  Aims: The primary motivation for this project is to search for metal-rich
star forming regions, in which, stars of super-solar metallicity will be
created, as hopefully, will be extra-solar planets orbiting them !
  Results: We find (pre-main sequence) model-dependent isochronal ages of the
Lupus, Chamaeleon and CrA targets to be $9.1 \pm 2.1$ Myr, $4.5 \pm 1.6$ Myr
and $9.0 \pm 3.9$ Myr respectively. The majority of the stars have Li I 6707.8A
equivalent widths similar to, or above those of, their similar mass Pleiades
counterparts, confirming their youthfulness. Most stars are kinematic members,
either single or binary, of their regions. We find a mean radial velocity for
objects in the Lupus cloud to be ${\bar {RV}}=+2.6 \pm 1.8$ km s$^{-1}$, for
the Chamaeleon I & II clouds, ${\bar {RV}}=+12.8 \pm 3.6$ km s$^{-1}$ whereas
for the CrA cloud, we find ${\bar {RV}}=-1.1 \pm 0.5$ km s$^{-1}$.
  All stars are coronally and chromospherically active, exhibiting X-ray and
H$\alpha$ emission levels marginally less, approximately equal or superior to
that of their older IC 2602/2391 and/or Pleiades counterparts. All bar three of
the targets show little or no signature of accretion from a circumstellar
environment, according to their positions in a J$-$K/H$-$K$^{'}$ diagram.
  We have performed a metallicity analysis for 5 stars in Chamaeleon, 4 stars
in Lupus and 3 stars in the CrA star forming regions. These results show that
all three regions are slightly metal-poor, with marginally sub-solar
metallicities, with $<$[Fe/H]$> = -0.11 \pm 0.14$, $-0.10 \pm 0.04$ & $-0.04
\pm 0.05$ respectively.
