Media Release – Restore Pedder, 8 March 2025
70th Anniversary of Pedder National Park: Hydro still destroying Wilderness World Heritage Area
Seventy years ago people saw what an incredibly beautiful and unique place Lake Pedder was. On 8th March 1955, Lake Pedder was proclaimed a National Park inclusive of over 230 square kilometers of untouched Tasmanian wilderness. Generations to follow would be able to witness and appreciate Lake Pedder’s incredible natural beauty and biodiversity value.
Seventy years later, we are not celebrating. Not only was the National Park revoked in 1967 to flood Lake Pedder, but now they are doing it again.
Instead of embracing the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and restoring Lake Pedder, our Tasmanian and Federal Governments won’t look past their extractivism and are in the process of doubling down on destroying the incredible “outstanding natural values” Lake Pedder holds.
Works have begun on rebuilding the Edgar Dam within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Hydro Tasmania has breached its environmental conditions with no penalty to date.
Large machinery has been operating, truckloads of materials have been brought in, and clearing of native vegetation has been ongoing in the TWWHA since the start of the works (28/01/2025) with no functional biosecurity stations in place (as of 02/03/2025). Several threatened species are known to be in the area with no proper measures in place to protect biodiversity or World Heritage Values.
The Environment Minister and their department are aware Hydro is not complying with the Environment and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 yet no apparent action has been taken.
Disturbance to them means eradication.
Our Federal Environment Minister continues to sit silently waiting for another climate disaster to strike in Tasmania. They’re putting biodiversity on the line, climate resilience on the line, and progress on the line.
Tasmanian’s need to move forward, accept and rectify the mistakes of the past, and build a better Tasmania for future generations. In this UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration we should be working towards supporting ecosystems which support all life on Earth, rather than degrading them further.
See images below.
Before: Edgar Dam and Edgar Campground site near beginning of Edgar Dam Works (taken 1st February 2025).
After: Heavy machinery and “washdown station” (in rear) not even unpacked in the TWWHA at Edgar Dam, with cleared vegetation and disturbed ground, piles of fill. (taken 2nd March 2025, Michael Dempsey, Tasmanian birdwatcher, bushwalker and photographer).
After: Unproposed cleared native vegetated land within Edgar Campground with little to no erosion/siltation/runoff control into Edgar Toe Pond & Edgar Pond where threatened galaxias species inhabit (taken 2nd March 2025, Michael Dempsey, Tasmanian birdwatcher, bushwalker and photographer).
Before: Stockpile Site on Scott’s Peak Rd, still undisturbed by Edgar Dam Project. (taken 01/02/2025)
After: Cleared vegetation at Scott’s Peak Rd Stockpile Site where only “some trimming and removal of trees (of up to 0.05ha) may be required”. Pictured: Christine Milne AO, Lake Pedder Restoration Inc. Convenor. (taken 25/02/2025)
