Located on Deep Creek Spring Road, just outside of Eganstown 8.5 km East of Daylesford, youโll find this unexpectedly serene place on the McLachlan Creek. Bring a picnic and enjoy a peaceful break in this recently upgraded area that has an abundance of birdlife and natural features. The springs themselves are accessed via a steep gravel track.
You used to be able to access the mineral water from a free-flowing pipe located under the bridge, however due to ongoing water quality issues it was replaced with a new bore drilled in 2021. The new bore is 35m deep and was landscaped by the Djaara the traditional owners of the land.
John Egan of Borrisoleigh, County Tipperary, Ireland, discovered Deep Creek Mineral Spring in 1847. He built a homestead on Deep Creek in 1848 and is credited with finding gold at Wombat Flat in 1851.
In 1904, the Shire of Creswick requested an area around Deep Creek (Crystal) Mineral Spring be set aside from the encroachment of miners and settlers who used the authority of a โminersโ rightโ to occupy land and by 907 a reserve of 16.2 ha was established.
By 1906 a concrete wall had been built around the spring and an enclosure formed to collect the gas.
In 1910 the Crystal Spring Mineral Company bottled at the site and thus the spring was named Crystal Spring for some time. Later the spring assumed the name of Deep Creek Mineral Spring.
At the mineral spring on the other side of the creek, across the bridge (not open to the public) there is an old pump house, built in the 1920s by O.T. Limited, manufacturers of cordials. They built the bridge to carry water tankers across the creek to the pump house. Within the foundations of the pump house is a concrete dome over the original spring and large concrete tanks. In later years mineral water was pumped from the pump house up to a storage area, near the Eganstown Cemetery beside the Midland Highway.
Flow from the spring was measured at 20 m3/day in 1906. The commercial mineral water bottlers were still pumping at a similar rate in 1980
