From its source to its mouth, the Mersey River flows through varied topography, rich agricultural land and many interesting centres of population. The Meandering the Mersey (MTM) series will follow, as much as practical, the course of the Mersey River with caches being placed at varying intervals. We trust you will enjoy the area.
The Warm Springs at Kimberley are unique in this part of Tasmania. They have been a low-key local tourist attraction for many years. The characteristics and geomorphology of the springs have been well documented. The following information has been extracted from the report Thermal Springs at Kimberly compiled by W. L. Matthews for Mineral Resources Tasmania.
Water with a temperature of 24.0°C-25.3°C issues from a spring in an alluvial flat surrounding the Mersey River at Kimberley. The spring at Kimberley has a temperature some 11°C-12°C higher than would be expected for near surface groundwater.
The volume of flow increases downstream from the head of the spring to at least a small dam about 200 m away, where the estimated flow is in the range of 750-1500 litre/minute.
The temperature increases over this section of the stream. It is estimated that the water comes from a minimum depth of 350m and rises quickly to the surface through a fault structure.
The dissolved solids content is fairly low for groundwater and it contains mainly bicarbonate and calcium ions. A gas which bubbles up from the base of the spring contains up to 6% C02 (the CO2 content of air is about 0.03%).
Any medicinal or therapeutic properties that the water may have are undetermined. It has a similar composition to some of the waters used for this purpose, but the concentration of dissolved solids is lower than for most, but not all, of these waters.
Furthermore, in a Tourism Brochure produced by the Kentish Municipality it is stated the clearance of shading vegetation has led to excessive algal growth, which is periodically removed as it covers the naturally sandy bottom of the spring. The spring is home to an endemic snail and an algae (Pithophora spp.) not previously recorded south of Sydney.
This unique location is well worth visiting. The cache is a regular size Sistema container with ample room for swaps.