Most people visit the Fleurieu for its beaches, wineries and natural environment but there are some who come for a very specific form of tourism – to visit local cemeteries and graveyards to find out more about the history of the region.

History enthusiast Lauren Smith has created a challenge to help these visitors uncover the stories of the Currency Creek cemetery.

The cemetery is one of the southern Fleurieu’s earliest colonial burial grounds and is located just off the Goolwa to Mount Compass Road.

Lauren has placed a list of questions and challenges in a folder under the shelter area at the cemetery.    Visitors can complete the list and discover the local history contained in the headstones. 

One of the quests is to find one or more of the 20 Goolwa mayors buried at the site.   

Another is to answer the question who was the girl lost in the bush? The answer is found on one of the earliest graves in the cemetery. 

It belongs to the daughter of an early colonist from Scotland who went missing in 1841. Her body was found in dense forest in Currency Creek two years later, near the remains of a rudimentary shelter.  A book belonging to the girl was also found. It contained a farewell note to her sister, written after she had become lost and given up hope of rescue. 

The Fleurieu has many historically significant cemeteries, including the St John Catholic Cemetery in Port Elliot which is currently being examined by a PhD student from Flinders University.  

The National Trust says that cemeteries may be the only place where a person’s life is recorded and can be a valuable social document of history and changes in taste, custom and design.