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From the majestic to the mundane: democracy, sophistication and history among the mineral spas of Australia

2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 4; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/1755182x.2012.671376

1755-1838

Richard White,

Mining and Resource Management

Abstract This survey of the history of mineral spas in Australia outlines the interplay between transnational cosmopolitanism and national distinctiveness in their development. It notes how notions of sophistication attached to the spa drew on their cosmopolitan origins, how science was used in their promotion and how municipal authorities were committed to democratic access. After the decline of spas in the second half of the twentieth century, their revival depended on the commodification of their history. Keywords: healthheritagecosmopolitanismmineral springsspa resortsAustralia Notes 1See for example Roland Barthes, 'The Blue Guide', in his Mythologies, trans. Annette Lavers (New York: Noonday Press, 1962), 74–77; Catherine Palmer, 'Tourism and the Symbols of Identity', Tourism Management 20 (1999): 313–21; John Urry, 'Europe, Tourism and the Nation State', in Progress in Tourism, Recreation and Hospitality Management Research, ed. Christopher P. Cooper and Andrew Lockwood (Chichester: Wiley, 1994), 89–98; Manfred Beller and Joep Leerssen, eds., Imagology: The Cultural Construction and Literary Representation of National Character: A Critical Survey (Amsterdam: Rodopi, col. Studua Imagologica 13, 2007); Richard White, 'Cooees Across the Strand: Australian Travellers in London and the Performance of National Identity', Australian Historical Studies 32 (2001): 9–127. Thanks to Rose Cullen and Toby Martin for research assistance. 2Thanks to Anna Clark, conversation April 12, 2011; Steve Lambert, Australia's Great Thermal Way: Edition 2 (Bellevue, WA: Power Printing, 2011), 61–70. 3Murrell Osborne, Timber, Spuds and Spa: A Descriptive History and Lineside Guide of the Railways on the Daylesford District, 1880–1978 (Melbourne: Australian Railway Historical Society, Victorian Division, 1979). 4 Age 10 December 10, 1869. 5Clare Gervasoni, Bullboar, Macaroni and Mineral Water (Ballarat: Sovereign Press, 2007), 82. 6Gervasoni, Bullboar, 71. 7Edward Wishart and Maura Wishart, The Spa Country: A Field Guide to 65 Mineral Springs of the Central Highlands (Daylesford: Spa Publishing, 1990), 79, 101, 123, 146. 8Gervasoni, Bullboar, 72; Norman Darwin, Gold'n Spa: History of the Hepburn Shire (Ballarat: Hand Publishing, 2005), 161. 9 Sands & McDougall's Directory of Victoria (Melbourne: Sands & McDougall, 1912), 1258–60, 1266–7; Victorian Govt Tourist Bureau, The Country Hotel and Boarding-House Guide and Tourists' Handbook (Melbourne: Lake and Sons, 1911), 95–99; Wine, Water & Stone: the Swiss and Italians of Hepburn (Melbourne: Immigration Museum, 2007), 12. 10I am grateful to Andrew Brownell of Holyrood House, Daylesford, for this point. 11'Continental Guesthouse', Rose Series postcard, 3936, image H32492/5413, State Library of Victoria; Victorian Govt Tourist Bureau, 'Where to Go' in Victoria: the Country Hotel, Guest and Boarding-House Guide and Tourists' Handbook, 1931–32 ed (Melbourne: Victorian Railways Advertising Division, 1931), 190; Wine, Water & Stone, 12. On the complex meanings of 'continental', see Mischa Barr, 'Sex, Art and Sophistication: The Meanings of "Continental" Cinema', Journal of Australian Studies 33 (2009): 1–18. 12Wishart and Wishart, Spa Country, 45. 13 Sands & McDougall, 1929, 856, 932, 1247. 14Victorian Govt Tourist Bureau, 'Where to Go' in Victoria, 1931–32 ed, 184. 15Tony Moore, 'Australia's Bohemian Carnival', History Australia 2 (2004): 11.4–11.10; Richard White, Inventing Australia: Images and Identity 1688–1980 (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1981), 85–109. 16Rotary Club of Daylesford, Getting to Know Daylesford and Hepburn Springs: The Spa Centre of Australia (Daylesford: Rotary Club of Daylesford , January 1974), 4. 17Isaac Baker Brown, Junior, Australia for the Consumptive Invalid: The Voyage, Climates, and Prospects for Residence (London: Robert Hardwicke, 1865); F.B. Smith, Illness in Colonial Australia (Sydney: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2011), 118–32. 20 A Sketch of Mineral Springs and their Uses, with References to the Properties of the Ballan Selters Water (Melbourne: Joske and Morton, 1868), 6. 18John Gascoigne, The Enlightenment and the Origins of European Australia (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2002); Ann Moyal, A Bright and Savage Land: Scientists in Colonial Australia (Sydney: Collins, 1986); Bernard Smith, European Vision and the South Pacific, 1768–1850: A Study in the History of Art and Ideas (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1960). 19 Argus, December 22, 1869, 7; Stanley Gibbons, 'On Mineral Springs', Colonial Monthly 1 (1867): 221. 21Philippa Martyr, 'When Doctors Fail: Ludwig Bruck's List of Unregistered Practitioners (1886)', Electronic Journal of Australian and New Zealand History (1997), http://www.jcu.edu.au/aff/history/articles/bruck.htm (accessed October 2, 2011); Ludwig Bruck, 'The Present State of the Medical Profession in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand', Australasian Medical Gazette 12 (1893), 95. Bruck committed suicide in 1915 after being charged with trading with the enemy: Sydney Morning Herald, September 18, 1915, 12. 22Ludwig Bruck, 'The Mineral Springs of Australia' Reprinted from Aust'sian Medical Gazette Jan 1891 (Sydney: Australasian Medical Gazette, 1891), 5. 23Eg Ludwig Bruck, Guide to the Health Resorts in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand (Sydney: Australasian Medical Gazette, 1888), 52. 24Bruck, Mineral Springs, 29; cf Southern Highlands of New South Wales: A Famous Health Resort and Tourist District (Sydney: Immigration and Tourist Bureau, 1912). 25Bruck, Mineral Springs, 31. 26F. La Moile, Victoria Water-Cure Establishment, Malvern Hill, near Toorak (Clarson, Shallard: Melbourne, 1861); Argus, January 12, 1861, 1; Graham Brooks & Associates Pty Ltd, Hydro Majestic Hotel, Medlow Bath, Conservation Management Plan, March 2010, 30. 27Bruck, Mineral Springs, 13–14; Andrea Inglis, Beside the Seaside: Victorian Resorts in the Nineteenth Century (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1999), 35–8. 28Bruck, Mineral Springs, 37–39. 29Bruck, Mineral Springs, 38. 30John Hirst, 'Egalitarianism', Australian Cultural History 5 (1986): 12–31; Penny Russell, A Wish of Distinction: Colonial Gentility and Femininity (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1994). 31Bruck, Mineral Springs, 39. 33 The Daylesford Herald Almanac and Guide Book to the Borough of Daylesford and Surrounding Districts (Daylesford: Herald, 1885), 24. 32Cf. Picturesque Daylesford: Victoria's Most Popular Summer Resort (Daylesford: Daylesford Progressive Association, M.M. Cross, Steam Printer, Herald Office, c1905). 34Melissa Harper and Richard White, 'How Transnational were the First National Parks? Comparative Perspectives from the British Settler Societies', in Civilising Nature: National Parks in Global Historical Perspective, ed. Bernhard Gissibl, Sabine Höhler, and Patrick Kupper (Munich: Berghahn Books, 2012). 35For much of this see Graham Brooks & Associates Pty Ltd, Hydro Majestic Hotel, Medlow Bath, Conservation Management Plan, March 2010. See also G.P. Walsh, 'Foy, Mark (1865–1950)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/foy-mark-6367/text10721 (accessed January 1, 2012). 36Hydro Majestic Australia, Medlow Bath, Blue Mountains, A Palace in a Wilderness (Sydney: John Sands, 1908), cover, 5. 37Foy's speech at opening, cited in Brooks, Hydro Majestic, 29. 38Brooks, Hydro Majestic, 21. 39Brooks, Hydro Majestic, 28. 40Brooks, Hydro Majestic, 23, 30. 41Brooks, Hydro Majestic, 24. 42Brooks, Hydro Majestic, 29. 43Brooks, Hydro Majestic, 29 44Brooks, Hydro Majestic, 22–23. 45Brooks, Hydro Majestic, 22; Sydney Morning Herald, July 20, 1904, 8. 46Victorian Govt Tourist Bureau, The Country Hotel, 95–99; Brooks, Hydro Majestic, 22. 47Brooks, Hydro Majestic, 22. 48Brooks, Hydro Majestic, 29. 49Brooks, Hydro Majestic, 34. 51A British Globe Trotter, 'How I Saw the Bush', 8. 50A British Globe Trotter, 'How I Saw the Bush', in Hydro Majestic 1908, 3, 5. This was also published as A British Globe Trotter, How I Saw the Bush (Sydney, Bulletin Poster Press, c1912). 52A British Globe Trotter, 'How I Saw the Bush', 8. 53Brooks, Hydro Majestic, 39. 54Brooks, Hydro Majestic, 44. 55Brooks, Hydro Majestic, 49. 56Harris B. Shumacker, 'World War II in the Pacific and later at Home', World Journal of Surgery 29 (2005): S85. 57 Sydney Morning Herald, 5 April 1902, 7; July 9, 1906, 8. 58Eg Percy W. Berne, Moree Artesian Bore Baths (Moree: Moree Municipal Council, 1916). 59 Moree: Artesian Spa Capital (Moree: Moree Visitor's Centre, 1996), 5. 60 Moree Artesian Baths: the Karlsbad of Australia (Newcastle, NSW: Davies & Cannington, c.1925). 61'T.J.H.', 'A Trip West: Moree and the Artesian Area', Clarence and Richmond Gazette, May 16, 1914, 3. 62Ann Curthoys, Freedom Ride: A Freedom Rider Remembers (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2002), 116–7. 63 Moree Artesian Baths (Medicinal) New South Wales: Nature's Gift to Suffering Humanity (Moree: Moree Municipal Council, 1941), 14. 64Marie Reay and Grace Sitlington, 'Class and Status in a Mixed-Blood Community (Moree, N.S.W.)', Oceania 18 (1948): 179. 65 Sun-Herald, 19 June 1955, 23, cited in Curthoys, Freedom Ride, 118; on legality, 235. 66Though it was replaced with a 'hygiene' motion: Curthoys, Freedom Ride, 225, 235. 67Wishart and Wishart, Spa Country, 45. 68Hepburn Mineral Springs Bathhouse Refurbishment, http://www.rdv.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/67855/Hepburn-Mineral-Springs-Bathhouse-refurbishment.pdf (accessed December 27, 2011). 69 Argus, November 22, 1929, 8; Argus, February 1, 1933, 10. 70Victorian Government Tourist Bureau, Where to Go in Victoria: the Country Hotel and Guest House Guide, 1941–42 ed. (Melbourne: Victorian Railways Advertising Division, 1941), 191. This claim would continue to appear in later editions, well into the 1950s. 71Though it should be noted there were as many guesthouses with solidly British names as there were with more adventurous 'continental' ones. 72 Healesville and Yarra Glen Guardian, February 9, 1924, 4. 73Darwin, Gold'n Spa, 162. This sophistication is today perhaps most awkwardly performed (albeit more commercially) by high school formals. 75 Argus, February 1, 1933, 10. 74Wishart and Wishart, Spa Country, 114. 76'At Healing Waters', Register (Adelaide), June 21, 1926, 13. 77Ella Barnett, 'Romance in the Park: Romanticism and New South Wales' National Parks', in Playing in the Bush: Recreation and National Parks in New South Wales, ed. Richard White and Caroline Ford (Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2012), 58–62. 78Brooks, Hydro Majestic, 68. 79Edward Duyker and Coralie Younger, Molly and the Rajah: Race, Romance and the Raj (Sydney: Australian Mauritian Press, 1991), 18, 57. 80Brooks, Hydro Majestic, 69–70. 81 Sydney Morning Herald, Column 8, May 31, June 1, June 2, 2011. 82These figures have been calculated from the 'Where to Go' in Victoria guides, with various sub-titles and publishers: e.g. Tourist Development Authority of Victoria, 'Where to Go' in Victoria: the Country Hotel, Guest House and Motel Guide (Melbourne: Tourist Development Authority of Victoria, 1967), 110–19; see also Wishart and Wishart, Spa Country, 45; Darwin, Gold'n Spa, 162. The guides' changing subtitles themselves provide evidence of an interesting shift in taste, from 'Hotel and Boarding House Guide' in 1911 to 'Hotel and Guesthouse' to 'Country Hotel, Guesthouse and Motel' by 1967. 83Wishart and Wishart, Spa Country, 35; Healesville and Yarra Glen Guardian, February 9, 1924, 4; Argus, July 26, 1926, 21; Daylesford and Hepburn Springs, Victoria, Australia (Melbourne: Betterment and Publicity Board, Victorian Railways, in conjunction with the Daylesford and Hepburn Springs Tourist Bureau and Publicity Committee, c1930); Argus, October 13, 1938, 11. 84Tourist Development Authority of Victoria, 'Where to Go' in Victoria, 115. 85Brooks, Hydro Majestic, 60. 86R.J. Webb, 'The Rising Sun': A History of Moree and District (Moree: North West Champion, 1962). 87Gary Cross and John K. Walton, The Playful Crowd: Pleasure Places in the Twentieth Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005). 88Richard White, On Holidays: A History of Getting Away in Australia (Melbourne: Pluto, 2005), 133–147. 89 Souvenir of Daylesford: Official Programme Daylesford First Annual Highland Gathering (Daylesford, Springs Improvement Committee, 1952). 90State Development Committee, Report of the State Development Committee on the Mineral Spa Water Resources of Victoria, Melbourne: Government Printer, 1970, 7–8. 91State Development Committee, Report of the State Development Committee, 8–9; see also J.E. Menadue, The Mineral Springs Spa Waters of Australia: A Unique National Resource and a Challenge for Development (Melbourne: Australian Natives' Association, 1972), 17–24. 92Kirien Withers ('Spa Guru Down Under'), 'Editorial', Spa Australasia 26 (2006): 4. Consider how Portuguese railways promote travel to the spas of Luso and Curia by flattering their present-day clientele: they are 'not just for old folks, the sick or those stuck in the past…These new habitués are more sophisticated and demand a wider range of services (hydro-gymnastics, beauty treatments, etc).' http://www.cp.pt/cp/displayPage.do?vgnextoid=919ed90ed1e69010VgnVCM1000007b01a8c0RCRD&contentId = c34c5e4b6f442310VgnVCM100000be01a8c0RCRD (accessed October 1, 2011). 93Beth J. Harpaz, 'New Spas Look to History for Inspiration', USA Today, August 14, 2007; Sydney Morning Herald, August 30, 2007. 94Rotary Club of Daylesford, Getting to Know Daylesford, 6. 96 Argus, November 22, 1929, 8; cf Victoria's Spas and Midland Resorts (Melbourne: Victorian Railways Public Relations and Betterment Board, 1955), 5. 95Rotary Club of Daylesford, Getting to Know Daylesford,It also added more history elsewhere and the third edition finally added 'tourism' as one of the district's significant local industries. 97Victorian Railways, Daylesford and Hepburn Springs (Melbourne: Victorian Railways, 1939, 1940). 98 Around and About Spa Country, Winter 2002. 99 Around and About Spa Country, Winter 2002. 100'Holyrood House', http://www.holyrood-house.com.au; 'Pendower House', http://www.pendowerhouse.com.au (accessed January 1, 2012). 101'Grange Bellinzona', http://www.grangecc.com.au/default/grange_bellinzona (accessed January 3, 2012). 102'Welcome', http://www.hepburnspa.com.au/hepburn_spa_australia.html (accessed September 25, 2011). 103'Mineral Spa' brochure, http://www.mineralspa.com.au (accessed January 31, 2012). 104 Macedon Ranges and Spa Country (Melbourne: Tourism Victoria, 1996). 105Frank Hinz (words and music) 'The Highland Spa: Tourism Promoting Song' (Frankston, Vic: Sound Austral, 1993). 106 1995/6 Daylesford and Hepburn Spa, Spa Country Chamber of Commerce, 1995. 107From the mid-1990s, multiculturalism, which had acquired a cultural cachet in metropolitan Australia a decade or more earlier, was increasingly disparaged with the advent of the Howard government and the Pauline Hanson phenomenon. However the targets of a revitalised Australian racism were migrants from the Middle East and Asia rather than Europe, and the wedge politics were aimed at working-class voters, not those likely to be interested in cultural tourism and spa treatments. 108Ghassan Hage, 'At Home in the Entrails of the West', in Home/World: Space, Community, and Marginality in Sydney's West, ed. Helen Grace et al. (Sydney: Pluto Press, 1997). 109'The Festa Story', http://www.swissitalianfesta.com/general.php?pageID=15 (accessed January 30, 2012). 110Heritage listing, http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/#detail_places;5639 (accessed January 31, 2012). 111 Wine, Water & Stone. 112'Swiss Italian History of the Farm', http://www.lavandula.com.au; 'History', http://cricketwillow.com.au (accessed January 31, 2012). 113 Sydney Morning Herald, April 28, 1915, 10. 114Brooks, Hydro Majestic, 59. 115 The Blue Mountains at Medlow Bath (Medlow Bath: Hydro Majestic, c1953). 116Brooks, Hydro Majestic, 64. 117 The Hydro Majestic Hotel: Medlow Bath NSW Blue Mountains (c1990s), Mitchell Library ephemera. 118'A Vision for the Future', http://www.hydromajestic.com.au (accessed January 31, 2012); Brooks, Hydro Majestic, 66. 119'Welcome to Moree Plains Shire' and 'History of the Moree Bore Baths', http://www.mpsc.nsw.gov.au (accessed January 31, 2012); Moree: Artesian Spa Capital (Moree: Moree Visitor's Centre, 1996). 120 Explore Australia: The Complete Touring Companion (Melbourne: Viking O'Neil, 1992), 59. 121'Heritage of Wolgan Valley', http://www.wolganvalley.com/wolgan-valley/en/reserve/heritage (accessed January 31, 2012). 122'Our Story So Far', http://www.peninsulahotsprings.com/en_US/our-story-so-far.html (accessed December 28, 2011).