Old Coonabarabran Cemetery By Leslie Bush Taphophile: a.k.a. tombstone tourist, graver, cemetery hunter – is an expression to describe someone who has a passion for cemeteries, the history of the person, the headstones, the epitaphs, photography and art ( Wikipedia ). Me, I prefer to be called a ‘Graver’. Taphophile sounds a little creepy to me. Exploring cemeteries involve what my fellow Gravers and I call ‘road trips’. Usually they are in support of a family history search but sometimes when you just want to escape everything, they can be the most tranquil places to be. What attracts me to cemeteries besides researching a particular person for someone else or my tree, is the history they tell of the town, the love that is felt in the monuments and epitaphs, the stories they can tell us of the history of our nation. I am not frightened by those that have passed, it is the living that you have to watch out for. Half of the fun of road trips is in getting...
Upper Lachlan Shire, Southern Tablelands, New South Wales