Martindale Hall, Mintaro.

On the second rainy day, the farmers started grinning. I had a car park security job at a big house in Mintaro, just out of Clare.

Built in 1879-80, by the son of sheep farmers from the Lake District. Having inherited well, he brought 60 tradesmen with him from England to build the house! On completion, the house had a polo ground, a race course, a boating lake and a cricket pitch on which the England eleven played once! Alas, just 10 years later in 1891, his business empire imploded and he had to sell.

The next family held the property until they ran out of heirs and it was donated to Adelaide University in the 1960’s.