Ken Kronberger said the spring was featured in the famous painter’s 1890 The Girl in the Red Dress painting, which depicts Lindsay’s younger sister Pearl standing beside a poplar tree.

Mr Kronberger said since a former council concrete capped the spring – which is bright mustard in colour from its mineral composition – the poplar tree died.

Hepburn Shire Council has recently installed placards across the town in its new Creswick of the Lindsays Art Trail.

A placard on Albert Street points tourists to the now capped creek and the now dead tree.

“I think he (Percy Lindsay) chose that part because of the water. It was a pity to lose a living link to the Lindsays, because the tree was alive,” Mr Kronberger said.

The South Street Spring, also known as Tait’s Spring, is plugged with a concrete drain cover, with its flow directed down a pipe and into an open drain leading to Creswick Creek.

Mr Kronberger said the spring flowed like a “household tap on low” and had previously attracted recreational walkers as it created a small attractive pool.

He called on the council to test the water, not to open the site as a drinking site, but “as a natural wonder” at the “rural and picturesque” site.

Mr Kronberger suggested especially since a placard directed tourists to the site, it should be included in the shire’s list of recognised mineral springs and “brought to a presentable standard equivalent to all other mineral springs in the shire”.

“The potential tourism benefits to Creswick are obvious. A mineral spring for Creswick would create a sense of inclusiveness in the mineral spring-driven promotion of the shire.”

He also said the community wanted to know why the spring had been plugged, since no announcement had been made.

Mr Kronberger has submitted to council that $1000 be provided in its 2016-17 budget for laboratory testing of the water, to determine its potential as a hydrogeological asset.

Creswick ward councillor Don Henderson said he believed the spring had been capped by Creswick Council before amalgamating with Hepburn Shire in response to the flow causing a mud pool across South Street.

He said council was keen to investigate whether the flow was from a natural spring or from a leftover gold mine aquifer.

“We’ve received Mr Kronberger’s request and the council is giving serious consideration to doing this as part of our investigation into our mineral spring reserves,” Cr Henderson said.

“The shire is looking at all its mineral springs, we have a mineral springs reserve and the money that’s in that can be used to investigate and enhance mineral springs throughout the shire, not just in Daylesford. 

“(But) we need to investigate and identify it as a spring.”