IN HOT
WATER By Melissa Walsh
It was a moment of serendipity that led Charles Davidson to create his multimillion dollar business, The Peninsula Hot Springs. Peninsula Essence talks to Charles about the journey that began with an epiphany in a hot spring in Japan, and resulted in a top tourist attraction that is visited by over 450,000 people per year. How did the idea for Peninsula Hot Springs come about?
It was 1992 and I was working overseas in Japan and had a headache from studying Japanese so a friend suggested we go to a hot spring. We went to Kusatsu Onsen with outdoor pools and snow all around. When I jumped in the hot spring I had a real epiphany, looking at the surrounding snowy mountains, relaxing in that water, I had never felt so uplifted. I wanted to bring this experience to Australia, as having grown up here and spent a lot of time on the peninsula, I knew that the winter is very quiet and there are not much outdoor activities. I realised that these pools could be healing centres as well and wanted to share that culture with my own country. How long did it take from that moment in Kusatsu Onsen to starting the Peninsula Hot Springs?
Well initially I was told by a Japanese geologist that there were no springs in Australia because it was such an old continent, worn down by time and with no active volcanoes. So it got put on the backburner but I never really gave up. I decided to bring the bathing culture to Australia and so went around to hundreds of Japanese pools and springs. I continued to work in Japan for the Australian embassy and the Mitsubishi Corporation and then one night, five years after the hot springs epiphany, I was having a drink after work with Victoria’s Tokyo representative and learnt that the state’s minerals and energy department had discovered hot water deep underground on the Mornington Peninsula, near Rye. I have strong ties with the area. My ancestors had built the Briars and we had a family farm on the peninsula where I spent a lot of time growing up.
E ssence
48 | PENINSULA
August 2017