There's a certain Victorian Forum Member who has a fetish for all things poo. I'm banking, he's dropping some mega-steamers at shaft entrance, then waffle stomping them into the vent. You have been warned.
There are signs saying don't have anything to do with the water. I think was discovered by Reg Sprigg who worked out what was going on so I'm not sure there was ever too much bathing here. But at Blinman Pools (well South of Arkaroola) there was medical bathing for years before folks worked out the water was very not good for you. I'm not sure what causes the heating of the water here.
An ideal road connecting E and W Vic between the Murray and LaTrobe Valleys would have gone up the West Kiewa and Cobungra Gap, a good low point and easy enough to build. The ski resort would have sat under Mt Loch and would have been awesome, and a lot more functional than Hotham. But they found gold in the Ovens, and then at Hotham, Brandy Creek and Omeo. And so the road got built over Hotham. There are about a dozen horizontal mine shafts still visible on the side of cuttings driving up Hotham. When I was a kid there were even more and they were much larger. There’s no thermal activity at all, it’s just steam off water which is warm relative to cooler ground. There are two big shafts up on Hotham under Davenport leading in under Little Higgi. And then Brandy Creek and Omeo were open Cut and hydro washings.
There was a station homestead nearby, part of Wooltana later on. I visited the springs and found info about the bathing. Early 1900s IIRC. https://leisurelylifestyle.com/paralana-hot-springs/ Added... https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/...e*|||l-illustrated=*ignore*|*ignore*|||sortby
aha, so they were well known prior to Reg Spriggs and used as health spas. It looks like it did not take long to figure out it was a bad thing and not a good thing. Nice research, thanks
Get some radium toothpaste into ya kids http://mentalfloss.com/article/12732/9-ways-people-used-radium-we-understood-risks
Geodynamics was the firm, super interesting. There were also issues drilling at that temperature and depth apparently https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016...-closes-deemed-not-financially-viable/7798962
/PedantModeOn Steam is invisible - it is condensation you see /PedantModeOff Fascinating response though, never knew that about Hotham's road!
I got my money's worth when I literally drove straight from walking down the Bungalow spur after a week on Feathertop to the Onsen!
We'll, it might if it had enough Radium in the water. Ain't that stuff supposed to be good for aches and pains? Might not be what the new age types are seeking though....
Shit yeah!! Get a bit of that radium infused sausage insert action going on!! Might run that line tonight "can I put a rod in your nuclear reactor..."
Isn't there a geothermal plant east of Arkaroola, on the plains? You can see it from Spillers Lookout.
As far as I know, the only active geothermal power generation in Australia is a very small operation which supplies electricity to the hamlet of Birdsville in far south west Queensland. The Geodynamics scheme did get a small 1 MW generator (about the same as a wind turbine in a brisk breeze) operating in the Cooper Basin in north eastern South Australia before it all got too hard, too complex and too expensive. That was closed down and nothing more has happened there.
Which if i recall correctly has had a thousands years old indigenous story of being a dangerous place to stay away from, prior to a certain douglas mawson uncovering the mineral
Yup. Near Paralana too. And Wiki reckons there's a geothermal plant near the mine. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power_in_Australia
so the "venting" you see on the hotham road is from am air vent from the mine below. It was uncovered about 10 years ago when a landslide buried the road there. The landslide occured about 5 months after a fairly large bushfire came through the area. The bushfire was so intense in heat you will see evidence of all the dead trees further up the road and on the hills around the area. If you stop on the swing out there and look down the gully, you can see the entereance/workings of the mine. If you also look closely on an "inside" corner there is another enterance to a mine with a grate over it. There is another mine that can be accessed by the track that peels off to the left about 3 turns before the black hole.
Heading up the Bon Accord Spur track there are a number of old mines and tunnels related to the Gold rush in the area.
This is an interesting read, thanks for sharing the photos and info. I look forward to trying to spot it.
