Sydney’s ‘king of town hall’ ended up in a pauper’s grave. His support workers are shocked they weren’t told

A Guardian investigation found a well-known Sydney rough sleeper called the king of town hall was buried in a pauper's grave. He now lies in a plot with four strangers. His homelessness support workers say they were never told. The investigation found three people buried in the communal graves were former clients of a Sydney support service.

The man was a familiar figure in Sydney's central business district. He sat on the town hall steps, played music and gave cheeky advice to people passing by. He slept under the steps near the train station. He was housed for a while but felt cut off from the community he knew. Jon Swain, an adviser to the Australian Alliance to End Homelessness, called him a massive personality known across city homeless services.

It shows how people who die homeless can end up in unmarked shared graves. It raises serious questions about dignity and whether support services are told when a client dies.