Over the past 150 years Daylesford has evolved through Gold Rush digger encampment all the way to town status, then as a centre for Swiss-Italian migrants who tilled the soil, then spa town version one – followed by decline, followed by rediscovery as a weekend Mecca for Melbourne’s artistic/alternative folk. And now it’s tourist/spa town version two combined with all those other evolutionary benefits.

What else can Daylesford become? If Al Gore’s predictions of global warming are on track, the town’s next makeover will be as beach resort, version 2.0, thanks to rising sea levels and everyone who forgot to turn out the lights for a century or so. But heck, that’s not for a year or two.

In the meantime, city slickers nonchalantly burning banknotes and fossil fuels to escape the concrete jungle for weekends of pampering, please read on. Ditto families looking for things to do on a budget, and bushwalkers, and those who enjoy attractive country towns and . . . pretty well anyone.

From Australian Traveller – Life by the lake
The Speed of Change by Peter Robinson

While it’s laudable that Peter Robinson praises our town, must he lumber Daylesford with the cause, as well as the result, of global warming? ‘City slickers nonchalantly burning banknotes…’?

Okay, I admit that there are quite a few banknote burners around Daylesford at the weekend, but their combustible currency is important for the survival of the town.

As for burning fossil fuels… everyone who drives a car is guilty of that.

Turning out the lights… Not more than a month ago, Earth Hour gave millions of Earthlings pause for thought about their energy consumption. Daylesford’s makeover will not be as a beach resort, thank you very much.

Let’s imagine another version of Daylesford’s future. We’ll also include its twin town, Hepburn Springs, less shiny than its showier sister but with its own special magic.

Fast forward to a future when drinking water is too scarce a commodity for spa baths to be installed, or even used, anywhere; not in private homes, not in holiday accommodation.

We’re now spared the prospect of a steady stream of visitors flushing thousands of litres of fresh drinking water down drains every weekend.

Contrary to the once popular belief, the twin towns haven’t become shadows of their former selves just because water-guzzling bathrooms have been banned. Instead, Daylesford and Hepburn Springs have become by-words for their hugely successful sustainable tourism industry.

The Daylesford-Hepburn Springs area has attracted considerable attention as a leader in sustainable communities. After all, Hepburn Shire was the first community in Australia to produce energy from its own wind farm.

In our vision, the Daylesford-Hepburn Springs area is highly attractive to those who eschew holiday destinations with energy-hungry accommodation. These visitors believe that wasting energy is uncool; wasting water is despicable.

Many travel here by train, after the re-instated Carlsruhe branch line linked Daylesford with Melbourne. More active types cycle here.

A few years previously, after capitalism only just survived a ferocious kick in the pants, many decided to opt out of consuming ’stuff’. Instead, they now experience.

They come to Daylesford-Hepburn Springs for the simple pleasures of fresh air, great food, good wine and for bush-walks and body treatments, just as they have for decades.

There used to be those visitors, in the area’s former life, who spent most of the weekend slouched in front of a DVD with a pizza and a slab of beer. And then they went home. Now, though, many visitors want to get out in the great outdoors and ‘just do it’.

Fitness has replaced flab. Outdoor equipment businesses flourish in this area, just as those selling prospecting equipment flourished in the 1850s.

Companies cater for rock climbing, abseiling, mountain biking or travelling in hot air balloons. When the weather’s too inclement for even the most intrepid, an indoor climbing wall keeps action junkies amused, and across the region there are numerous gyms, yoga studios, wellness analysts and Reiki masters… and even more massage therapists than there are now.

Accommodation takes the form of elegantly simple chalets, built to passive solar designs, where the sun and wind provide all the energy needed. Human waste is composted, and filtered grey-water is reused on gardens.

Some outdoor adventurers require luxury accommodation at the end of their arduous days. Wherever they choose to stay, though, they know it’s ecologically sustainable. That’s the difference that sets Daylesford and Hepburn Springs apart from other holiday destinations.

As for our community-managed forest – again a first for Australia – an educational facility, right here in town, trains young people in all aspects of forest management. They also learn how to manage waterways, water catchments and weeds. Hepburn Shire has one of the most advanced colleges of environmental science in Australia, if not the world.

For those less enamoured with the outdoor life, another training facility produces graduates to take up employment in a number of areas of sustainable hospitality – from preparing locally-sourced produce, to building and retro-fitting accommodation that conforms to ecologically-sound standards.

Many young people in Hepburn Shire choose to stay in the area, instead of drifting to the city for employment and educational opportunities. They even build houses for their families here, in attractive, low cost, sustainable residential estates.

Just as it has been for years, the region is famed for its health-giving mineral water, high-quality produce, cafes and restaurants, wine, vibrant arts scene and its courteous, tolerant people. Tourism operators understand that sustainable tourism is not just about sustaining visitor numbers. ‘Build it in a sustainable way and they will come’ is the founding principle for this version of Daylesford.

The twin towns of Daylesford and Hepburn Springs will continue to appeal to all those ‘who enjoy attractive country towns’ but who don’t want to destroy the things about them that they love.

I can dream can’t I?