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Martindale Hall in Mintaro, South Australia is a very unique place to visit. Shortly after turning into the one kilometer driveway you feel like you are gradually traveling back in time, given that the property is kept in the condition of the previous owners, who lived there between 1891 and 1950.

Established in 1849, halfway between Clare and Auburn as a service town for the haulage of copper from Burra to the shipping ports, Mintaro possess the essence of a rural English village totally unchanged by progress.

This phenomenon emerged when bullock drivers who carried the copper loads through the town ceased to be necessary. It's services no longer required Mintaro didn't bother evolving into the 21st century.

In 1984 the town was recognized for its historical value and declared a state heritage area.

Martindale Hall, a 19th century Georgian Mansion built in 1879, at first sight doesn't compare to the old quaint building pictured in the tourist brochure. Instead it is a majestically towering structure with an eerie quiet about it and a commanding awe.

The area of vast remoteness it is located in also gives it an unusual mystique.

An English mansion standing stoically in the middle of nowhere, as if a huge gale force wind had ripped it from it's foundations in England Wizard of Oz style and dumped it in the middle of the Australian outback, where it now stands silently resigned to the fact of never going home.

Entrance to the Hall is via a series of stone steps leading to large wooden doors where you wait after ringing the doorbell. Standing alongside the cool salmon colored walls enhances the tallness of the structure, making the doors seem quite small in comparison. It feels like waiting to go inside a tomb the atmosphere is so quiet.

After being let in the first thing you are confronted with is a huge, magnificent carpeted staircase that dominates the whole room even though it is set against the back wall.

Surrounding the room above is a mezzanine balcony; the rails made of the same polished wood as the staircase's banisters, which enhances the glorious beauty of the staircase.

The Main Hall or foyer seems to be so overwhelmed with doorways you don't know which one to enter first. The whole room is so quiet and still with everything in its exact position, it is like being in a huge Victorian display home or an atmospheric library.

In spite of this it has a "lived in" air about it albeit a very formal one, you almost expect Victorian figures to either suddenly arrive

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