Australia's hidden hot springs route will change how you explore the outback

"If the Lord won't send us water, oh, we'll get it from the devil ... if we cave the roof of hell in," penned Banjo Paterson in Song of the Artesian Water in 1896, depicting the arduous task of drilling for water during the then drought. It could take months, sometimes years, of backbreaking, machine-wrecking, money-draining effort to chisel through the earth's crust to reach the subterranean aquifers.

And the water could be as hot as hell, up to 100 degrees Celsius, gushing from bores 24/7 under enormous pressure.

The 1.7 million square kilometre Great Artesian Basin (GAB) underlies almost a quarter of Australia, one of the largest freshwater basins in the world. It underpins most of Queensland and nudges into the Northern Territory, South Australia and NSW. Rainwater entering the GAB's eastern rim filters through porous rock picking up minerals and salts, with some surfacing as springs elsewhere on the basin.

Indigenous Australians relied on these natural springs in dry inland areas, and today about 120 outback towns survive on the GAB's water, also used for agriculture and mining.

Mineral-rich artesian water has many therapeutic qualities, and "taking the waters" - drinking and soaking in it, known as balneotherapy - has long been popular in Europe and Japan.

Inspired by photos of steaming bathtubs in parched paddocks on outback Queensland's Wellness Way, hubby and I embark on a hot springs road trip, concentrating on the route's south-western section, also known as the Natural Sciences Loop.

Down, down, down we shudder in a rattle-trap miner's lift into the bowels of the earth, time ticking backwards as we descend. Lurching to a stop the door opens with a blast of cold air from the 100-million-year-old Artesian Time Tunnel, the sound of dripping water upping the chill factor. We're ensconced in sandstone that filters water through the basin, formed during the Jurassic age when dinosaurs roamed the area.

This fun interactive experience inside the Cunnamulla Fella Visitor Centre is full of fascinating facts, such as the GAB holds 130,000 times as much water as Sydney Harbour, its depth reaches 3000 metres and the water is up to 2 million years old. However, it's not the unlimited resource once thought. Due to the sheer number of bores drilled, water pressure has decreased and some have stopped flowing. Now they must be capped (like a tap) to regulate flow.

Next door is Cunnamulla Hot Springs, a recently opened $11.7 million wellness centre. Curvaceous pools swirl atop the riverbank with eucalypt-framed views of the Warrego River below. They range in temperature up to 42 degrees Celsius and it's surreal to think the water was heated by magma deep within the earth.

We amble between pools, absorbing the minerals said to improve circulation, soothe muscle and joint pain, alleviate skin irritations and promote better sleep. It's blissful, until I try the icy plunge pool. A one-second dip is one second too many for me.

What would those exhausted bore drillers make of this sophisticated facility, with its steam room, sauna and relaxation room? cunnamullahotsprings.com

It's a scorcher of a day when we hit Charlotte Plains, a 27,000-hectare family-owned sheep station with campsites surrounding their bore, giving a whole new meaning to "water park". Sunk in 1892 to a depth of 561 metres, the bore belched out about 13 million litres a day that flowed into a 183-kilometre network of V-shaped drains for watering stock on their and neighbouring properties. Now the water is mostly piped to troughs, eliminating wastage through evaporation and seepage.

At the bore camp a rusty horizontal pipe two metres overhead spouts water from each end, forming billabongs that flow into creek-like drains. You could shower underneath them if they weren't so damn hot. The water's said to be 42 degrees but I swear it's hotter.

We take to bathtubs instead, two of many positioned in pairs along the bore drain, letting the water cool a bit first. Lying back with a cold bevvy we watch the landscape spring to life 3D movie-style. Crimson dragonflies materialise among the rushes, dotterels dart to the water's edge, pecking mud like nodding car ornaments. A white-necked heron descends ethereally into the creek and a long-necked turtle periscopes a miniature Loch Ness monster impersonation.

After a self-drive tour of the station, we head to the private bath hut with tubs overlooking the plains. There are peeping toms though, curious kangaroos and emus, but the ground parrots avert their gaze as frogs honk a sundown riff.

It's the Bore Bar's last day for the season and we join another couple for a coldie and a yarn before retreating to our air-conditioned cabin. During peak times, this picnic area buzzes with families beneath the fairy lights, toasting marshmallows over campfires as steam rises from the bore drains. charlotteplains.com.au

Mud, glorious mud. Eulo, population about 100, is famous for it, thanks to artesian mud springs and Ian and Nan Pike, who established the Eulo Mud Baths 20 years ago. Now run by Edyta Brummell they're a quirky collection of clawfoot tubs corralled by corrugated iron - think eclectic, rustic chic.

Edyta fills the cherry, chalk and cyan coloured baths with artesian water and clay powder from the mud springs. The putty-hued powder is rich in calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, silica and zinc, but not sulphur, unlike New Zealand's whiffy geothermal mud.

The 90-minute session includes a drink and snacks served on a board atop the bath, and after a 40-minute soak, it's time to climb out and massage a mud paste onto your skin. Once dry and crinkly, it's back into the tub and scrub-a-dub-dub, which leaves the skin feeling silky smooth. The final flourish is lashings of moisturiser. artesianmudbathseulo.com.au

There're no hot pools in Thargo, as this town of 250 people call it, but it's famous for harnessing the power of artesian water. And it shares this story in an awesome way. For a small fee we buy a swipe card from the Visitor Centre, which lets us into the Old Hospital and Old Jail museums and the historic Hydro Power Plant. After swiping for access into the tiny Power Plant building we swipe again and a hologram of 1890s blacksmith Joe Hood pops up and tells the yarn of how the town was the first in Australia, and the third in the world after London and Paris, to use artesian water for hydro-electric-powered street lighting.

After starting to drill for town water in 1891, it was finally struck in 1893 at 808 metres, hologram Joe tells us. The pressure was so strong it blasted a plume of 86-degree water 20 metres into the air. Ladies brought corned beef to cook in the hot water and farmers used it to scald hair off pig carcasses.

Lily-fringed Lake Houdraman, four kilometres outside Quilpie, shimmers like a mirage on the red dirt floodplains. Resting from the heat beneath shady gums we watch herons, egrets and native hens stalking in the shallows, along with cute floppy-eared goats.

The owners of The Lake, Louise and Dan Hoch, run Kalahari goats on the 10,000-hectare property along with sheep and beef cattle. On a private 4WD station tour Dan explains their regenerative farming techniques involving horseshoe-shaped channels for retaining rainwater and reducing runoff.

They're also building excellent facilities for road-trippers, which include shady drive-through caravan sites, private cottages and a lush happy-hour lawn. But it's their Lake Bathhouse that raises the bar for intimate artesian bathing.

In the purpose-built corrugated iron pavilion, huge louvred shutters slide open to reveal a view over the lake. There's a woodfired heater, patio table and chairs, and a showerhead over the claw foot tubs. We sink into the baths cradling gin and tonics, nibbles on a table between us, a view of the clouds above through the half-ceiling. This is balneotherapy, outback style, complete with mischievous goat scrambling through the window to join us. thelakequilpie.com

These towns' artesian baths lean more towards urban aquatic centres. Mitchell's Great Artesian Spa is a grand name for two free-form pools that curl into each other like a Yin Yang symbol. They're tucked beside Cafe on the Deck, so you can sip barista coffee as soon as you slip out of the water. With plenty of shade, artfully landscaped surrounds, easy accessibility, including a hydro chair, and free use of gym equipment, it's a popular community hub. There's an artesian pool with an accessible ramp at St George Aquatic Centre too, complementing the 50-metre lap pool and children's splash park. greatartesianspa.com

The writer was a guest of Outback Queensland Tourism and Tourism and Events Queensland.