Health spa set up in 1926 at South Australia's Paralana Hot Springs with hot radioactive pools and deadly gases
Guests at the Paralana Hot Springs health spa in South Australia's northern Flinders Ranges in 1926 beside one of the springs' radioactive pools with bubbles giving off a deadly mix of radon and other gases.
Main image from Nuclear Flinders Ranges by Ray Wood
Paralana Hot Springs health spa, 1926-27, was one of South Australia most enterprising – and dangerous – health projects. The Paralana Hot Springs, in the rugged northern Flinders Ranges near Arkaroola, were one of only a few active radioactive hot springs in the world.
The Paralana springs were near Radium Ridge next to Mount Painter where mines had been set up from 1924 to dig for the radium that had been confirmed to be there by famous Adelaide University geology professor Douglas Mawson.
At that stage, radioactivity was considered to have health benefits. The Paralana hot springs inspired a company, Paralana Hot Springs Syndicate, to set up a health spa there with doctor Charles Fenton in charge. In 1926, the syndicate issued a brochure extolling Paralana as “A Wonderful Radio-Active Thermal Spring Possessing Remarkable Curative Properties” and that “Nowhere in the world has Nature provided such wonderful mineral impregnated waters as at Paralana” with its “delightful” climate and scenery.
By July that year. a group had been attracted to the Paralana Springs health spa to find, contrary to the brochure’ glowing description, it only had a galvanised iron building where poor food was served. But the group took part in the spa regime of bathing in the springs for two hours and drinking two pints (1.1 litres) of spring water each day. They was the only group to visit the spa. The distance from Adelaide, lack of access to the rugged ranges, along with poor amenities, saw the spa close in 1927 with only its buildings' foundations left on site. No followup was done to check the health effects on the 1926 group.
In 1948, South Australian premier Tom Playford encouraged a group of Sydney entrepreneurs interested in reviving the Paralana health spa. They opted instead to open a “pleasure resort” at Wilpena Pound in the Flinders ranges.
In the 21st Century, Paralana hot springs remained an attraction but swimming, touching, or drinking its water wasn’t permitted. It was now known that, from an underground aquifer, the spring’s pools were heated by granite rocks, with high levels of uranium, going through radioactive decay, keeping the water at 57-62 degrees Centigrade.
Although radioactive, the water was not acidic and considered to have a neutral pH between 7 and 8. But the pools’ bubbles contained radioactive radon gas, as well as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and helium. Prolonged exposure to the gases, including by camping near the pools, was a health hazard. The only life forms that were able to survive in the pools were extremophile algae.
