Lake Pedder

The original and modified lake

In early 20th century, the original lake was named after John Pedder, the first chief justice of Tasmania. The new artificial impoundment received the official name of the original lake. Although the new Lake Pedder incorporates the original lake, it does not resemble it in size, appearance, or ecology.

The new lake consists of an impoundment contained by three dams:

• Serpentine Dam – a 38 m high rockfill dam with a concrete upstream face on the Serpentine River
• Scotts Peak Dam – a 43 m high rockfill dam with a bitumen upstream face on the upper reaches of the Huon River near Scotts Peak
• Edgar Dam – a 17 m high rockfill dam at Lake Edgar near Scotts Peak

The dams were designed and constructed by Tasmania's Hydro Electric Commission (HEC) as part of the Upper Gordon River hydroelectric generation scheme. The aim of this scheme was to increase Tasmania's capacity to generate hydroelectricity in accordance with the Tasmanian government's policy of attempting to attract secondary industry to the state with the incentive of cheap, renewable energy.

The new Huon Serpentine impoundment, which filled after the dams were completed in 1972, drains into Lake Gordon via the McPartlan Pass Canal. Together, the lakes form the biggest water catchment and storage system in Australia.

Climate

Lake Pedder has an oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb).

| Jan record high C = 38.6 | Feb record high C = 35.9 | Mar record high C = 37.5 | Apr record high C = 29.1 | May record high C = 22.0 | Jun record high C = 15.7 | Jul record high C = 17.1 | Aug record high C = 22.5 | Sep record high C = 25.2 | Oct record high C = 30.6 | Nov record high C = 34.8 | Dec record high C = 36.3 | Jan record low C = 2.6 | Feb record low C = 3.3 | Mar record low C = 1.3 | Apr record low C = −0.4 | May record low C = −1.1 | Jun record low C = −1.0 | Jul record low C = −2.3 | Aug record low C = −2.1 | Sep record low C = −1.6 | Oct record low C = −1.0 | Nov record low C = −0.5 | Dec record low C = 1.5

Damming

Protests occurred in Tasmania and mainland Australia at the flooding of the original lake, before, during, and after construction of the dams. Protests began when in 1967 the Tasmanian government revoked the status of the Lake Pedder National Park that had protected the lake since 1955. The role of the HEC as a surrogate wing of the Tasmanian government was perceived when the political or wider social dissent against the HEC power over the Tasmanian environment seemed impregnable. Tasmania's political leader, Premier Eric Reece and Allan Knight, the HEC commissioner, were seen as the leading proponents of the damming of Tasmania against any opinion to the contrary, and were not averse to taking their opinions to statewide and national advertising campaigns asserting their right to dam the lake.

Reece was well known for his staunch support of the HEC and its power-development schemes on the Gordon River, which earned him the nickname "Electric Eric". In 1972, Reece approved the flooding of Lake Pedder, which proceeded despite a determined protest movement and a blank cheque offer from Prime Minister Gough Whitlam to preserve the Lake Pedder area. Reece refused Whitlam's offer, stating that he would "not have the federal government interfering with the sovereign rights of Tasmania".

A series of photographs in the 1976 Tasmanian Year book illustrated the process of flooding of the Lake Pedder area.

Community response

Opposition to the flooding of Lake Pedder extended well beyond Tasmania and spread throughout Australia and internationally. The focus on the South West Tasmania Wilderness area as an environmental battleground increased interest in the area, and many travelled to Lake Pedder before it was flooded to see what the issues were about.

In 1971, a large number of people travelled to Pedder to see the lake before it was to be inundated, and a particular weekend in March of that year became known as the Pedder Pilgrimage due to the large number of people present.

The protests included the United Tasmania Group, which were the precursor to the Tasmanian Greens and are now recognised as the world's first green party. The group that preceded the Tasmanian Wilderness Society – the South West Tasmania Action Committee - continued after the flooding, with the knowledge that surveying and appraising other catchments in the south west and west of Tasmania was well underway by the HEC. Although increasingly sophisticated economic, environmental, and engineering arguments were raised by the opponents of the dam, but until the Franklin scheme, neither the Hydro nor its defenders even considered the critiques. In 1972, Christian activist Brenda Hean perished with pilot Max Price in a Tiger Moth aircraft they were flying from Tasmania to Canberra to protest the damming of Lake Pedder; allegedly, pro-dam campaigners had entered the plane's hangar and placed sugar in one of its fuel tanks.

Hesba Fay Brinsmead, an Australian children's author and environmentalist, wrote two books about the damming of Lake Pedder:

• Echo in the Wilderness is a children's novel set on Lake Pedder on the eve of its flooding (published 1972).
• I Will Not Say the Day Is Done (her only nonfiction/adult book) describes the struggle to save Lake Pedder (published 1983).

Concerns over the construction of the dam revolved around the loss of the distinctive pink quartzite beach of the original lake, and an increased understanding of the unique nature of the wilderness quality to the south west of Tasmania. This developed further with the Franklin Dam issue.

In 1994, a campaign group was launched called Pedder 2000. They proposed, unsuccessfully, the draining and restoration of the lake to its original state. A low-key campaign is going on with the same goal by the group known as the Lake Pedder Action Committee, which remains active.

Name Controversy

As is the case in many land-use, land-ownership, and territorial disputes, the name currently officially assigned to this body of water has considerable significance. It is also important in terms of understanding the technical status of the body of water as a component of a hydroelectric scheme.

From a technical, hydroelectric scheme point of view, the current Lake Pedder can be correctly termed a lake or reservoir, as the water from Lake Pedder can flow into Lake Gordon via the McPartlan's Pass canal and is thereby connected to the Gordon power station. However, people opposed to the flooding of the original lake do not accept the legitimacy of the official, gazetted name of Lake Pedder for the body of water that drowned it in 1972. Instead, they prefer to use the name Huon–Serpentine Impoundment. This name denotes the two major rivers dammed to create the current lake (Huon and Serpentine) and describes the technical status of the lake as an element of a hydroelectric scheme (impoundment) more accurately than the terms lake or reservoir. Some Bushwalkers informally refer to it as "Fake Pedder".

Lake Pedder extinctions

The Lake Pedder earthworm (Hypolimnus pedderensis) is only known by the type specimen collected from a beach on Lake Pedder, Tasmania, in 1971. After the flooding of the lake, this invertebrate has not been seen again. A 1996 survey that sought to determine whether the species still existed in the area failed to find any examples. Since 2003, the Lake Pedder earthworm has been listed as extinct on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

An extinction claimed to have occurred after the flooding is that of the Lake Pedder planarian (Romankenkius pedderensis), an endemic flatworm. Since 1996, this invertebrate has also been listed as extinct on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In 2012, the continued existence of this species was reported.

The Pedder galaxias, an Australian freshwater fish, is considered extinct in its natural habitat of Lake Pedder and its tributaries, although it still exists in captivity and in two translocated populations, one at Lake Oberon in the Western Arthurs mountain range and the other at a modified water-supply dam near Strathgordon.

Restoration campaign

To coincide with the United Nations Decade of Ecological Restoration, 2021–2030, the Lake Pedder Restoration Committee is aiming to have the lake restored to its original state. The committee, convened by Christine Milne with support from Todd Dudley, Bob Brown, Paul Thomas, and Tabatha Badger, plans to have an ecological management plan to restore the original Lake Pedder and surrounding iconic ecosystems.

Gallery

Lake Pedder & Environs - 19.jpg|Shores of Lake Pedder, 1970. Lake Pedder Beach March 1966.jpg|Photograph of Lake Pedder Beach, March 1966.

References

References

1. (2012). "Register of Large Dams in Australia". [[Australian National Committee on Large Dams]].
2. "The Gordon Catchment". [[Hydro Tasmania]].
3. House of Representatives Standing Committee on Environment, Recreation and the Arts. (June 1995). "Inquiry into the proposal to drain and restore Lake Pedder". [[Australian Government Publishing Service]].
4. link. (6 July 2011 , www.wheretostay.com.au, Accessed 29 November 2009)
5. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220821083524/https://engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/2022-06/eha-magazine-v1-6.pdf The Hydro after 100 Years] ''[[EHA Magazine]]'' March 2015 page 19
6. "Gordon-Pedder". [[Hydro Tasmania]].
7. {{BoM Aust stats. (August 2022)
8. McKenry, Keith, ''Pedder Papers – Anatomy of a Decision'', 1972, chapter: A History and critical analysis of the controversy concerning the Gordon River Power Scheme, pages 9 – 39, publisher: [[Australian Conservation Foundation]]
9. Millwood, Scott. (2008). "Whatever happened to [[Brenda Hean]]?". [[Allen & Unwin]].
10. [http://www.abc.net.au/dimensions/dimensions_in_time/Transcripts/s578467.htm Lake Pedder 30th Anniversary], ''Dimensions in Time'' ([[Australian Broadcasting Corporation. ABC TV]]), 10 June 2002.
11. [http://abc.net.au/science/kelvin/files/s18.htm TimeFrame: Lake Pedder], [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation. ABC TV]].
12. Reid, Vern. (1976). "Tasmanian Year Book No. 10". [[Australian Bureau of Statistics]].
13. (1987). "The United Tasmania Group".
14. (1994). "How Lake Pedder can be restored". Pedder 2000.
15. (2001). "Lake Pedder : values and restoration : the proceedings of a symposium held on 8th April 1995 at the University of Tasmania, Hobart". Centre for Environmental Studies, Dept. of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Tasmania.
16. [http://www.lakepedder.org/ Lake Pedder Restoration Committee]
17. "Scotts Park Dam". [[Engineers Australia]].
18. McConnel, Anne. "The Cultural Heritage of the Huon-Serpentine Impoundment, and an assessment of the effects of the restoration of Lake Pedder". Lake Pedder Restoration Committee.
19. (16 September 2011). "Lake Pedder – the victim of an ignorant time". The Habitat Advocate.
20. (7 July 2013). "Pedder campaign gains momentum". [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]].
21. "Hypolimnus pedderensis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
22. "Romankenkius pedderensis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
23. (2012). "Survival of endemic invertebrates of Lake Pedder and Lake Edgar subsequent to inundation".
24. "The Extinction Website".
25. (2006). "''Galaxias pedderensis''". Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage.
26. (2019-04-28). "Restore Pedder".