victoria
hepburn springs and daylesford
There are 72 springs in Hepburn Springs and it took us two days to find any. All of the natural springs were labelled 'under construction' every time we got 20 minutes into a bushwalk to find one.
Trish and Alan gave us a great gift for our 24th birthdays - two nights at St Andrew's resort in Hepburn Springs. We stayed in the Lucini cottage (right). It was so comfy we spent half our weekend there. Since we came to Melbourne I've always wanted to go to Hepburn Springs, because it is the day spa mecca of Victoria, and because I'm such a princess.
Like many towns in Victoria it sprang up during the gold rush, with lots of Swiss-Italians based in the town. According to Mietta during the mid 1850s about ten percent of Hepburn Springs’ population spoke Italian. They were from Northern Italy and the Italian speaking Swiss area of Ticino (political refugees drawn by the lure of the goldfields).
I had yummy dreams of mud baths, facials, massages, pedicures, manicures and lots of champagne, squelching me into a blissful sedate state for a few days. Unfortunately after about five minutes after checking in, I was waay past sedate and not in any need of mudbaths.
Originally, the Hepburns Springs resort was a two room hut. In 1868 the water in the area was claimed to correct 'diseases peculiar to young girls with general debility' and 'for gentlemen who have lived rather too freely'. Yeah baby.
The Jajowurrung tribe led early settlers to the springs, where they bottled the water and sold it back to Melbourne. The resort introduced 'electric baths' in the thirties, meant to 'stimulate the bathers', and no one with infectious diseases was allowed inside.
   
Last updated: 13th October, 2001
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Victoria
