Geelong, Victoria

25/4/2018

I grew up believing Matthew Flinders was the first European settler to discover the area known as Geelong, having gone to a school named in his honour with the slogan, 'Looking Forward' my impression was of him looking out over the bay from the peaks of the You Yangs, about 30 kilometres from the city of Geelong. But, it wasn't to be, apparently a John Murray, Commander of the HMS Lady Nelson, was the first recorded European to visit the region in 1802. Matthew Flinders did visit the region a few months later and did climb the You Yangs, but he wasn't the first as I had previously thought and didn't actually settle Geelong. In 1803 a Charles Grimes mapped the area, but deemed it unfit for settlement, although the penal colony of Sullivan Bay was established. William Buckley, escaped from Sullivan Bay the same year and lived with the local Wathaurong people for 32 years. He was later pardoned and became an interpreter between the indigenous and europeans. The next Europeans to visit the area were Hamilton Hume and William Hovell arriving in the area known as Geelong on 16 December 1824, despite leaving two days later they did learn the indigenous name for the area was Corayo. It wasn't until 1836 that the area was settled by non indigenous and gazetted as a town in 1838, just three weeks after Melbourne. Geelong soon became a major wool exporter with many woollen mills operating in the area for several decades. Geelong officially became a city in 1910.

We were told about the spring by a family friend, having grown up in Geelong I'd never actually heard of it, but after venturing to Daylesford and falling in love with the mineral springs there we were definitely keen to give this one a go. Shovel and I found the location, exactly where we were told it would be and without tasting it first fill our two litre stainless steel bottle with the mineral spring water. Honestly the spring water was disgusting as it tasted heavily salty, not surprising given the location and it was discarded promptly.