The next Wombat Post and Rotary Conversation’s guest speaker will be Barry Golding. Barry is an Honorary Professor from Federation University, Patron, Australian Men’s Shed Association and author of four books. The conversation will take place on Thursday 17 September. This is a free event but bookings are essential.
The ‘Spa Fairy’ with her magic wand was invoked a century ago to help promote the perceived healing effects of the many local mineral springs, including from their natural radioactivity, and to encourage tourist visitation.
Barry Golding’s intention behind this Daylesford Conversations session is to critically interrogate some of the convenient myths behind the Spa Fairy and the concerning way some local groundwater and mineral water springs are today being managed. Perpetuating myths about water is not a sensible or sustainable strategy with a changing climate. Whilst Barry’s contention is that while all is not right or what it seems, with knowledge of how it came to be like this, and with creative and determined local involvement and intervention, things can be put right for future generations.
A prominent sign at Hepburn Springs in the Spa Fairy proudly announced that the mineral springs were ‘guaranteed radioactive by Professor Masson from Melbourne University’. Unsurprisingly, the sign is no longer there. But there is still a Radium Avenue in Hepburn Springs, and the Radio Springs Hotel in Lyonville, where the radiation levels in the mineral water were thought to be highest and most therapeutic. So is the natural radiation still there, and is it healthy to ‘take the waters’?
Professor Golding’s recent book Six Peaks Speaks as a State Library Victoria Fellow has turned up some surprising findings about two particular springs in the Franklinford area, one freshwater and one mineral water, which will be featured in this Dayleford Conversation. While both are today in a damaged and lamentable state, they have fascinating links back to the 1840s Loddon Aboriginal Protectorate. And they are well overdue for ‘putting in order’.
Today ‘Mount Franklin’ water, named and trademarked by the Coca Cola Company after our local mountain in 1981, is proudly promoted as ‘Australian spring water of exceptional quality and purity as Mother Nature intended. … Mount Franklin’s role is as clear as the contents of every bottle: to proudly keep Australians hydrated and at their best. We want to keep Australia at its best too, which means doing the right thing for the Australian environment now and for future generations’. What does not feature in Coca Cola’s promotion about ‘doing the right thing’ is that that the ‘Mount Franklin’ name was expropriated by the company after renaming the former Limestone Creek mineral spring, which the company had arguably mismanaged, destroyed and abandoned. And this spring has an even deeper, fascinating and earlier First Nations history and legacy.
The other spring featured in this conversation is the ‘Old Mill Stream’ south of Franklinford, which gushed sufficient water in the 1840s to power an Aboriginal Protectorate-era flour mill. In 1859, the spring was deemed to be ‘one of the finest springs in the colony’, ‘enough to supply all Castlemaine with water’, … [it ]‘ought not be sold but to be preserved in perpetuity, for ever, for the public good …’ Today the public spring reserve is not known by or accessible to the public, leased by a property developer, choked by blackberries and grazed horses.
Barry will also draw attention to the fact that every day, fleets of huge tankers are carting groundwater to Melbourne, pumped from the top of the Great Divide near Mollongghip, to be bottled in plastic and distributed all around Australia. The Forest Hill water region (including Newlyn, Kingston and Smeaton townships) immediately to the north, is serviced by groundwater bores. Despite one of the wettest winters in recent memory in 2026, local residents are still on Stage 3 water restrictions because ‘groundwater levels have continued to decline and are now comparable to those experienced during the millennium drought’.
Join the Daylesford Conversation on Thursday the 17th of September, 6pm to 8pm. There will be nibbles and drinks after Dr Golding’s presentation. It’s a free event, but bookings are essential to ensure you have a seat and to help plan the catering. Bookings can be made through trybooking.
