As the township of Mintaro grew, and more and more people settled in the surrounding farmlands, the demand for services increased and so did the need for additional skilled workers.
People needed somewhere to live, near where they worked. This meant renting or buying land and establishing a dwelling whether it be a tent, slab hut or a stone house.[1] As more permanent structures were required builders, stonemasons, carpenters and labourers were able to find work in and around Mintaro.
The slate and other quarries sprang up to supply the stone for these homes, giving work to quarrymen and stonecutters, while local timbers were milled in the town to provide for carpentry and coach-building needs. Carriers, with less work on the Gulf Road, adapted to hauling those goods which couldn’t be sourced locally from larger nearby centres and from Adelaide.
As the larger pastoral runs declined, or interest moved further north, land
use changed with closer agricultural settlement there was a greater need to have the land fenced, for crops to be planted and harvested, and stock to be fed and watered. This provided opportunities for rural farm labourers to work alongside large land owners and for the many family-based farmers.
The pound was established c1851[2] to manage wayward stock (mostly cattle), stockyards were set up for the auction and sale of farm stock and horses[3], local dairies provided milk and the flour mill was built to grind the wheat to supply the daily bread.
With this increase in activity openings arose for people to work as land and stock agents, as auctioneers, and in the legal, banking and administrative professions.
A tally of the 1870 Adelaide Almanack entries for Mintaro include an auctioneer, engineer, police trooper, Justice of the Peace, schoolmaster, mail contractor and surgeon. Businesses included a flour mill, butcher, fruiterer, 3 storekeepers, 2 saddlers, 4 shoemakers, 2 hotels and 3 blacksmiths, as well as a brickmaker, 3 masons, 5 carpenters, 3 carters and 6 people employed at the slate quarry. On the land one pastoral overseer and 46 farmers were listed.[4] Not bad for a township barely twenty years old!
The wine industry and the Clare Valley have been synonymous since the Jesuits settled at nearby Sevenhill in 1849.[5] Wine making and viticulture have become another source of income for the Mintaro region. Tourism followed in the 1900s, particularly since Mintaro’s significant heritage was recognised in 1984[6], with many finding work in accommodation, catering and other areas of hospitality.