A Michael Hutchence statue will be erected in Wangaratta Park near the Molly Meldrum statue if residents of the City of Yarra have no objections.
Yarra Council Mayor, Cr Danae Bosler said “Yarra is proud to be home to a thriving live music scene, and we’re humbled that the Hutchence family has come to us with this offer of a statue of him in Richmond.
“We’re going to seek the feedback of local residents and businesses in the coming weeks, to ensure they get to have a say on what happens in their local area.
“We’ll make a final decision on how to proceed with the offer once we’ve heard from our local community,” she said.
At a council meeting on 28 May 2019 it was resolved that:
The Council:
a. notes the offer of the creation of a Michael Hutchence statue in Stewart Street, Richmond to be paid for by funds raised from family, friends and fans of Michael Hutchence;
b. seeks feedback from the community including local residents, businesses and industry stakeholders as well as the relevant Visual Arts Advisory Panel on the offer before determining Council’s acceptance of offer;
c. authorise officers to undertake said consultation, and continue to liaise with VicTrack and relevant stakeholders with respect to the proposed site and land-use agreement; and
d. request that Officers report back to Council within 3 months on outcomes of consultation in order to make a determination.
A statue for Michael Hutchence was first proposed to the Yarra Council in December 2018 after moves to have the statue erected in Sydney failed.
INXS formed in Sydney initially as The Farriss Brothers in 1977. Andrew Farriss recruited Michael as the lead singer and brought in Garry Beers for bass while Tim headhunted Kirk Penguilly for saxophone to complete the line-up.
The Farriss Brothers opened regularly for Midnight Oil. They changed their name to INXS in 1979 and played their first gig as INXS on 1 September 1979 at the Oceanview Hotel in Toukley, on the Central Coast of New South Wales.
The calls for the erection of the Hutchence statue come as statues of Melbourne icons Kylie Minogue, John Farnham, Graham Kennedy, Dame Edna and Dame Nellie Melba were removed and placed in storage in 2016 after being erected at Docklands in 2006 to make way for an apartment tower. For the past three years, those statues are yet to find a home.
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