Cheers and boos at memorial for former Australian leader Gough Whitlam

Thousands of mourners turned out for a memorial service for former Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam yesterday, hailing him as a remarkable politician who helped shape modern Australia during his short and dramatic three-year tenure as leader.

Current conservative prime minister Tony Abbott was roundly booed by mourners for the centre-left Labor party icon, who died last month aged 98. Abbott was joined by six former Australian prime ministers, Hollywood star Cate Blanchett and almost 2,000 other dignitaries and members of the public for the service at Sydney's town hall.

Many more watched the proceedings on a large screen in front of the building, with the crowd cheering for past and present Labor leaders while heckling others from the ruling Liberal party, most notably Abbott and John Howard.

Four air force jets marked the occasion in a brief flyover above Sydney's central business district in the "missing man" formation.

"The Whitlam touch is on us all. He touches us in our day-to-day lives, in the way we think about Australia, in the way we see the world," said Graham Freudenberg, a close friend and former speech-writer for Whitlam.