Tourism
- Balneological and tourism activities
- Activities and facilities
- Mineral water and massage
- Holidaying in the spa country
- Decline
- Renewal
- Hepburn Springs spa complex
- Daylesford
- Botanical Gardens - Wombat Hill
- The Wombat Forest
- Vulnerable
- New approach
- Mineral Springs catchment area
- Tiperrary Track
The spa centre of Australia
Victoria contains most of the mineral springs to be found in Australia.
There are a few scattered springs in South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland but nothing like the number of springs in the Central Highlands of Victoria.
In Victoria, the majority lie within a 30 kilometre radius of Daylesford, all producing mineral water of excellent quality. This is why the Daylesford and Hepburn Springs area is called the 'Spa Centre of Australia'
Taking the waters is back in fashion. The ancient Greeks did it. The Romans did it. Europeans have been doing it for centuries. Now Australians are re-discovering how to do it too 'Taking the Waters' does not just mean drinking mineral water or bathing in mineral water. It is an experience involving all the benefits of a spa and the spa country.
The word 'spa' comes from the Belgium town of Spa famous for its mineral waters since the 1300's. It has now come to mean a health resort based on therapeutic waters, such as thermal springs or mineral springs, involving a special atmosphere of fresh air, pleasant natural surroundings rest and relaxation.
Bath in England, first established as a spa by the Romans, was the foremost spa in eighteenth century Europe where wealthy patrons went as much for the hectic social whirl as for their health. Since then spa centres gradually developed a wider appeal but have always retained a strong link between healing, recreation and leisure.
Balneological and tourism activities
The mineral springs of Central Victoria have undergone commercial development with bath houses, hydrotherapy facilities and the development of a mineral water bottling industry.
Mineral Spring Tourism is particularly important and its popularity has been enhanced by the mystique surrounding occurrence of the mineral springs, the fine reserves in the forest which surround the mineral springs and the visitor facilities.
Funding for the development of the mineral spring reserves and facilities has been supported by the local community and commerce, from government and from the collection of a levy on mineral water extraction.
Activities and facilities
There are an abundance of mineral water reserves in the Central Victorian Region that offer free access to natural sparkling mineral water. Many of the reserves have been established to protect the springs and to provide a variety of recreational activities for the whole family.
Mineral water and massage
Therapy using mineral water spas combined with massage is being used increasingly for work-related diseases such as back problems and tenosynovitis. It is also proving very effective for rehabilitation after accidents. Rheumatism, arthritis and gout sufferers find great relief through spa therapy as do many heart disease patients.
Balneotherapy has to be seen as part of a whole process of treatment and does not offer a full cure in itself. The combination of benefits from drinking mineral water and using various mineral water treatments goes a long way towards creating a framework for better nutrition and relief for aches and pains.
Holidaying in the spa country
Until the 1930's Daylesford and Hepburn Springs flourished. The local authorities boasted that their naturally radioactive mineral water could work miracles. Among other things it could restore youth, help jaded appetites, was a tonic for the blood and dispelled acute pain. An advertisement from the late 1920's reads: "Warm in winter, yet with invigorating, bracing mountain air, and cool in summer, with restful nights peculiar to the district, the climate leaves nothing to be desired. The Hepburn Mineral Springs are famous throughout the State for their health giving properties."
Everybody went for their health, for the annual family holiday and above all for their honeymoon. The nightly dances at the pavilions at Hepburn Springs, Central Springs and Tipperary Springs were characteristic of the lively atmosphere enjoyed by visitors in an era of no television and few cars.
Decline
Everything changed after World War II. Horizons broadened, more tourists went to the beaches than the bush.
Daylesford's population and popularity fell. The bath house at Hepburn Springs slowly acquired an air of neglect and was only visited by a hardy few. The beautiful pavilion still dominated the Hepburn Springs Reserve as a gracious reminder of the days when the people who built it considered mineral water to be the district's most valuable resource.
Renewal
The past two decades have seen a remarkable resurgence of interest in the mineral springs. Many people have lost faith in patent medicines and a new approach to good health is emerging which seeks to bring both the mind and body into a state of harmony and contentment. This means balancing all our needs for food, fresh air, rest and exercise. As this is exactly what the old custom of 'taking the waters' was based on, it is not surprising that once more attention has been focused on the benefits of balneotherapy and inevitably on Australia's spa centre in Victoria.
Hepburn Springs spa complex
In 1986 the historical bath house at Hepburn Springs was reopened after being restored and renovated. The Edwardian facade was retained but the whole of the interior was redesigned and modernised. New facilities included a large heated mineral water pool and hot spa and a choice of heated individual or double mineral spa baths taken with a variety of herbs, pela mud or pine foam.
Massage rooms were also installed as well as a comfortable lounge to relax in after treatment. Since these renovations were carried out, the spa complex has not been able to keep up with the increasing demand, particularly at weekends and during school holidays.
After carefully examining several options, the Government, on the advice of the Mineral Springs Advisory Committee, decided to double the size of the spa complex and create the most outstanding hydrotherapy centre in Australia, the rebuilding was completed in 1992.
A good place to go you don't have to visit the spas of Europe to know that the potential for development of the mineral springs area in Victoria is enormous. Its elevation gives the air its special crispness, the streams, trees, hills and valleys, its beauty. Add to this the "body bliss" of the spa, somewhere comfortable to stay, and you have all the ingredients for a booming health and holiday resort.
'Talking the waters' is no longer a nostalgic trip into the past but a 'must' for the health-conscious who look to a fit fut
Daylesford
Daylesford's first town centre was a cluster of tents and shanties at Wombat Flat Diggings where John Egan of Corinella first discovered gold in August 1851. The tents and shanties were still there when the town was surveyed in 1854. But Governor Hotham wasn't happy with the name Wombat and changed it to Daylesford a year later.
Botanical Gardens - Wombat Hill
The Botanical Gardens have long been the pride of Daylesford. Established on the peak of Wombat Hill, an extinct volcanic cone, they were commenced in 1861 and their design enhanced in 1884 by the famous nurseryman, William Sangster. One of the early features of the gardens was an elaborate fernery which gradually disappeared during a period of neglect in the 1950's and 1960's. It was rediscovered by chance a few years ago and carefully excavated.
The original paths were found to be intact under many years accumulation of soil and sediment and the fernery has been completely restored. The gardens now cover nine hectares of parkland with some rare introduced trees and avenues. Although to some extent a pale reflection of their former glory, like the town, they are still beautiful and retain something of the grandeur which made 'Taking the Waters'.
The Wombat Forest
The Wombat Forest is an extensive native forest situated north west of Melbourne between the Western Highway (to Ballarat) and the Calder Highway (to Bendigo). It contains the Lerderderg State Park, large areas of state forest and many smaller reserves, including several mineral springs reserves.
Vulnerable
The Wombat Forest was very vulnerable in the nineteenth century. Too many early settlers couldn't see the trees for the wood. Forests were a means to an end, not an end in themselves. Farmers needed land, miners needed pit-props, towns needed building materials railways needed sleepers and everybody needed fuel. Ruined The Wombat Forest was the main source of timber supply for Melbourne, Ballarat, Castlemaine, Bendigo and all the little mining townships in between.
The uncontrolled logging of the forest led a Government Report in 1899 to refer to it as a 'ruined forest'. Few realised how important the forest was in the natural scheme of things - particularly in safeguarding water, soil and wildlife. Over half the mineral springs in the Daylesford area are on Crown Land and protected in reserves. Visiting these reserves is all part of 'Taking the Waters'.
Most of the springs are encased in pumps to make the water easier to extract. The reserves themselves are all well worth seeing for their natural beauty and their often fascinating reminders of former days when prospectors sought their fortune in the ground and visitors sought good health in the crisp air, rolling hills, deep gullies and above all in the cool, sparkling waters of the mineral springs.
New approach
All that has changed, but it took time. The forest is now skilfully managed as a complex resource. It still provides timber, but the amount cut is regulated so that it does not overtake the forest's rate of growth. Careful management also means looking after the forest for all those who need and enjoy it - from the animals, birds and insects who live there - to the campers, walkers and picnickers who visit.
Mineral Springs catchment area
For the mineral springs, the Wombat Forest is vital as their catchment area. Being astride the Great Dividing Range, it has a high rainfall for which the forest acts as a huge storage system. The trees absorb what they need and the surplus water either drains away into streams or sinks into the ground and makes its way into the aquifer.
Tiperrary Track
Walking has always been a favourite pastime of visitors to the mineral springs area - perhaps because it was often the only way to get to most of the springs.
The Tipperary Walking Track is an extensive walk that has been created over the years to link the less well known mineral springs between Daylesford and Hepburn Springs. In 1854 diggers were arriving along the creek at the rate of 200 a day.
The hillside above the creek was dotted with shallow shafts leading up to alluvial gullies with names like "Don't Wake Em", "Keep it Dark': "Brandy Hot', "Bottle of Porter" and "Tam O'Shanter".
Walkers in the 1930's could still see the broken pieces of crockery lining the track, although the make shift huts and tents had long since gone. Old water channels or races dug by miners were used to create much of the track. Other remnants of the mining period such as dry stone walls and overgrown mine shafts give at an added interest.
Like many of the mineral springs reserves, the walking track was in very poor condition until restoration work was undertaken by the Mineral Springs Advisory Committee. It is now one of the best known attractions of the area.
The walking track starts at the Central Springs Reserve, once a favourite haunt of honeymooners who loved to walk by the creek in the moonlight or dance in the pavilion. It takes an hour to walk from Central Springs to Tipperary Springs. Another hour down the track takes you to Bryces Flat which now has camping and picnic facilities. From there you go on to the blow hole, a tunnel cut through solid rock by miners in 1872 to divert the water so that they could mine the entire creek bed at that point. Four kilometres on is Breakneck Gorge. This was once the site of the local racecourse and named, so the story goes, after a horse and jockey plunged to their deaths into the deep gorge after running off the track.
The last lap of the walk takes you past Liberty Spring and Golden Spring. They both bubble naturally out of the ground unlike the better known springs which are encased in hand pumps to control the flow.
The walk takes a further 50 minutes to proceed from Golden Spring to Hepburn Springs, passing Jackson's Lookout with its magnificent views of Daylesford and the surrounding countryside. The beauty of the Tipperary Walking Track is that you can do any part of it at your leisure, but if you want to do the full walk it would take about five hours. Anyone with the energy to complete it could ask for nothing better at the end than a visit to the bath house and soak in a hot spa, or have a relaxing massage - or both.