Hanmer Springs in Amuri, North Canterbury, is a popular tourist destination, centred around the area’s thermal springs. The springs are believed to have been first encountered by Europeans in 1859. From the 1860s, visitors camped near the springs or stayed at the nearby Jollies Pass Hotel, but in 1883 the Department of Lands and Survey developed pools and built a bathhouse, and in 1886 proffered a lease at a concession for a party willing to build a hotel near the pools.

Unable to attract a lessee, the government undertook the building of a sanatorium, able to accommodate 16 to 18 guests, which opened on 9 December 1897. Earlier the same year, as fate would have it, a new hotel The Lodge was built and opened nearby, and this ultimately proved to be more popular with wealthier visitors, leaving the sanatorium to suffer commercially, as the majority of its rooms had been fixed and fitted for first class guests.

The Department of Tourist and Health Resorts took control of the sanatorium in 1901, and in 1902 renamed it the Hanmer Spa in the hope of increasing its appeal, though their efforts were met with limited success. At that time, and up until 1908 when the institution was renamed the Hanmer Sanatorium and a resident medical staff was introduced, the sanatorium functioned purely as accommodation for convalescents who were ‘taking the waters’ (bathing, drinking, and inhaling steam), for many ailments including arthritis, rheumatism, gout and digestive disorders.

After the original building was destroyed by fire in 1914, Queen Mary Hospital was built on the site by the Department of Defence to treat servicemen newly-returned from the Great War, many of whom were suffering from shell-shock. Building on the institution’s expertise in treating functional nervous diseases, the Department of Health, which in 1922 took control of the hospital and surrounding grounds, extended its use to the treatment of civilian patients of both sexes, between and after the World Wars. In later years, until its closure in 2003, the hospital had an increasing focus on alcohol and drug rehabilitation. The hospital and grounds are now a nationally recognised historical site, and under the control of the Hurunui District Council.

Map from item S [Survey] files – Number 1814 [Hanmer Sanatorium, pt. 1] – 1886-1897 [Archives reference: CH98/27c]

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