Haunted Ghosts of the Cemetery Graves

The West Terrace Cemetery dates back to the early days of the settlement of South Australia. To celebrate History Week in Adelaide, I joined a tour of the cemetery to meet some of the resident ghosts in the form of professional and emerging performers.

They told stories of courage and bravery as they faced life in a new land, and forged tales of heroism as their lives were retraced.

Percy Grainger was famous for composing the piano solo "Country Garden".

It is understood that his mother contracted syphilis early in her marriage from Percy's father, and she did not touch Percy for 5 years after his birth from the fear of giving it to him. It is reported that during her pregnancy, she stared for some time each day at a statue of a Greek God in the belief it would pass on good qualities to her child.

Percy died in 1961. He had wanted his body to be stripped of its skin and his skeleton preserved for science and put on display for all to see. However, his wife had different ideas and after his death, laid him to rest in the West Terrace Cemetery with his mother in Adelaide, Australia.

At the tender age of 21, Elizabeth was in love with a man called Max. However Max fell in love with Elizabeth's sister instead.

Elizabeth was so upset that she locked herself in her bedroom with a bucket of cold water and sat with her feet in the cold water, refusing food.

She had hoped to get a little bit ill so that she would gain Max's attention back. However, she became extremely ill and eventually asked that Max and her sister visit her.

When she saw them together, she saw how perfectly suited they were to one another, and took one of each of their hands and put them into each other, and then she died having given their relationship her blessing.

Elizabeth Beare was only 2 years old when the young sailor Robert Russell carried her ashore in South Australia.

What was remarkable was that they were the first Europeans to set foot on the soil in South Australia because the captain declared that the children should be the first off the ship. Once on shore, she collected some sea shells.

Elizabeth's mother died in childbirth shortly after arriving, and Elizabeth died aged only 21. Elizabeth's father remarried and had 20 children, so his legacy lives on.

Robert Russell settled in South Australia and lived into old age.

When James Frew Jnr was 21, he became a member of John McDougall Stuart's exploration team that crossed the heart of Australia. They were the first expedition to travel from Adelaide in the south of Australia to Van Diemen Gulf in the North of Australia.

This expedition paved the way for the overland telegraph to be connected to Darwin in 1872, connecting Australia to the rest of the world.

As I listened to the stories of the ghosts, I realized that every grave had a story to tell.

Some lives may seem less vibrant than others, but they all have a story.

I'd rather remain a diamond.