Gold rush and spa towns: Daylesford and Hepburn Springs

Villa Parma, Daylesford, 1864 

Indigenous Australians were the first to settle in Hepburn Springs and Daylesford (pop c3600) area of Victoria, particularly the Dja Dja Wur­rung tribes. Pastoralists didn’t occupied the area, 110km from cen­tral Melbour­ne, until white settlement arrived in 1838. The biggest change came when alluvial gold was discovered in Dec 1851 and pros­p­ec­tors arrived. The alluvial gold had run out by the late 1850s so a new camp, with many Chinese diggers, was established at Breakneck Gorge.

Hepburn Springs was named after Captain John Hepburn who travelled from Sydney to Port Phillip in 1836-37. He was so impressed with the countryside that he took up land in Smeaton, in 1838. Although the towns are 3 ks apart, I will deal with the two together.

Daylesford & District Historical Society’s Museum 

in the old School of Mines building, 1890

With gold, Daylesford and Hepburn Springs were quickly established. Fortune seekers from around the world converged upon the golden triangle of Victoria, including many Italian-speaking Swiss from the Ticino region. As a result, today many of the region’s historic buildings were influenced by Swiss-Italian architecture and garden design.

In the goldrushes, men found rich supplies of effervescent mineral water, 80% of all Victoria's springs. The area thus became a fashionable spa resort during the post-gold era. In 1859 Daylesford became a municipality.

The court­house was built in the 1860s. The post office was built in c1860 with an Italianate design and majestic clock tower. The Convent was built in the 1860s for a private residence, then purchased by the Catholic Church and more recently has been transformed into the Convent Gallery. The primary school was built in 1874.

Daylesford, from Cornish Hill Reserve

Lake Daylesford

paddle boats outside Lakehouse Cafe

In 1880 a railway line and station arrived. The railway meant that visitor-accommodation had to grow rapidly: guest houses, luxury hotels with orchestras and formal dinners, ballrooms and pavilions went up. Both towns had fine old guest houses which were of late Victorian archit­ectural quality. Their heyday lasted until the early 1960s, the era when my grandparents stayed every winter (at Peppers Min­eral Springs Hotel).

The Daylesford Town Hall was built in 1882 by George Johnson, an architect who emigrated to Australia in the mid 1860s. His designs were classical and majestic, and many are still standing today including the Town Halls at Kilmore and Maryborough.

The search for gold largely ended by the 1870s, just as people started loving the therapeutic properties of natural mineral springs. It was the start of the region’s reputation as a centre for rest and health care. City people caught the steam train to town, staying in the guesthouses dotted amongst the hills.

Hepburn Bathhouse was first built in 1895, although it has been improved since, including a $13 million upgrade in 2008. There is also a boutique Mineral Spa at Peppers Mineral Springs Hotel, and six other massage-and-spa services in the town. Outside the Hepburn Bathhouse there is a sculp­ture called Memory of Place by Petrus Spronk, 2005.

Mineral water was groundwater which naturally contained carbon dioxide and other soluble matters in sufficient concentration to cause effervescence. When the water-table was pushed to the surface due to the natural faults of the aquifer, naturally bubbly springs appeared. The water was on a quality par with that found in Europe’s most venerated mineral spas.

The Hepburn Mineral Springs Reserve was established in 1865. It is a delightful 30 ha reserve which included the Soda, Locarno, Sulphur and other hand pumps. Continuous-flow pipes allowed visitors to bottle or drink the water freely. Each pump had a detailed sign with information about the spec­ific spring. After the closure of the North French­man's Reef Mines, spring water appeared at a new low­er eye in the creek.

The Bathhouse & Spa was located in the Hepburn Mineral Springs Reserve. Built in 1895 it offered the traditional shared experience of a communal bath house. And it had a mineral Relax­ation Pool and Spa Pool which provided waters that rehydrated the body, and other therapies.

Daylesford Town Hall, 1882

The Convent Gallery, Daylesford, built originally in the 1860s

then became a boarding school

renovated in 1989 as an art gallery

Daylesford & Hepburn Mineral Springs Co. crafted a range of drinks with pure flavours & ingredients: top waters, organics, naturals and mixers. In the late C19th, the mineral water in the region was the main source of refreshment. Many small towns created their own cordial factories with bottling plants at the spring site. All of the early glass bottles were blown by hand, and then became more sophisticated with the addition of cork or marble stoppers.

The Old Macaroni Factory in Main St was a large hand-made brick structure, erected in 1859 by Italian immigrants Pietro and Giacomo Lucini. It too ref­lected the architectural traditions of Northern Italy. The facade was plastered and undecorated, although the ceilings of the wings featured hand-painted decorations added by the Lucinis. The factory is now a cafe-restaurant run by the Lucinis’ descendants.

Fabrizzio Crippa emigrated in 1855 from Lombardy. He moved to Hepburn Springs, worked as a butcher and a wine producer, and became part of the district's Swiss Italian popul­at­ion. In 1864 he built the Villa Parma, a two-storey brick and bluestone building with a distinctive dark stone trim, on the Castlemaine coach road. The gardens comprised vines, fruit trees and tobacco plants. It was from his vine-yard of 15,000 vines and the cellar with a deep well at Parma House that Fabrizzo Crippa prod­uced his award-winning wine, Parma House Red.

Hepburn Mineral Springs Reserve

Bellinzona Hepburn 

destroyed by fire and rebuilt

In 1906 a bushfire did enormous damage to Hepburn and destroyed many build­ings. Greatest damage was done to Bellinzona Grange Country Retreat, originally built in the 1860s over a sprawling colonial design, which was burned to the ground. It had to be re-built at the height of the mineral springs boom, this time more Edwardian.

The first cinema was built in 1914 in Alpha Hall Galleria, now Clayfire Gallery. Hepburn Springs’ heritage-listed Palais Venue was built in 1926. It didn’t help. People stopped coming during and after the Great Depression and in WW2.

In the 1970s a new push for a more healthy, alternative lifestyle again created interest in the region. The School of Mines building, built in 1890, became the Daylesford & District Historical Society’s Museum in 1971. It houses local memorabilia, arte­facts and extensive archival resources.