It may not be the most beautiful cemetery, but I’ll wager it is the most scenic in Australia. The Gerringong General Cemetery occupies a sweeping slope overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Headstones of marble and headstones of worn crumbling sandstone. Some sites dressed with fresh wildflowers, others in a sort of faded plastic flower limbo, others still left long ago to settle into quiet disrepair. The older plots bear inscriptions dating back to the 1860s.

“When I visit the cemetery, I walk past hundreds, possibly thousands of stories now silenced. And I know that history ‘recorded’ holds the adventures that history ‘lost’ let’s slip through its fingers. And I’ve thought that I need to live a life worthy of being ‘recorded’ so that the adventure that might help another never slips through the fingers of anything.” 

― Craig D. Lounsbrough

Marc Hunter, the lead singer of the Australian band ‘Dragon’ who died at the age of 44 from cancer, is also buried here. A small plaque (that I could not find) marking the site.

I wondered around on the hill for a while under a searing smoke-orange sun reading the headstones, soaking the views and experiencing that settled peacefulness that can to be found in such places when you dedicate a little time and attention.