INXS’ Michael Hutchence and Johnny O’Keefe lie at Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens

The memorials to two of the nation’s greatest rock stars Johnny O’Keefe and Michael Hutchence are in North Ryde.

Banjo Patterson — Australia’s much loved bush poet — is also interred here.

Yet compared with hordes of visitors to resting places of other fallen icons around the world — Elvis, Princess Di, Jim Morrison to name a few — they attract only a trickle of the most loyal fans wishing to pay their respects.

In Sydney, the only physical tribute to Hutchence, the charismatic frontman of INXS, is the headstone in the Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens, North Ryde.

Rock historian Jeff Apter wonders why more fans do not visit given the singer was among world music royalty when he was alive.

He wonders why Australians are so irreverent about its cultural idols that were once so revered in life.

How many visitors to Rose Bay, he asks, would know 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.

For the record his former lover Paula Yates kept another third in a cushion she slept with, and the remainder was interred by his mother in the Hollywood Hills.

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

“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.”

Author Nikki Gemmel agrees saying the lack of public memorials to late great Australians might be a hangover from the “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.

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.

Banjo Patterson rests behind a plaque in a brick wall which reads simply ‘Andrew Barton Patterson C.B.E.’ alongside hundreds of others.

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

But while his actual gravesite is surprisingly modest, the bush balladeer is commemorated by dozens of statues and memorials in towns around the country.

‘The Wild One’ is interred about a kilometre away in a nearby cemetery in North Ryde but he does not fare much better in terms of visitors.

“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,” Apter said.

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

He says reverence for fallen idols in Australia is nothing compared with cultural icons overseas.

Hordes of fans still pay their respects to John Lennon, Michael Jackson, Jim Morrison and many others. Bowie is sure to be next.

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

Michael Jackson’s grand mausoleum in California sees a steady stream of fans paying their respects.

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

And Scotland has just announced plans to erect a memorial to ACDC singer Bon Scott.

There is nothing more than a plaque where he is buried in Freemantle.

Apter ponders whether Australian’s lack of reverence may 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,” he said.

Whether you agree with him or not, a visit to Hutchence headstone would seem to back him up. There were no other visitors. In fact, there was hardly anyone around at all.

Cemetery staff said only a handful visit each week though this spikes around his birthday in late January.

Though judging by the fresh flowers at his grave and a stone in the shape of a broken heart inscribed with the words “Love Baby Love!”, while his memory may have faded, it is far from forgotten.