Managed by the Minlaton National Trust, the Museum is located in part of an old General Store in the main street of this rural town – the Barley Capital of the World – in the heart of the Yorke Peninsula. The store building dates from 1889 and displays historic and photographic records and artefacts relating to of the Minlaton District Council, schools, churches, hospital, community organisations and general daily life in and around the area. The museum’s displays reflect the history of settlement days and pioneering community.
There is a special room dedicated to the decorated World War 1 pilot and Minlaton’s local aviation hero Captain Harry Butler. His flight from Adelaide across the Gulf St Vincent to Minlaton on 6 August 1919 with a mailbag of postcards and letters is believed to first airmail over-water in the Southern Hemisphere. He was also responsible for the first aerial photograph ever produced and published in South Australia. His restored legendary Red Devil monoplane can be seen in the Harry Butler Memorial further down the street.
The Minlaton National Trust meet on the 4th Thursday of month 1.30 pm at Museum and also care for the Mulbara Park Reserve, 19ha of remnant low She-oak (Allocasuarina verticillata) woodland and Mallee (Eucalyptus socialis) within central Yorke Peninsula.