Martindale Hall, Mintaro
This place gets all of my votes for most worthwhile site we have visited so far in Australia. The town of Mintaro was founded in 1849 and has since become heritage listed. Even though we were visiting in the dead of the Summer I still could have been convinced that I was somewhere in the English countryside. Sometimes it is easy to forget that Australia was “founded” by the English because of how far they have come on their own but this was pretty bang on.
The city got its name for the large deposits of slate around the area. Apparently it is world renowned and was used for billiards tables around the world almost exclusively at one point!
Anyways, the hall. A mansion by no stretch of the imagination, sleeping up to 16 guests and having 14 permanent staff when it was lived in. Everything was hand carved and most of the marble fireplaces (present in every room) were carved and imported from small towns in Italy. All the chandeliers and lamps were gas powered at the time and ever so sparkly. The men’s smoking room was absolutely exquisite. Complete with floor to ceiling tapestries, wooden tribal weapons from Papua New Guinea, 16th century traditional Japanese samurai armor and an ash tray the size of a bird pond.. honestly exquisite. This (quite obviously) led into the billiards room complete with tournament sized snooker table and floor to ceiling bookshelves of all the classics. Unfortunately no photography was allowed but here is the link:
www.martindalehall.com
They will even let you book it out for weddings/events with full butler catering AND they host murder mystery nights.
The city got its name for the large deposits of slate around the area. Apparently it is world renowned and was used for billiards tables around the world almost exclusively at one point!
Anyways, the hall. A mansion by no stretch of the imagination, sleeping up to 16 guests and having 14 permanent staff when it was lived in. Everything was hand carved and most of the marble fireplaces (present in every room) were carved and imported from small towns in Italy. All the chandeliers and lamps were gas powered at the time and ever so sparkly. The men’s smoking room was absolutely exquisite. Complete with floor to ceiling tapestries, wooden tribal weapons from Papua New Guinea, 16th century traditional Japanese samurai armor and an ash tray the size of a bird pond.. honestly exquisite. This (quite obviously) led into the billiards room complete with tournament sized snooker table and floor to ceiling bookshelves of all the classics. Unfortunately no photography was allowed but here is the link:
www.martindalehall.com
They will even let you book it out for weddings/events with full butler catering AND they host murder mystery nights.