This allotment was one of the earliest sold after Mintaro was subdivided in 1849, which suggests that the core of this building could date from the early 1850s. The 1857 rate assessment described the building as a shop and two rooms, occupied by Hugh Riley (sic), and owned by John Gurry.
Hugh Reilly is known to have purchased the property in 1870, and although the land transaction lists his occupation as farmer, he was also listed in the almanacs of 1870 and 1871 as a shoemaker.[1]
Hugh Reilly, a shoe and bootmaker from Cross Keys, County Cavan in Ireland, emigrated to South Australia at age 18 on the Lady Ann, arriving in Adelaide 2 October 1859 with his parents and siblings. Two older siblings had arrived two years earlier and had purchased land near Mintaro in their fathers name, allowing the family to emigrate on an assisted passage.
Records suggest that Hugh opened a boot and shoe making business at the Blinman Mines in 1864.[2] Clare rate assessment records from 1865 to 1868 show that he operated a bootmakers in Mintaro alongside saddlers John Gurry and Philip Lane[3], and then purchased the title over Lot 34 from Dymphna Lester in November 1871.[4] He ran his boot and shoe making business here until 1876 when he sold up the ‘very Valuable Business Premises situated on Allotment No. 34, consisting of substantial Stone House of four rooms, and commodious Shop, Coachhouse, Stable, and Outbuildings, the whole of which are excellently finished and in thorough repair.’[5]
It is possible that he may have travelled to London in 1877. The South Australian almanacs of the time list Hugh Reilly as working at Monarto in 1878 and 1879 but this may be a misspelling of Mintaro. He married Mary Lee and in 1880 opened a bootmakers shop in Yongala, where they raised a family of five children. Tragedy struck the family twice in 1894, first in May when the shop was destroyed by fire, and again in November when 10 year old daughter Eliza fell down a well and drowned.
Hugh’s father, Michael Reilly, died 20 August 1885 at Farrell’s Flat and is buried in the Mintaro general cemetery.
Hugh and Mary Reilly later removed to Adelaide, about 1900. Hugh died in 1919 and Mary in 1926. They are both buried in the Catholic section of Adelaide’s West Terrace Cemetery.
After leaving Mintaro the property was sold to Michael Tobin, who also owned the general store on the adjacent corner on Hill street. The title transferred to his four unmarried daughters on his death in 1883, who later sold it to Richard Mortimer, stone cutter, in 1885.
Purchased by Justin and Julie Ardill in 1993, today Reilly’s Cottage is home to Reillys Wines Cellar Door and Restaurant.