Tipperary Springs

TIPPERARY SPRINGS

Tipperary Springs, discovered by prospectors searching for gold in Sailor's Creek, is now part of Hepburn Regional Park.

This bridge replaces the original swing bridge built in 1913 that led to the hillside diggings and the popular Tipperary mineral spring.

Explore the park yourself by retracing the miners' footsteps along the old water races which make up the Tipperary Walking Track. 

Over the old diggings now grow tall trees, prickly shrubs and many springs wildflowers. Some plants were brought here by European miners, and became well established in the disturbed ground. 

On your journey look for Sulphur-crested Cockatoos high overhead and White-browed Scrub-wrens scratching in the leaf litter 

Please help look after the park

• Take your rubbish home with you.
• Stay on walking tracks and roads for your own safety.
• Only light fires in fire places. Fires are illegal on Total Fire Ban days.
• Remember that all native plants and animals are protected.

TIPPERARY "...the best spring in the district..."

"The whole of the moneys voted for for improvements to the mineral springs in the Borough of Daylesford have now been expended... Of this amount, £107 was spent at Tipperary Spring, on the Sailor's Creek, with good results... 25 gallons per hour are now flowing from the pipe, and the water is equal to the best in the district."

So reported the Borough Engineer, Mr F. Horsfall, the Council in 1912. Cr McLeod moved the adoption of the report, declaring that Tipperary "was the best spring in the district, next to Hepburn."

The Borough Council had long been active in the development of Tipperary Spring; it had set aside a special reserve in 1884 to exclude mining activities.

TIPPERARY'S MINERAL WATER

Tipperary Spring is a sodium bicarbonate natural mineral water or "soda water" that contains high levels of both sodium and total soluble salts. 

A bore was drilled in 1984 and a hand pump installed, providing a mixture of mineral and fresh water. Over a short period of time, the bore water became progressively fresher. In 1991, the hand pump on the bore was taken off. The bore casting was removed several years later. 

A new bore was drilled in 2002. The water from this bore is quite effervescent and contains much higher levels of total dissolved salts, bicarbonate, inorganic carbon, calcium, sodium, potassium and iron than that from the pit.