Barry Golding spoke at Daylesford Conversations last week about some of the convenient myths about the “Spa Fairy” and concerns about how some local mineral springs, freshwater springs and groundwaters are managed today. This was a “sold-out” event attracting more than 45 people to the Community Bank building in Hepburn Springs.
The Spa Fairy was invoked a century ago to help promote the perceived health benefits of our many local mineral springs including their natural radioactivity which was claimed to be therapeutic. For more than a century our mineral springs have been promoted as healthy and tourism visitation has been encouraged. Barry Golding’s talk interrogated these perceived health benefits.
Barry is a local resident and an Honorary Professor from Federation University, Patron of Australian Men’s Sheds Association and author of four books. His recent book Six Peaks Speak has turned up some interesting findings about two springs in the Franklinford area, the Limestone Spring and the Old Mill Stream. The Limestone Mineral Spring is the original source of “Mount Franklin” water, today abandoned after being damaged.
Mineral waters contain various minerals including natural radioactivity, some higher than others. The names, Radium Avenue and Radio Springs Hotel are a legacy of a time when mineral waters with radiation were thought to be beneficial. We have since learnt that there are potential health issues around consuming water with elevated levels of radiation and heavy metals.
With a changing climate and concerns about how much groundwaters are being extracted, Barry provided evidence that streamflow and groundwater levels have been dropping since the 1990’s in a number of areas. He made a case for progressively restoring the currently parlous state of the Limestone Spring and also the Old Mill Stream, both important sites during the Aboriginal Protectorate era of the 1840s.
Fleets of large tankers are carting spring waters from the top of the Great Divide near Mollongghip, Musk and other places locally to be bottled in Melbourne in plastic and distributed across Australia. The Forest Hill region today serviced by groundwater bores, including Newlyn, Kingston and Smeaton is currently under Stage 3 water restrictions despite one of the wettest winters in recent memory.
Daylesford Conversations will take place again on Thursday 15th October with Janet Dore, Hepburn Shire Acting CEO as guest speaker. In November, State election candidates have been invited to speak and answer questions. More information to come on both of these sessions of Daylesford Conversations – a collaboration between the Wombat Post and Daylesford Rotary.
