A scene from Picnic at Hanging Rock filmed at Martindale Hall

Mintaro village

Martindale Hall is one of South Australia's best known historic houses and notable pastoral homesteads. Built on gently rising ground it commands a wide view across the countryside. This 19th century Georgian manor 'starred' as Appleyard College in the award winning Australian film 'Picnic at Hanging Rock'. It offers visitors an experience of life in another era.

This Georgian style mansion was designed by London architect, Ebenezer Gregg, and completed in 1879 for the princely sum of $72,000. The building project was supervised by Adelaide architect E. Woods. It was built for wealthy bachelor Edmund Bowman who had his own private training track and stable, a pack of foxhounds and on his own cricket ground entertained the English cricketers.
The 21 year old sheep farmer had a rather inflated impression of his own importance and decided he wanted to live a high lifestyle with servants and a grand house. He had inherited enormous wealth when his dad drowned in the local river, so he went off to Cambridge, England, to study. He came back with the plans for the house, along with 50 workers he brought with him to build it. The men, who were housed in tents, built the house and all its outbuildings with hand tools in the very short time of 23 months. The ornately moulded and carved stonework is a tribute to the skill and care of those craftsmen.
Folklore suggests that, whilst studying in Cambridge, young Edmund was besotted by a fellow student, a very pretty well-to-do young English lady who he tried to lure to become his wife. She apparently declined his offer, saying she would only marry him and move to Australia if he built a house of the size and style to which she was accustomed. Edmund took her at her word and had Martindale Hall built as close as possible to her father's mansion, but it was all to no avail as she never married him or even came to see the mansion he built for her.
Research over the years indicates that aspects of the story are somewhat fanciful, however it is a fact that Edmund did marry his bank manager's daughter a few years after building the grand home. Edmund, his wife and 14 servants, 13 female and one butler, lived there for 11 years.
Edmund's extravagant lifestyle, combined with the 1880s depression and a fall in the price of wool, meant the family was forced to sell the property in 1891. It was purchased by William Mortlock and was owned by the Mortlock family until 1950. Today, the hall and surrounding land is open to the public for self-guided tours.
The mansion offers a fascinating insight into the lives of South Australia's landed gentry during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Italian Renaissance interior is highlighted in the stately main hall and vestibule, with a domed glass roof, parquetry floor and the marvellous T-shaped staircase rising to the overhanging gallery. The entrance hall, with black and white marble floor, leads into the main hall which gives access via a carved staircase to the first floor. The mansion is classified by the National and State Heritage Branch and the National Trust. Accommodation packages are available.

Mintaro: Martindale Hall is just outside the tranquil village of Mintaro, 126 km north of Adelaide and 15 km east of Clare. Located among rolling hills in rich pastoral country, Mintaro has been classified as an Heritage Town. Some sources claim it to be a corruption of an Aboriginal word 'mintadloo' or 'Minta - Ngadlu' meaning 'netted water' while others claim it is derived from a Spanish word meaning 'camp or resting place'. The latter argument is based on the fact that the Burra Mining Company imported Spanish-speaking mule drivers from Uruguay to transport copper from Burra to Port Wakefield. As many as 100 mule drivers would pass through the town each day.
The area was first opened up for farming in 1849 under the name 'Mintara'. The town was surveyed in 1854 by Joseph and Henry Gilbert and prospered on the passing trade of mule and bullock dray drivers carting copper from Burra to Port Wakefield. The town's economy collapsed when the copper from Burra began to be moved by rail and the town was "frozen in time", hence its classification today as a State Heritage Area.

View Larger Map