John Finlay Duff, captain of the Barque the "Africain" and for many years harbormaster at Glenelg, gave the land of one and a half acres on which the church and cemetery were built. 

The first burial in the churchyard on 16th February 1848 was Caroline Phillippa Augusta Short, aged 1 year. She was the infant daughter of Bishop Augustus Short and died just seven weeks after arriving in South Australia.

Extracts from the Bishop's diary state "The intense heat at the period of our landing, the thermometer in our bedrooms at Government House at night being 95 degrees, seems to have overpowered her and she gradually grew worse and worse, till it pleased God to take her from us.... she has fallen a martyr to the cause in which we embarked".