Innot Hot Springs is a rural town and

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localities (Australia), in which a locality is a geographic subdivis ...

in the

Tablelands Region The Tablelands Region is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia inland from the city of Cairns. Established in 2008, it was preceded by four previous local government areas which dated back more than a century. On 1 January ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Australia. In the , the locality of Innot Hot Springs had a population of 177 people.

Geography

Innot Hot Springs is south-west of

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

via the

Bruce Highway The Bruce Highway is a major highway in Queensland, Australia. Commencing in the state capital, Brisbane, it passes through areas close to the eastern coast on its way to Cairns in Far North Queensland. The route is part of the Australian Na ...

Gillies Range Road The Gillies Highway is a road that runs from Gordonvale in the Cairns Region through the Gillies Range (part of the Great Dividing Range) to Atherton in the Tablelands Region, both in Queensland, Australia. It is also known as the Gillies Ra ...

, Lake Barrine Road, State Route 25, State Route 24 and the

Kennedy Highway The Kennedy Highway is a highway in northern Queensland, Australia. It runs as National Route 1 for approximately 243 km from Smithfield, on the northern outskirts of Cairns, to the Gulf Developmental Road in the vicinity of Forty Mile S ...

. From further west it can be accessed via the Kennedy Highway. Innot Hot Springs is located on the

, between

Mount Garnet Mount Garnet is a rural town and locality in the Tablelands Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Mount Garnet had a population of 430 people. Geography Various small communities populate the area around Mount Garnet. These include Tableland ...

and Ravenshoe in

Far North Queensland Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stretches north to the Torres Strait, and west to the Gulf C ...

. It is 5 kilometers south of Mount Gibson. The town is on the northern edge of the locality with the Kennedy Highway passing through it. The

Herbert River The Herbert River is a river located in Far North Queensland, Australia. The southernmost of Queensland's wet tropics river systems, it was named in 1864 by George Elphinstone Dalrymple explorer, after Robert George Wyndham Herbert, the first ...

meanders in a southerly direction through the locality from

Millstream Millstream may refer to: Places * Millstream, Queensland, a locality in the Tablelands Region, Queensland, Australia *Millstream, a headstream of the Herbert River The Herbert River is a river located in Far North Queensland, Australia. T ...

to Gunnawarra and Glen Ruth. The confluence of the

Wild River A wild river (United States, Australia, & New Zealand) or heritage river (Canada) is a :river or a river system designated by a government to be protected and kept "relatively untouched by development and are therefore in near natural conditio ...

with the Herbert River occurs in the north of the locality (east of the town). Nettle Creek flows from Silver Valley to the north through the town and joins the Herbert River to the south of the town. The town was established around three hot

mineral spring Mineral springs are naturally occurring springs that produces hard water, water that contains dissolved minerals. Salts, sulfur compounds, and gases are among the substances that can be dissolved in the spring water during its passage underg ...

s in the Nettle Creek near the town. The temperature of the springs is between 74°C and 85°C (165-185 °F).

Aboriginal legend

According to the Mamu people, the springs were created in the

Dreamtime The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal mythology, Australian Aboriginal beliefs. It was originally used by Francis Ja ...

when a large maritime turtle had a hot stone put in her stomach. It hurried out of the sea inland, to this spot, to warm the waters. From that day onwards, it ordered all big turtles were to stay in the sea, while small tortoises would be permitted to live in the freshwater rivers on land.

History

The hot springs were explored by Europeans in the early 1870s when

John Atherton John Atherton (1598 – 5 December 1640) was the Anglican Bishop of Waterford and Lismore in the Church of Ireland. He and John Childe (his steward and tithe proctor) were both tried and executed for buggery in 1640. Life and death Early l ...

was exploring the area for grazing opportunities. However it seems the springs were ignored until 1885 when Charles Overend Garbutt, the owner of Woodleigh Station, rediscovered them and learned from the local Aboriginal people that the springs had healing properties. In the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

, mineral springs were widely believed to have

therapeutic A therapy or medical treatment (often abbreviated tx, Tx, or Tx) is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a medical diagnosis. As a rule, each therapy has indications and contraindications. There are many different ...

benefits obtained through bathing in the water and drinking the water. Perceiving the commercial opportunities, a Russian-born man, Antonie Antonevic leased 10 acres around the springs on 1 April 1886. The lease passed through a number of people's hands before it was taken up by (Neil) Charles Spranklin in the late 1890s, who is generally regarded as the major force in developing the springs. By July 1888 there was a two-storey house with bathing sheds by the springs and in February 1891, the leaseholder Henry Faasch was described as being able to accommodate only 12 patients, but was in the process of erecting a hotel. As the water in the springs was too hot for bathing, the hot spring water was piped into bath tubs at 6am each morning and left it to cool until late morning when the guests could comfortably bathe in it. In 1900, Spranklin built four new bathrooms described as "a much needed improvement". In the 1900s, Spranklin established a cordial factory where he bottled water from the springs and shipped it to Europe as a health treatment. In 1912 it was proposed that the hot springs were one of three "beauty spots" in the

hinterland that must be preserved; this was prior to legislation to create national parks in Queensland. On 7 October 1918, when Spranklin was absent from the hotel, a fire broke out. The maid Nellie Hogg (Spanklin's step-daughter) initially fought the fire using water from jugs and then, with the help of others, managed to save the hotel, although there was £50 worth of repairs required. On 13 March 1929 Charles Spranklin died aged 75 years in the hospital at Herberton following a 12-month illness. He was buried in Herberton Cemetery on 14 March 1929. In July 1930 James Thomas Spranklin (son of Charles) announced he would take over the hotel, but he died in January 1931. Later that month, Jack and Mabel McBride became the owners of the Springs Hotel. Lower Nettles Provisional School opened circa July 1911. In July 1916 it became a half-time school in conjunction with Coolgarra State School, meaning the two schools shared a single teacher. It closed later in 1916. Innot Hot Springs State School opened on 1 June 1940 and closed on 30 June 1957 due to declining enrolments. It was at approx 16018 Kennedy Highway (). In the , the locality of Innot Hot Springs had a population of 177 people.

Heritage listings

Innot Hot Springs has a number of

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many ...

sites, including: * Nettle Creek (): Nettle Creek Tin Dredge

Education

There are no schools in Innot Hot Springs. The nearest primary schools are Mount Garnet State School in neighbouring

to the north-west and Ravenshoe State School (Junior Campus) in Ravenshoe to the north-east. The nearest secondary school is Ravenshoe State School (Senior Campus) in Ravenshoe.

Attractions

The hot springs are open to the public.

References

{{authority control Towns in Queensland Populated places in Far North Queensland Tablelands Region Hot springs of Australia Localities in Queensland