Lake Pedder - Lost to Tasmania and the World - Lest We Forget
In 1972, without any public consultation, this exquisite lake was drowned under 50 feet of water by the Tasmanian Government, to create a hydro-electric scheme. There is now a PROPOSAL to drain and restore the lake. These magnificent photos were captured by Gavin Johnstone before it was flooded.
Heiko De Groot sitting in the button grass and Kate, Dallas and Beth walking on the beach.
New Lake Pedder From Arthur Ranges Remember Lake Pedder Value of Lake Pedder
Bushwalking The Launceston Walking Club Inc Snow Skiing
An Encounter with a Tasmanian Tiger
THE FLOODING OF LAKE PEDDER
The Federal Government Lake Pedder Committee of Enquiry,
appointed in 1973 after the lake was flooded, said:
"...If Pedder is destroyed, then no natural feature of Australia is free from economic predation no matter how valuable aesthetically, scientifically, historically, or spiritually..."
Lake Pedder was a unique glacial lake nine square kilometres in area with a beach of pink quartz sand three kilometres long and nearly one kilometre wide. The core and focal point of southwest Tasmania, Pedder was declared the Lake Pedder National Park in 1955, and incorporated into a new, and larger South West National Park in 1968.
With no public consultation whatever, Lake Pedder was flooded in 1972 for a hydro-electric power scheme. INESCO’s International Biological Program regarded the flooding as “the greatest ecological tragedy since European settlement of Tasmania”. The embryonic conservation movement valiantly opposed the flooding but the groundswell came too late. The suddenness and stealth with which the flooding was announced brought desperate attempts officially discouraged by the government and by the Hydro-Electric Commission, to study the biological resources of the region.
At the time of flooding it was claimed that there were seventeen endemic species of animals and plants at Lake Pedder. The lake was placed within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area in 1982 because of the IUCN’s express hope for this restoration as a natural lake.
Pedder was widely accepted as the cradle of conservation, a
test case for Australia and issue of classic proportions which generated more
interest and concern than any other environmental issue before it. Lake Pedder
became the focus for the world’s first Green political party and the catalyst
for a wilderness movement that successes in saving the Franklin River.
Extracts From Lake Pedder Published By Habitat Australia, May 1994