Hepburn Spa: cold carbonated mineral waters of Central Victoria, South Eastern Australia

Abstract

Hepburn Spring is the major cold carbonated mineral spring of the ‘Spa’ country of Central Victoria, in South Eastern Australia. The spring occurs in a small tributary valley of the Loddon River, 15 km away from the crest of the Great Dividing Range. The waters are effervescent, have an alkalinity of around 1,500 mg/L (as HCO₃ ⁻), are mildly acidic and have high iron concentrations. Hepburn Spring is one of nearly 100 small cold low flow carbonated mineral water springs that occur in the region. Hepburn Spring has been protected since 1865 in one of 34 ‘Special Mineral Spring Reserves’. By world standards the spring is small and not highly developed, but it retains much of its charm due to the bushland, forest setting. The bedrock of the region consists of indurated arkosic sandstones interbedded with carbonaceous shales and slates. The rocks are folded and cut by swarms of strongly developed meridional fissure fault systems. Hepburn Spring is situated on the fault and fold axes associated with the “Cornish line” and Gold mines have dewatered the spring on several occasions. After dewatering events the water level and flow recovered first and then the water composition and effervescence. The origin of the effervescent waters has attracted much attention; hypotheses include both a volcanic and a rock water reaction origin. The second hypothesis involves weathering of the carbonaceous and sometimes pyritic rock mass which contains only a few percent carbonate. This process produces high bicarbonate groundwater throughout Central Victoria. The Hepburn waters are a variant of these waters and it is suggested that controls on the carbonate solubility and redox conditions in the fissures flow systems results in effervescent waters as the waters ascend.