say that is a saving grace while others think we should do more.

Below is a snapshot of where Sydney’s famous are laid to rest - among them prime ministers, poets, gangsters, writers and rock stars.

But before that, let’s take a look at famous graves across the world...

IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE

With the exception of sport stars, war heroes, early explorers and bushrangers, Australia doesn’t really do commemoration of cultural icons all that well.

Plainly not as well as our friends in the US, the UK and Europe.

In the UK, there’s hardly a place the Beatles stepped foot where there isn’t now a reminder of their presence.

Dotted all over London are plaques marking their homes, recording studios and favourite pubs.

In Liverpool, they even named their international airport after John Lennon.

Britain are adept at commemorating their best writers, artists and inventors they have publicly nominated ‘Blue Plaques’ to mark them all over the country.

And they are not all from the arts.

The creator of modern computing, Alan Turing, who famously cracked the Nazi’s encryption code giving the Allies the edge in WWII, is among them. Isaac Newton is another.

Across the channel, it is a similar story.

In Paris, you can drop by Jim Morrison’s grave at Pere-Lachaise Cemetery, and you won’t be alone.

It is one of the most visited tourist sights in the city - no mean feat for a town that boasts the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and the Lourve.

And the rest of Europe is pockmarked with commemorations to artists, writers and creatives.

While over in the US, it is no secret that the Americans do a good line in reverence.

Take for instance the final resting places of music idols Elvis, Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra - now popular attractions in their own right.

Graceland is the second most-visited home in America with over 600,000 visitors a year. Only the White House has more visitors.

NEVER TEAR US APART

Of course, some will say Australia has not produced stars of a similar calibre to warrant the same level of public veneration after they are gone.

Others disagree.

Rock historian Jeff Apter says it would be hard to argue that Australians Bon Scott, the Bee Gees or Michael Hutchence were not among the world’s music royalty.

Yet how visitors to Sydney would even know that Hutchence grew up here? How many would know that he played his first gig with INXS (then known as the Farris Brothers) at a house party at Whale Beach in 1977.

Or that INXS recorded their first demo at what is now a suburban beauty salon in Avalon.

How many visitors to Rose Bay would know that Hutchence ashes were scattered there on January 22, 1998 on what would have been his 38th birthday.

Or that his ashes were split three ways in the wake of a bitter family feud after his death.

A third infamously kept by Paula Yates in her cushion she slept with and the remainder interred by his mother in the Hollywood Hills.

‘LOVE BABY LOVE!’

So what is there to memorialise one of the biggest rock stars this country has ever seen.

Apter asks where is the fitting memorial in Sydney that celebrates his life.

“I mean is the former Ritz Carlton at Double Bay really how we remember Michael Hutchence?” Apter says.

“Is that all that’s left - some sad old hotel room? It’s hardly a worthy tribute to a guy who lived life to the fullest and was probably Australia’s last great rock star.”

Certainly, it is nothing compared with the final resting places of Michael Jackson and Jimi Hendrix.

Far from being forgotten, these memorials are fast growing in popularity.

Hendrix’s gravesite in Seattle is so popular with guitar fans, his remains had to be reinterred recently into a larger space to handle the crowds.

And the King of Pop’s grand mausoleum in California sees a steady stream of fans paying their respects.

TALES FROM THE CRYPT

Apter ponders whether this lack of reverence might relate the “relatively low regard” in which artists, writers and singers are held in this country.

Particularly when compared with the esteem great sporting heroes are held in life and death.

He believes it might be a riff on the tall poppy syndrome.

“You don’t want to ride too high - even in death - that wouldn’t be seen as very Australian”

-Jeff Apter

Whether you agree with him or not, a visit to some of Sydney’s most famous graves would seem to back up his theory.

When this reporter visited Hutchence headstone at Northern Suburbs Memorial Park last week there were no other visitors.

In fact, there was hardly anyone around at all. In a word it felt lonely.

Cemetery staff said only a handful of visitors visit Hutchence memorial each week but this spikes around his birthday in January.

And judging by the fresh flowers (no, not Tiger Lillies) while his memory may have faded, he is far from forgotten.

One loyal fan left a poignant tribute; a broken heart-shaped stone inscribed with the words “Love Baby Love!”

Author Nikki Gemmel wondered whether the scarcity of public memorials to late great Australians might be a hangover from our “cultural cringe”.

“I think it is a shame that we don’t revere the colourful, creative, innovative, risk taking people who have made this nation what it is,” she said.

“In Britain, it is wonderful the lengths they go to.

“I really think Australia needs to have a tradition similar to the Blue Plaques - something to commemorate our greatest writers, artists, architects, musicians and other creatives.

“The Blue Plaques is a wonderful tradition in England and you always have tourists taking their photos outside George Orwell’s house in Portobello Road.

She says a similar scheme would work here and should operate via a people’s choice model of public nominations - limited to only a handful each year.

“It is not only for tourists,” she said.

“It would be a reminder for us, as Australians, for people who shaped our nation in one way or another. It is tipping the hat to great Australians.”

ASHES TO ASHES

The call for better commemoration of our national icons comes at a time when the most obvious physical reminders to them - cemeteraries - are steadily being squeezed by urban sprawl.

Burials are becoming much less common in Australia, according to a recenty study by McCrindle, with two thirds of people now opting for cremation.

The cost and scarcity of land in the inner city is partly behind the trend and now many cemeteries in the city are at or near capacity.

This, in turn, has driven up the cost of burials and underscored the popularity of cremations - which now comprise more than two-thirds of funerals in Sydney.

Today, a basic cremation costs between $700 and up to $5000 depending on the memorial.

A burial is upward of $8,000 to $10,000 including the land and rights in perpetuity.

And a family crypt will set you back about $250,000.

So the evidence suggests that grand memorials to the departed - particularly in city cemeteries - will become increasingly rare.

That is unless future generations decide that we should do better at commemorating great Australians in other ways such renaming places in their honour, preserving their homes or workplaces, or signifying the places where they lived and worked.

RESTING IN PEACE

17 FAMOUS AUSTRALIAN GRAVES

1. BANJO PATTERSON

Northern Suburbs Memorial Garden, North Ryde

Just a stone’s throw way from Hutchence at North Ryde is the final resting place a man who helped shape our national identity and character.

Behind an brick in a nondescript wall are the remains of Australia’s greatest poet.

He is interred alongside hundreds of others marked by a small plaque with the words ‘Andrew Barton Patterson C.B.E.’

According to staff, only a handful of visitors ask after him each month.

But while his actual gravesite is surprisingly modest, dozens of towns around the country have erected fitting memorials to the man who penned our unofficial anthem Waltzing Matilda.

2. JOHNNY O’KEEFE

Macquarie Park Cemetery, North Ryde

About a kilometre away in a nearby cemetery in North Ryde is the gravesite of rocker Johnny O’Keefe.

He had five number one hits in his career and his 1959 hit “Shout” is still an Australian classc..

“Johnny O’Keefe is buried in Sydney. It is where he was born, where his career started. He was a Sydneysider through and through. His father was mayor of Waverley. His brother was the mayor of Mosman and QC,” says Jeff Apter.

“You could barely have a more Sydney family than the O’Keefe’s and yet there is going to be a memorial in Canberra!”

Plans to name a street after the ‘Wild One’ in Canberra have reportedly been held up in bureaucracy.

Melbourne has made some efforts to memorialise its musical history including by naming city laneways including after Chrissy Amphlett and AC/DC.

That is despite the fact that Sydney is, in fact, AC/DC’s hometown.

The place where Angus Young went to primary school at Burwood Public in 1963 and infamously started his long infatuation with smoking cigarettes under a bridge nearby.

It is where the band played its first gigs before going on to become one of the biggest stadium rock bands in history.

3. BON SCOTT

Freemantle Cemetery

In their early career, AC/DC played dozens of venues around Sydney including Chequers niteclub ut there is little by way of a reminder to tourists of the city’s musical heritage.

Though in Freemantle, the grave of the band’s late signer Bon Scott is a popular drawcard.

4. PETER ALLEN

Ashes scattered in the ocean off California

Peter Allen lit up the stage and screen over his exuberant career in the 70s and 80s and there is no doubt about the musical legacy he left which includes classics “I Still Call Australia Home” and “I Go to Rio”.

His life was also adapted into a popular stage musical The Boy from Oz.

Yet, possibly because he died in California and his ashes were scattered in the sea there, there isn’ much in the way of a fitting memorial in Sydney.

Not unless you count the Peter Allen Motor Inn- a three star motel in his hometown of Tenterfield.

A wander around the winged angels and grand old crpyts of Waverley Cemetery reveals probably the highest concentration of famous graves in Australia.

The picturesque seaside cemetery is the final resting place for author Henry Lawson, poets Dorothea Mackellar and Henry Kendall, and journalist Jules Archibald.

5. HENRY LAWSON

Waverley Cemetery

Lawson who ultimately ended up there was fond of using the stunning location in his stories.

A $10,000 grant from the State Government helped restore the grave of famous writer and poet Henry Lawson some years ago.

Many of the graves in the 138-year-old graveyard are falling into disrepair with a recent report estimating upkeep will cost the local council $9.7 million over the next 10 years.

6. DOROTHEA MACKELLAR

Waverley Cemetery

And a proposal to build a grand cliffside pavilion to honour the many famous Australians interred there was scuttled earlier this year.

Waverley Council dumped the $14 million plan in the wake of community protests.

Mackellar was cremated after a service at St Mark’s Anglican Church, Darling Point, and her ashes laid in the family vault at Waverley.

7. PATRICK WHITE

Ashes scattered in Centennial Park close to his home

Another famous resident of the eastern suburbs was writer Patrick White who died there in 1990 but he is not buried at Waverley.

White was the first Australian to win a Nobel prize for Literature and his grand home ‘Highbury’ at Centennial Park is listed on the State Heritage Register.

Though there is little that signifies his previous home ‘Dogwoods’ in Castle Hill where he lived for 18 years and wrote some of his seminal works including Voss.

Two nearby streets are named in his honour Nobel Peace and Patrick Avenue.

8 LAWRENCE HARGRAVES, JULES ARCHIBALD & VICTOR TRUMPER

Waverley Cemetery

Aviation pioneer Lawrence Hargraves is another famous Australian buried at Waverley.

His headstone, along with that of Lawson, Archibald and cricketer Victor Trumper, were saved from the brink of decay by benefactors about a decade ago.

Hargrave’s plot was restored with the help of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Newspaperman Frank Packer rests at South Head in his family vault but his son Kerry opted to be buried on the family’s rural property ‘Ellerston’.

9. EDMUND BARTON & FRANK PACKER

South Head

Australia’s first Prime Minister Edmund Barton is also laid to rest among the clifftop tombstones at Vaucluse.

While Barton’s headstone is well-known, the final resting places of two more recently departed political luminaries, Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, are closely guarded by their families.

At South Head, there is also a memorial to Juanita Nielsen, who disappeared in mysterious circumstances from Kings Cross in 1975, presumed murdered.

President of Friends of Waverley Cemetery said Greg Ross runs regular tours of famous graves.

He says while the site is worthy of preservation for its historical signifance as the resting place for many famous Australians, he has noticed fewer laid to rest in recent years.

“In fact, I’m not sure of any people of social prominence in the last 10 years or so that have been interred at Waverley,” he said.

Waverley is not the only cemetery in Sydney where some of the older graves have fallen into disrepair.

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At Parramatta, local historians have condemned the neglect of the historic St John’s Anglican Cemetery where 17 members of the First Fleet are buried.

10. HENRY DODD - AUSTRALIA’S OLDEST GRAVE

St John’s Cemetery, Parramatta

Metre-high grass and weeds cover sections of the historic graveyard which has the oldest in situ grave in Australia - the 1791 tombstone of Henry Dodd, the first farmer of wheat in the country.

The site also contains the graves of many prominent colonial families including the Wentworths, the Macarthurs, the Blaxlands and John Harris of Harris Park, Mary Kelly of Kellyville, Mary Pymble of Pymble and John Thorn of Thornleigh.

Aside from Brett Whiteley, what is striking is how few of the great Australian painters were actually from Sydney or have any public memorials here.

Many are buried in Melbourne and Victoria including Arthur Streeton, Fred Williams, Frederick McCubbin, Arthur Boyd, and Tom Roberts.

Sidney Nolan is buried in London.

A few had strong connections with Sydney including Roberts who spent his formative years here including a stint at the famous artists camp at Sirius Cove, Mosman.

William Dobell was born in Newcastle but lived in Sydney when he was studying.

11. RUSSELL DRYSDALE

St Paul’s Anglican Church, Kincumber

And Russell Drysdale died in Sydney in 1981 but, at his request, his ashes are buried under a tree beside St Paul’s Anglican Church, Kincumber.

Margaret Olley died in her Paddington home, part of which has been recreated at a gallery in Tweed Heads, not far from where she was born.

But probably he most tasteful tributes to a late Australian artist is the preservation of Wendy’s Secret Garden at Lavendar Bay where Brett Whiteley’s ashes are interred.

Wendy began lovingly tending to the overgrown reserve after her husband died in 1992 and she has since transformed it not a tranquil harbourside sanctuary open to all.

12. BRETT WHITELEY

Ashes buried in Wendy’s Secret Garden, Lavender Bay

Just last month, it was secured for public use when the State Government agreed to hand it over to the local council on a 30-year renewable lease.

“It will become a collaboration now instead of having a slightly worrying feeling that somebody could arrive with a bulldozer someway or a chainsaw or something and it could all be gone overnight,” Ms Whiteley said.

13. TILLY DEVINE

Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park, Botany

Matilda Mary “Tilly Devine” Twiss Parsons was cremated at the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park in Botany and her ashes are interred opposite the South Chapel.

The brothel madam has bars named in her honour in Darlinghurst and in Canberra.

14. ROBERT TRIMBOLE

Pinegrove Memorial Park, Eastern Creek

Crime boss Robert “Aussie Bob” Trimbole was a Sydney racing identity before he was linked to a heroin syndicate importing heroin from Asia.

After he died in Spain in 1987 of an apparent heart attack, his family brought his body home to be interred at Pinegrove Memorial Park.

The funeral mass at St Benedict’s Catholic Church, Smithfield turned into a public spectacle after Trimbole’s associates were caught on film in a rolling brawl with journalist Max Uechtritz

15. GEORGE FREEMAN

Waverley Cemetery

Sydney bookie and racing identity George Freeman was buried at Waverley in 1990.

The crime figure was allegedly a key figure in organised crime in the 60s and 70s and was linked to the Mr Asia drug syndicate.

One of the best kept headstones in Waverley Cemetery, its inscription reads ‘Our Dad, a wonderful man, we love you’ - Greig, Grant, Guy, Adam, David & Brieanne.

16. ABE SAFFRON

Rookwood Cemetery

In one of the more leafy parts of Rookwood Cemetery, lies Sydney underworld figure Abe “Mr Sin” Saffron alongside his wife Doreen.

The nightclub owner and property developer, who was convicted of tax evasion in 1987, is commemorated by a plaque in the footpath outside former Kings Cross club “Les Girls”.

17. CAPTAIN MOONLITE

Rookwood Cemetery and reinterred at Gundagai

Moments before he was hung for his crimes in 1880, bushranger Captain Moonlite scrawled a letter asking to be buried alongside James Nesbitt, his former cellmate and a man widely thought to be his lover.

His dying wish was finally granted in 1995 when his remains were exhumed from Rookwood and reinterred in Gundagai, near where Nesbitt is buried in an unmarked grave.

Moonlite’s headstone is inscribed with his own words:

“As to a monumental stone, a rough unhewn rock would be most fit, one that skilled hands could have made into something better. It will be like those it marks, as kindness and charity could have shaped us to better ends.” - Andrew George Scott