Old heritage butcher’s shop set to reopen as SA film museum
A heritage-listed 1800s shop that was once featured in a Russell Crowe movie has reopened as a film museum after years of renovation.
A new museum honouring the early pioneers of South Australian cinema has officially opened in the historic town of Mintaro in the eastern Clare Valley.
The Museum of Early Cinema is the passion project of South Australian collector and visual artist Warren Vance, who has spent the past three years renovating the heritage old butcher shop and more than three decades collecting historic film paraphernalia.
Vance told InDaily that visitors can expect to see original film and photography items from the silent era of SA’s film history in the building across from the Magpie and Stump Hotel.
It will feature rare and vintage optical inventions, early wood and brass cameras, photographs, magic lanterns, projectors, film posters and early peepshows. Stories of the first Australian silent movie stars including Snowy Baker, Enid Bennett, and Louise Lovely will also be on display.
“Almost 99 per cent of the photographs, images, objects in the museum are original. So I pride myself on presenting authentic displays of historic objects leading to the history of early photography and cinema,” Vance said.
“Visitors can expect to see original artefacts and objects surrounding the story of cinema including early SA photographers, and those in Australia who made a contribution to the silent film era.”
You might like
Vance said the museum location was strategic with the building that features some of the famed Mintaro slate having “links to some movies filmed in the district”.
The museum is located inside the former Mintaro Butcher Shop, a heritage-listed building constructed in the late 1800s that was also the filming location for the 1993 Russell Crowe starring film Hammers over the Anvil.
“There are various scenes that were shot inside of the building with Russell Crowe and Charlotte Rampling in 1993 and those two outside of the building at the front,” he said.
Locals have been “enthused” to see the Mintaro Butcher Shop be transformed, Vance says, with the museum set to “contribute something historically relevant and fit into the character of a heritage town”.
Mintaro was established in the mid-19th century and has a rich history dating back to the early days of South Australian settlement, the town founded in 1849 by Joseph and Henry Gilbert, two brothers who were among the first European settlers in the area.
Vance’s collection of film memorabilia has grown significantly across the past 30 years with silent era collecting becoming his main focus in the last five years.
“With the prevalence of screen culture in our current society, it’s good to know the origins and where it evolved from,” he said.
Stay informed, daily
“Cinema just didn’t evolve from one person, it took many contributions for a couple of 100 years to really evolve, and that fascinates me.
“The pioneers of the technology when early hand cranked cameras and cinema projectors were used in the early 1900s, Australia had an exciting era in this early silent film period.”
But visitors will also be able to find items beyond the silent era, with film memorabilia from some contemporary SA classic films.
Among his prized possessions is an original photo of Harry “Breaker” Morant, a military officer and war criminal convicted and executed for murdering nine prisoners of war, who was also the subject of Bruce Beresford’s 1980 movie Breaker Morant which was filmed nearby in Burra.
“There’s only two or three photos known to exist of Breaker Morant,” Vance said.
The collection will also feature references to Vance’s “favourite Australian film” Picnic at Hanging Rock which was directed by Peter Weir in 1975.
The classic Australian movie was partly filmed at Martindale Hall in Mintaro for scenes featuring the girl’s boarding school.
“There’s a little display cabinet with assimilated ephemera from that era of a schoolgirl’s boarding school,” Vance said.
“That film focuses on the chasm between the European settlers and not quite understanding the new environment of the ancient environment of the Australian landscape.
“That’s quite a pertinent theme that continues today with the disparagement between Aboriginal culture and where our contemporary relationship is to the landscape or land.”
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
