"It highlights a dimension of history that can be easily overlooked and it is so interesting," he said this week.
The Waimate Information Centre is running twilight tours of the old Waimate cemetery, in conjunction with Mr Foley, on January 9, 16 and 23 from 4pm.
The 2ha cemetery, which dates back to 1869, was an "enormously rich repository of social history", Mr Foley said.
"They [cemeteries] have a capacity to add quite a wonderful dimension to what is already written about a district."
The early trustees followed the policy of other cemeteries of the times and demarcated burial areas into religious denominations.
The cemetery illustrated the make-up of a district's population and all races were represented - even Aborigine, with the grave of rodeo and circus rough-rider and showman Adam Cahill, better known as Queensland Harry.
Mr Foley's interest in the cemetery was a "logical part" of a long-standing interest in history.
His information and anecdotes for the tours was gathered over the years both anecdotally and from written material.
The study of a cemetery was a wonderful way to get an understanding of the tragedies, either through sickness, disease or accident, that plagued many people at different times in a history of a district.
There was nothing like reading inscriptions on the graves of children to emphasise the hardship of settlement or pioneering in a manner that "reading can't come near doing", he said.
Joining a cemetery tour was one occasion when a journey to a cemetery was both enjoyable and interesting.
The tours covered a small number yet extensive range of interests of people who made a substantial contribution to Waimate, particularly to the social and commercial life.
There were "lots of nice stories" which pointed to the generosity and goodness of many men and women.
It was also nice to draw attention to the manner in which the living recognised those who died in the way that they built such "beautiful" headstones.
One of the problems facing cemeteries in towns such as Waimate was where there were no family members left to care for plots.
Maintenance then became a widespread problem.
Money raised from the tours might be instrumental in starting a fund that might assist in maintaining such plots.
"It's rather sad these people have left their mark and the remnants of that mark can't be sustained. We think there is an obligation on the present time to see to it that inscriptions and headstones are maintained," Mr Foley said.
