Comedian Barry Humphries farewelled by Dame Edna Everage's 'hometown' of Wagga

The comedian, actor and author was hospitalised last week following complications with a hip surgery, and passed away at St Vincent's Hospital aged 89.

He was surrounded by his immediate family, including his wife of 30 years Lizzie Spender, his children and 10 grandchildren.

Wagga residents Bob Erwin and his wife Jan Pittard yesterday reflected on their memories of Mr Humphries' work, from reading his early Barry McKenzie cartoons in Private Eye magazine to his world-renowned performance as Dame Edna.

"He always managed to both delight and infuriate people," Ms Pittard said.

"He had the most fertile imagination and just kept going with all his characters and his satire - he was beloved in the UK as well as in Australia."

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Mr Erwin said he remembered watching Dame Edna's rise in popularity from her first TV appearances in the 1950s and 60s.

"Dame Edna Everage just appeared on Australian television interviews every now and then and then it just grew and grew," he said.

Booranga Writers' Centre president David Gilbey called Barry Humphries "remarkable".

"He became a mainstream figure whose every utterance challenged the binary norms of Australian culture," he said.

"And he was unashamedly against any sort of censorship and decency."

Dame Edna's story began in Wagga before she moved to Moonee Ponds in Melbourne to become an average Australian housewife.

Mr Gilbey said the place names were chosen because they were "ripe for parody".

"Dame Edna comes from Australia's parodic self-consciousness, and he paraded her to be someone who was an international glamour ambassador or something," he said.

"But her humble origins were something we could all laugh at behind our hands."

Wagga performer Julia Erwin said Mr Humphries' performance as Dame Edna paved the way for drag queens and other LGBQITA+ people to perform in their own way.

"He really created a platform for people to express themselves in that way and I think that's really powerful," she said.

"There are a lot of young people in Wagga now who don't identify in the gender binary and they're also very talented performers."

In 2012, Charles Sturt University academic Mark Macleod proposed that a Dame Edna tribute museum be built in Wagga to acknowledge the character's fictional birthplace. Despite some community support, the idea never eventuated.

The late founder of the Bald Archy Prize, Peter Batey, was also acknowledged publicly by Mr Humphries for his contribution to the Dame Edna character.

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