Are you brave enough for a graveyard tour?

Are you brave enough for a graveyard tour? I was, and whilst some wouldn’t consider themselves brave enough to wander through a graveyard in the dark, St. John’s Torchlight Tour guide June Penny tells me that these tours are in demand across the Capital.

Nervously, I waited with 20 other strangers outside the church. The tour is run through the Heraldry and Genealogy Society of Canberra, and this year is part of the Canberra and Region Heritage Festival. The clocked ticked over to 7pm and our tour began.

As we walk around the graveyard, there is a spine-tingling sense of fear – even in the safety of a tour group with torchlights. June Penny walks slowly around the first headstones of the night. Through her wonderful storytelling we learn about Canberra’s early history, and the European settlement of the Limestone Plains.

Over the 90-minute tour we stop at some of Canberra’s oldest headstones for discussion about their family history, their romances and the devastation these early settlers faced. The oldest headstone in the St. John’s graveyard is the Guise’s 1844 headstone. June Penny explains that this burial site is actually a family vault, where each ancestry of the Guise family was buried underfoot. Creepy stuff.

She is extremely informative and knowledgeable of Canberra’s history, listing historical facts, hints of scandal and tidbits about the graves. June occasionally speaks about the deceased like she knew them, her stories intricate. For over ten years, June has been conducting these tours and says her passion for learning about buried tales began when she took a graveyard tour in a Melbourne cemetery.

But just what exactly makes people think, ‘I want to go on a tour of a graveyard… at night’? For me, I wanted to learn about Canberra’s history. And the other 20 people with me? They all agree, there is just something about exploring the history of a city with a spooky element that had them captured.

Canberra’s oldest church, St. John’s has a rich history. June explains that it was built in 1841 by the Campbell family. As the night sky above us deepens, sorrow seeps in. We pass many burial sites without headstones – due to not having any family.

With no ghosts appearing, the night came to an end. I thoroughly enjoyed my first torchlight tour of St. John’s graveyard and have walked away learning about the skeletons Canberra has kept in the closet for all these years.

Words and image by Ali Gillett.