South Australia (Clare Valley)
Mintaro
From Leasingham, you can turn off east to MINTARO, a village whose tree-lined streets and cottages are beautifully preserved from the 1850s, when it was a resting place for bullock teams travelling from Burra copper mines. There’s no general store or petrol supply here: the emphasis is on upmarket cottage accommodation, popular with Adelaide weekenders. The focus of the village is the Magpie and Stump Hotel, which is particularly lively on Sunday afternoons. On a fine day you can sit shaded under the awning or sprawl on the grass.
Opposite, at Reilly’s Wines (tastings Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, Sat & Sun 10am–5pm), housed in an 1856 Irish bootmaker’s building, you can taste vintages produced since 1994 from Watervale grapes; the restaurant here serves Northern Italian food, with mains around $13 (closed dinner Tues, Fri & Sun; reservations tel 08/8843 9013) and there’s accommodation in the nearby Mintaro Pay Office Cottages. Mintaro Mews, on Burra Street, has upmarket B&B accommodation (no children) with an indoor heated pool and spa, there is a four-course meal in the atmospheric restaurant (dinner nightly except Wed) whose menu reflects North African and Indian influence.

Southeast of the town, the National Trust extols the virtues of the Georgian-style Martindale Hall (Mon–Fri 11am–4pm, Sat & Sun noon–4pm; $5; tel 08/8843 9088, fax 8843 9082; B&B $125 and over), the mansion featured in the 1975 film Picnic at Hanging Rock. There’s a romantic story attached to the hall, its unadapted, unsuitable-for-the-climate English architecture a monument to unrequited love – you’ll hear the full story when you visit. For $125 per person you can stay overnight and enjoy a five-course meal, cooked breakfast and the full run of the place (except the smoking room) – but it’s freezing in winter.

Head northwest from Mintaro to get to Sevenhill via the rolling hills of the Polish Hill River area. On the way, Paulett Wines (daily 10am–5pm) has fabulous views, its verandah overlooking the area and the “river” – a dry creek for eleven months of the year.