At the peak of Daylesford‘s formative goldrush there were many Italians and Swiss living here and their influence on the gardens and architecture has been profound; bestowing upon the town a European feel.
Daylesford is located atop rock strata and volcanic basins. Waters trapped in these basins have slowly leached minerals from 450-million-year-old rocks: minerals which are believed to have a curative effect and which are now the basis of the town’s existence.
In conjunction with the adjacent town of Hepburn Springs, with which it is closely interconnected by urban sprawl (combined population: 5500), Daylesford is known as the ‘Spa Centre of Australia’ with 50 per cent of the country’s known and active mineral water outlets and another 30 per cent located nearby.
Prior to European settlement the area is thought to have been occupied by the Djadja Wurrung Aborigines. The first European settler in the area (1838) was Captain John Hepburn. In 1848, Irish immigrant John Egan took up land on the future town site (then known as ‘Wombat Flat’).
He and a party of searchers found alluvial gold in 1851 on ground now covered by Lake Daylesford, thereby initiating the local goldrush. Other finds quickly followed. Two or three hundred diggers were reported in the area in 1852. A town site was surveyed in 1854. Initially called Wombat, it was soon renamed by Sir Charles Hotham after the English birthplace of Warren Hastings, the first governor-general of India.
In 1859 about 3400 diggers were on the local diggings, 800 of whom were Chinese. They preferred alluvial workings, planted extensive market gardens and had their own village with a Joss House and store. Daylesford was declared a municipality in 1859 and a borough in the early 1860s. A flour mill was opened in 1863, reflecting the emergence of local agriculture.
Novelist Joseph Furphy worked as a threshing-machine operator in the district in the 1860s. He was married at Daylesford in 1867 and took over the lease on a small local farm and vineyard belonging to his mother-in-law.
By the 1860s the alluvial gold was exhausted and a shift to quartz reef mining began. This continued, on-and-off, into the 1930s. However, the town is best-known for the odourless, effervescent mineral water which emanates from its many springs (hand pumps and continuous-flow pipes dispense the water free of charge) and Daylesford became a fashionable spa resort, particularly when the railway arrived in 1881.
The resort fell out of favour in the Great Depression. However, since the early 1980s interest in the local waters has revived and the town’s fortunes have been rejuvenated. Thousands of people from a great range of social backgrounds now visit the area each year. With its interesting history and beautiful surroundings, there are many reasons to visit Daylesford.
“Main Street, Daylesford”, by J. Tensfeld
J. Tensfield, also known as T. Jensfield, artist, painter and professional photographer, showed artworks in fourth Annual Exhibition of Fine Arts at Melbourne in 1864, and in the Ballarat Mechanics Institute Exhibition, and appears to have painted over a photograph in the painting ‘Main Street, Daylesford.
