3 May 1879   Martindale Hall

The foundation stone of Martindale Hall at Mintaro was laid by Edmund Bowman on 3 May 1879, but it was two years before the Italianate style house was completed. All the furnishings, from carpets and wallpapers to dinner services and crystal, came from England, along with a housekeeper. At the time Edmund was a single man, but in January 1884 he married Annie Cowle in St Peter's Cathedral and, after a honeymoon in New Zealand, took her to live in the opulence of Martindale Hall.

In the 1880s the Bowmans fell on lean times, and in 1890 Elder Smith advertised the property for sale. On 16 March 1891 W.T. Mortlock paid £33,000 to the Bowman family for the Hall. When Mortlock died in 1950 he left the house, after the death of his widow, jointly to the University of Adelaide for the Waite Institute, and the Libraries Board of South Australia. In 1974 it was used as Mrs Appleyard's College for Young Ladies in the film Picnic at Hanging Rock.

Elizabeth Warburton, The Bowmans of Martindale Hall, Department of Continuing Education, University of Adelaide, 1979.