ABSTRACT
In Australia the spa experience stretches from the Majestic to the mundane. The Hydro may or may not be majestic and Butterfly Springs is hardly mundane; but neither is typical of the spa experience in Australia. The spa culture around Daylesford was initiated by Swiss-Italian gold diggers, although Alexander and Paul Joske unsuccessfully sought a lease to bottle the Hepburn water in 1858. But the science behind the Australian spa was arguably more rigorous and less mixed up with quackery and folk tradition than elsewhere. Mittagong was by 1891 the best-known spa resort in New South Wales, but its facilities consisted of no more than 'a bricked well, fenced in and provided with a weatherboard shed and seat for the convenience of the public'. In both Banff and Tongariro, the trustees set out to create their idea of a sophisticated European spa resort, with grand hotels targeting a high-end market.
