page_title: Chalybeate Spring, Mittagong
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Chalybeate Spring, Mittagong / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: A chalybeate spring on the Fitzroy Iron Works' iron ore deposit at Mittagong, N.S.W. Australia, in its natural state ('Crater' with trees). (Reproduced from 'The Iron Ore Deposits of New South Wales', J.B.Jaquet, published by the New South Wales Department of Mines and Agriculture', 1901.)
context_page_description: The Chalybeate Spring at Mittagong, New South Wales was a perennial, carbonated, chalybeate mineral spring
  Successive chalybeate springs at Mittagong had, over many thousands of years, created a deposit of iron ore that was mined by the Fitzroy Iron Works, which was closely associated with the early development of the town of Mittagong, in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia.
  The spring was for many years a tourist attraction, mainly during the second half of the 19th century and first few decades of the 20th century.
context_section_description: The Chalybeate Spring was situated on the top of a grassy knoll on southern side of the Great South Road (now Old Hume Highway) about a quarter of a mile (400m) from the Mittagong railway station.
  It was described in 1896 as "no more than a little hole in the ground from which the water oozes up through the crevices among the hematite ore". In later years, the spring-water emerged from a pipe.
  Chalybeate springs in the Mittagong area, in their natural state, were described by the Geological Surveyor, J.B. Jaquet, as follows, "They generally issue from centre of saucer-like depressions ("craters") in the top of low mounds ("cones"). The cones are composed of material brought up from below in solution, just as the walls of a volcano are made up lava and ashes, which have issued through the vent. The cones never attain great dimensions. There is always a tendency for the vent to become choked with deposited oxide, and when this occurs the spring seeks a fresh channel and issues from the surface somewhere in the vicinity of the base of the cone. So it happens that the deposits are often composed of a series of cones which, owing to encroachment upon the other, have lost their identity and coalesced together."  
  The naturally-carbonated, iron-rich water was described as having “an inky taste and an earthy odour”. The spring-water ran clear but turned ‘rusty’ in colour after a few hours. It was stated that "The water has considerable medicinal properties, the quantity of iron in solution being so minute as to be readily assimilated by systems needing the tonic effect that iron Imparts." 
  The flow rate of the spring does not seem to have been directly measured. The spring was described as 'oozing' or 'flowing'. Around 1901, there were three active springs; the largest—presumably the Chalybeate Spring—had an estimated flow rate of 100-gallons/hour (455-litres/hour), with the other two flowing at much lower rates.
caption: A chalybeate spring, on the Fitzroy Iron Works' iron ore deposit, in its natural state. (J.B. Jaquet, 1901) This is not the 'Chalybeate Spring', as it was already enclosed by 1901. Most likely, one of two other springs noted by Jaquet[20] is shown. Part of the 'Top Works' of the Fitzroy Iron Works is just visible on the left, as is the bridge across Iron Mines Creek. The perspective suggests that the photograph shows  the 'Extinct Spring' near 'No.2 Bore' (refer to map below).
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