Hong Kong martial arts action film star Jackie Chan returned to his Australian roots on Saturday (March 8) to bury his father alongside his mother almost six years after she died in Australia's capital.

Chan's father Charlie died in a Hong Kong hospital on February 26, aged 93, after battling prostate cancer. Chan brought his body back to Canberra to be laid to rest beside Lee Lee Chan, who died in 2002.

"I loved my father so much because he did so much for me when I was young. We had a very poor family and he left me in Hong Kong to support himself and stayed here for more than twenty years... He was just the greatest

father for me," a distraught Chan told reporters.

"Australia and Canberra really took care of my family for more than 40 years. I have to do something to thank Australia and Canberra too," Chan said, adding he would open a medical research centre named after the family on Sunday at the prestigious Australian National University. Chan also donated A$145,000 ($134,000) to boost cancer research after his mother died.

Hundreds of mourners including the U.S Ambassador Robert McAllen and Chinese Deputy Ambassador, Li Jiangning attended the funeral at a leafy winery on the outskirts of Canberra, before burial at a nearby cemetery.

Chan arrived early in a black bead-embroidered suit and dark wrap sunglasses, walking past vineyards and scores of floral wreaths lining the entrance to the DeVine winery complex.

Jackie Chan, star of Hollywood films such as "Rush Hour" and "Rumble in the Bronx", arrived in Australia aged 6 after his father moved there for work in the 1960s, but was soon sent back to Hong Kong to attend the China Drama Academy.

Living in Australia for 40 years, Charlie Chan went from head cook at the U.S. embassy to a successful local restaurant owner, though most of his last years were spent in Hong Kong with his actor son after his wife died.