Sometimes after you travel you realise what you were searching for was at home all the time. If you’ve paid big dollars to visit LA and put your hands in the concrete imprints left by the likes of Marilyn Monroe outside of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, it will sting you to find out you could have had the same thrill closer to home.

A constellation of stars in the concrete

Outside the Sebel at Pier One is a stretch of footpath where luminaries from the worlds of art, sport, entertainment and politics have had their handprints or footprints cast in concrete. Unlike Hollywood there aren’t thousands of tourists bustling about fighting to get their hands into history. There are only diners and lunchtime joggers who pay scant regard to this rich patch of Australian cultural real estate.

The Pier One Pantheon was created in the heady days of the early eighties. The variety of stars means any visitor will be pleased. Sports lovers can see the marks left by F1 legend Jack Brabham, “Golden Girl” Betty Cuthbert, and the horseshoes of champion racehorse Gunsynd (dated two months after he died). If politics is your passion, press your palms in the imprints left by then opposition leader Andrew Peacock. For people into the arts there is Cookie from A Country Practice, and country fans can pay tribute to Slim Dusty and wife Joy McKean.

For the pretentious who aren’t impressed by local talent, there are international stars too. There are footprints left by everyone’s favourite muppet (since those Elmo dramas) Big Bird, as well as an autograph from America’s Caroll Spinney, the puppeteer of Big Bird.

As Tom Keneally wrote next to his handprints, cast on July 24, 1983, “Advance Australia” and “Viva Sydney.” Who needs Hollywood when you’ve got Sydney’s Pier One.