For centuries Ngai Tahu appreciated the thermal activity in this locality, which they named Mani Rauhea. (The Plain of the Shining Tussock.) The thermal springs were also known as Wahi Oranga, (the healing place) . The Maori legend of Tamatea, calling on the Ariki of the Northern volcanoes to save his party from freezing on their journey back to the North Island after their canoe was wrecked, gave rise to the hot springs being known as Te Whakatakaka O Te Ngarehu O Ahi Tamatea, (where the ashes of Tamateas' fire lay) .
The hot springs were close to the route used by early European settlers journeying from Nelson and Marlborough through to Canterbury. In 1859 attention was drawn to this special natural feature after they were "discovered" by William Jones and in 1860 the Nelson Provincial Government, recognizing their significance, created a reserve of some 2,560 acres (1,072 hectares) around the springs. In 1876 when provincial governments were abolished, the area became part of Canterbury. Increasingly, passers by enjoyed the benefits of a dip in the natural pools and in 1878 Mr. John Fry, who operated the nearby Jolies Pass Hotel, erected a bathing shed beside the main spring. By 1883 William Rolleston, Minister of Lands, became interested in the site's potential and the Lands Department built the first baths. This date has been recognised as the beginning of Hanmer Springs as a Government Resort and as a nationally significant Spa .
With a caretaker appointed to oversee activities the area was fenced, a pool excavated and a bath house built as the first stage of what was to develop into a large complex. Access to this remote area of Canterbury was greatly improved by completion of the railway from Christchurch to Culverden in 1886 and the coach service connecting to Hanmer Springs being able to use the Waiau Ferry Bridge, constructed in 1887. As a result, each year the number of recorded visitors to the pools increased, with facilities and the environs being improved accordingly. However, accommodation was scarce for the numerous, often frail people who sought the benefits of "taking the waters", so the government endeavoured to encourage the provision of an hotel by private enterprise. By 1896 reports from Hanmer Springs pleaded for conveniently located accommodation to be built, and while explaining the pleasure healthy visitors derived from the swimming pool, considerable emphasis was given to the importance of the baths' curative values. It was considered that those with sciatica and rheumatism benefited greatly from their visits, while breathing Hanmer Springs' high mountain air and inhaling steam from the hottest pool satisfactorily eased chest problems .
By December 1897 the government had responded and the Sanatorium was opened adjacent to the Springs. It offered 1st and 2nd class accommodation for 16-18 people and though chiefly occupied by patients using the pools, it provided no medical support. (Coincidentally, a lease of land in the town centre had at last been taken up for a hotel and Robert Hood of the Jollies Pass Hotel constructed The Lodge, which opened in October 1897.) The environs of the government reserve had been enhanced by tree planting since 1883 with over three thousand trees and shrubs planted just in 1897. The scenic attractions of the area with its stunning mountain backdrop were now frequently mentioned as a feature.
Methane gas collected from the springs was initially used for lighting and to heat the baths' waiting room and then in 1898 a gas-holder capable of holding 1,800 cubic feet of gas was erected near the pools. This enabled the sanatorium to run more economically by using natural gas for heating, lighting and cooking. Self-sufficiency was desirable because of Hanmer Springs' distance from ready supplies, so hens and cows were kept, and the vegetable garden and orchard were carefully maintained.
The focus on the Springs up to this time was as a Spa where health could be improved and thus the new building was named the Sanatorium. Although this focus continued, the broader attractions of the area were also promoted. The remote and therefore peaceful location at the edge of the Hanmer Basin, attractive mountain backdrop, the gardens, landscaped environs and recreational facilities at the springs and the appealing climate were all qualities to attract tourists. When the Tourist Department was created in 1901, control of the government facilities at Hanmer Springs were transferred from Lands and Survey to this new department. They renamed the Sanatorium The Spa, and built a massage building, a Tea House and a cold water swimming pool at the Springs complex. Rethinking their approach to accommodation in 1908, The Spa's name reverted to The Sanatorium, with the building now staffed by nurses and a resident medical officer. It did not function fully as a hospital, but provided care for the often fragile visitors, hoping to improve their health through bathing in the pools, drinking the water or inhaling the steam. The department's expenses increased causing anxieties about the Sanatorium's financial viability when it was destroyed by fire in August, 1914, though care and accommodation was still provided at a house in the village. A replacement sanatorium was designed but never built. This effectively brought about the end of Hanmer Springs' role as a spa in the European sense .
A new phase began in 1916. The ownership of The Lodge, Hanmer Springs' public hotel, had been taken over in 1907 by local runholder Duncan Rutherford. In 1914 he offered the complex for use as a convalescent home for servicemen. He also established the Amuri Red Cross which provided the home with a matron, a housekeeper, cook, domestic staff and food supplies, while the government paid for a doctor, military officer and medical supplies. The rather awkward mix of volunteers working under military command functioned with remarkable unanimity for about two years during which 215 servicemen were cared for . A more formal arrangement soon followed when the government organised the construction of a specially designed hospital alongside the hot springs complex. The Queen Mary Hospital for Sick and Wounded Soldiers opened on 3rd June 1916. As at Rotorua, the thermal springs and associated facilities were taken over for the benefit of the returned servicemen and it was recognised that there were special healing qualities in the Hanmer Springs environment. The Queen Mary Hospital initially functioned as a convalescent home, but increasingly it specialised in the treatment of shell-shock, neurasthenia and other functional nervous diseases. Captain Chisholm was one of two doctors sent for further training at Maudsley Neurological Hospital in England in 1919, returning at the end of that year to take charge of the Queen Mary Hospital. By this date the hospital, sited alongside the pools complex, provided the patients with access to a park like environment offering leisure activities including golf and tennis - all elements which would assist the healing process.
The hospital remained under military control until 1921 when it was handed over to the Department of Health with Dr. Chisholm as the Medical Superintendent. The self sufficiency of earlier days continued with the farm providing milk for the hospital and most of the village. Although large numbers of servicemen continued to receive treatment here, there was an increasing number of civilian patients and more accommodation was required. At the same time members of the public continued visiting to bathe and ingest the waters in order that their various ailments might be healed. The hospital acquired property within the township to house staff and patients and in 1926 a large ward was built to house female patients. (By 1952 it was renamed the Chisholm Ward to honour the long serving Medical Superintendent.) The Nurses' Home, built in 1927, provided more suitable living conditions for the staff, now predominantly female. In 1940, because of demand, a new and larger male ward was needed to replace the Soldiers Block. (Note: this building is not included in the proposed historic area). Its construction was delayed and inhibited as materials and workmen were in short supply in the first years of the war, but it was finally put into use and named the Rutherford Ward to commemorate the early support given to the Queen Mary Hospital by Duncan Rutherford. Meantime, it had been decided that the original building be retained and upgraded to again care for returning servicemen and women.
Use of the baths was originally an important component of the hospital's treatment programmes, assisting in patients' rehabilitation. This lessened as direction turned more exclusively to the treatment of functional nervous disorders and from the 1940s to the detoxification of alcoholics. In the following decades Hanmer Springs' hospital was recognised as New Zealand's principal center for the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction. In 1972 the North Canterbury Hospital Board took control of the hospital; later the Canterbury Hospital Board, the Canterbury Area Health Board, Health Link South and then the Canterbury District Health Board. Over the period from the 1980s there were threats of closure and in 1997 the complex was leased to a private consortium (the Hanmer Clinic) which continued to operate as a drug rehabilitation clinic with the backing of government funding. When this was withdrawn in 2003 the Clinic went into liquidation and ceased operating. The Canterbury District Health Board has resolved to dispose of the property and its future is currently uncertain.
With responsibility for the pools from 1921, the Health Department endeavoured to promote the tourism attractions of Hanmer Springs, with a tendency now to emphasise the broader scenic attractions and leisure activities of the area rather than the curative values of "taking the waters". In 1929 and 1940 respectively, the old bathhouses were demolished and new ones built, along with new massage blocks. Males and females were still catered for in separate establishments at this time. Because the facilities under hospital jurisdiction were not developed as they might have been, Hanmer Springs' residents were envious of the amenities available to the general public at Rotorua. From 1978 the pools area's management was separated from the hospital and transferred to the Hurunui District Council, with patients from the hospital retaining access for some years. Under Council management the complex has been completely reorganized and landscaped through major programmes undertaken in 1992 and 1999. It currently includes a swimming pool, natural rock pools, a hydroslide and massage facilities. Still retained are the 1904 Tea House and the 1899 Gasometer, notable reminders of the thermal pools' beginnings.
This whole complex is unique. The Queen Mary Hospital evolved from a military controlled hospital for healing shell shocked soldiers and it was established in Hanmer Springs for the benefits to be derived from use of the thermal pools as well as the healing qualities of the environs. Its patients have always been integrated into the town's normal functioning, so that they had no sense of shame being here. A significant aspect of difference between the Queen Mary Hospital and similar institutions is the date of its formation in 1916. This has meant that it has never been dominated by a grand but forbidding 19th century edifice as at Sunnyside (1868) in Christchurch, Seacliff (1878) near Dunedin or Porirua (1887) near Wellington. It has never been associated with the colonial nomenclature "Lunatic Asylum" nor has it had patients with the type of illness that made them violent and requiring full strength security. All these factors have allowed the Queen Mary Hospital to display the identity the early Maori recognized, Wahi Oranga, the healing place.