The Restoration of Lake Pedder

At a time when Tasmania faces seemingly intractable economic challenges, the Lake Pedder Restoration Committee (LPRC) is holding a major event on the afternoon of 6 July (Today) at MONA to reconsider the beautiful and possible idea of restoring Lake Pedder.

The LPRC has developed a 3D visualisation Lake Pedder: Inundation and Restoration which will enable viewers to appreciate the process, the drama and the excitement of restoration of this unique landscape.

The visualisation also demonstrates how civil engineering works can reconfigure the Middle Gordon power scheme so that alongside a restored Lake Pedder, it can continue to generate 85% of its current output.

Our aim is to convey the potential of Lake Pedder restoration as a valid and viable idea for the future of a Tasmania that has run out of other BIG ideas; and we hope to convince government to conduct a thorough analysis of the potential economic and other benefits that restoration offers.

Peter Thompson of ABC Talking Heads fame will chair a panel discussion with Peter Fagan, the author of the 3D visualisation and Emeritus Professor Peter Tyler, who knew Lake Pedder and has continued to study it over a 50 year period. Professor Tyler also knew Lagoon of Islands and is a member of Hydro Tasmania’s advisory committee on the ecological restoration of the lagoon following the recent demolition of the dam.

The event will conclude with the famous Olegas Truchanas audio visual presentation My Pedder which introduced Lake Pedder to a wide audience and inspired so many among them to oppose its flooding.

Glenda Russell-Bergan, Lake Pedder Restoration Committee convenor said: “Forty years ago, in June 1973, the Lake Pedder Committee of Enquiry recommended a moratorium of at least three years, during which the waters that had flooded Lake Pedder in 1972 could be drained and the decision to flood the lake reassessed.

Realising that the moratorium would save the lake, the Tasmanian government rejected the proposal and Lake Pedder remained flooded.

Despite this lost opportunity, the restoration of Lake Pedder remains an aspiration of many Tasmanians and indeed Australians.

We hope that viewing the 3D visualisation will help Tasmanians to understand that restoration of Lake Pedder is practical, possible and will be of great benefit to Tasmania.”

About the Lake Pedder Restoration Committee:

The Lake Pedder Restoration Committee (LPRC) works to present the case for Lake Pedder’s restoration to the community and to government.

Websites: www.lakepedder.org | lakepedder.wordpress.com

• Steve Biddulph, in Comments: The tourism and inspirational value of this reclamation would be immense, a world-scale good news story, unfolding gradually and visibly for the whole world to see. It’s because of the drama and struggle that Strahan and the Gordon River still attract hundreds of thousands each year. A loss that becomes a win would enshrine Tasmania as the little island that cared. That fought back. That holds beauty and wildness at its heart.

• Perko, in Comments: Every time this comes up it is ridiculed by people with little or no situational knowledge, but an ingrained hatred for anything ‘green’. I think that if people would look a little deeper before passing judgement on this issue, the day will come sooner rather than later when my generation has the opportunity to walk on that beach. In my opinion, the Pedder issue is where the divisions in Tasmania started, while I’m not naive enough to suggest that resurrection will see the end of these divisions, I do think that the attention, skills and opportunities that the rehabilitation process will bring to the state will ultimately prove the point that the environment, (particularly ours), does have a value that can be measured, even by the driest rationalist.

• Frank Strie, Comment 16: Hello Sue #11, Valuable, valid comments. You and anyone else concerned about the future of our grandchildren and theirs, may like to check out the links to presentations I have provided since Monday: HERE Restoration management could happen. The coin will drop eventually,- or has it already? Time will be the judge