Mount Garnet Progress Association

INNOT HOT SPRINGS

Location: Kennedy Hwy, 16 Kilometres east of Mount Garnet.

John Atherton, led a group of men west of his property in Mareeba during the 1870s, looking for new grazing fields. As they reached what is now Nettle Creek they found its water to be so hot that they had to cross it further down.

The water flows from the sand at between 80 and 90 degrees Celsius. A lease of 4 hectares including the hot springs was granted to Antonie Anticeric in 1886 and later transferred to C.O. Garbutt, owner of the Woodleigh Station, who built a hut and three bath cubicles, which brought the spring to public attention.

The area was a favourite destination for campers, who were attracted by claimed curative properties of the water and compared it with famous thermal spas in Europe. The water was bottled and sent to the old continent to be used for medicinal purposes up until 1914. The hot springs are still commercially operated and receive visitors from all over Australia and overseas.