Government's Lake Pedder Enquiry Report, 'The Future of Lake Pedder', was first printed in an interim format for the Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra
This book, which includes that Report. is published by the Lake Pedder Action Committees throughout Australia
September, 1973
Postal address: LPAC Hobart. GPO Box 12581\1 HobartTasmania 7001 Telephone345543
Cover photograph, Jim England
Frontispiece photograph, 12.300 feet above Lake Pedder, Lands Department, Tasmania
Other colour photographs, Jim England
Black & White photographs Geoff Parr, Pages 53. 54, 55, 57, 58, 59, 61.62, 63,67. Jim England, Pages 56, 64, 65, 66, 68. Peter Donnelly, Page 3 Norman Laird, Page 60. Cover and Book design, Chris Cowles
Prepared in Hobart, Tasmania
Set on IBM 8pt Univers light, 2pts leaded
Printed in Australia by Southwood Press Pty Limited 22 Steam Mill Street, Sydney 2000 Note
Registered in Australia for transmission by post as a book
Note
The Australian Minister for the Environment and Conservation, the Hen. Dr Moss Cass MP, on 23 February 1973, appointed a Committee of Enquiry to study the Lake Pedder case.
The Committee were -Professor John Burton (Professor of Natural Resources, New England University), Dr W.D. Williams (Reader in Zoology, Monash University), Mr Edward St John (Company Director, former parliamentarian), and Mr D.G. Hill (Consulting Engineer).
The Committee took written and verbal evidence, both privately and at public hearings in Hobart and Melbourne. It also undertook research, working with both conservation interests and, where possible, with the Hydro Electric Commission of Tasmania.
Establishment, or at least suggestion, of future guidelines for the Australian Government, with regard to major development projects was the prime purpose of the Enquiry.
The saving of Lake Pedder, though, remained within the Enquiry's scope and was accorded major importance, particularly by the media and most organisations and individuals presenting evidence.
The urgency of a stop to the flooding of Lake Pedder was regarded as considerable, and as there were two distinct aspects to decide upon, the study group gave priority to a first report on 'The Future of Lake Pedder'. 200 copies as an Interim Edition were released to the press, some politicians, and conservation organisations. (It is this report that we include in this book.)
A Report dealing with future guidelines for the Australian Government is to be completed, and it is expected that the Minister will ask that it be printed and made available, later this year.
The Lake Pedder Action Committee has published this book now to assist the crucial decision making of the next few weeks.
The Minister for Environment and Conservation has indicated that he will make submissions to his Government soon, seeking their support for implementation of the recommendations of this Report.
The Interim Edition of the 'Future of Lake Pedder' was printed by Pirie Printers Pty Ltd for the Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, June 1973. CommonweaIth of Australia, 1973. ISBN O 642 00335 1. Pages are the text, as published in that issue of 200.
This special edition, with photographs, by Lake Pedder Action Committee, is an issue of 3,000 copies.
In printing this new edition the Committee has sought to improve the design, and has included a selection of fine photographs to give readers a more total appreciation of Lake Pedder.
Nonetheless, the experience of Lake Pedder remains unrivalled.
Lake Pedder Action Committee is a national organisation with the objective of saving Lake Pedder by seeking modification to the Gordon River Power Development, Stage i. LPAC has branches in Hobart, Launceston, and North West Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia, and New South Wales; and the active support of almost 300 environment organisations throughout Australia.
We wish to thank Dr Cass and his staff, Dr J.G. Mosley, Australian Conservation Foundation, the Members of the Government's Enquiry, particularly Mr Edward St John, Mrs Christine Settle, Secretary to the Enquiry. the Department of the Environment and Conservation, and the Total Environment Centre.
A Postscript, certain Notable Quotes, and a list of Further Reading on Lake Pedder is included at the end of this book.
On a Friday morning, 8th September, last year. a Tiger Moth biplane set off from Hobart's Cambridge Airport headed for Canberra. Pilot. Mr Max Price and passenger. Mrs. Brenda Hean, intended to fly to Canberra and under take skywriting over the city and to talk with members of the Australian Parliament. Their motivation and cause Lake Pedder. The plane disappeared, and the Lake Pedder campaign suffered its saddest loss. Two brave Tasmanians vanished. Searching was to no avail.
Max Price was born in 1915 at Eaglehawk Neck in Tasmania. Flying became his interest and profession. Max was well respected as one of the State's most experienced and capable pilots. He flew the 'Tiger' to Lake Pedder several times, and the plane was the source of story for a children's fiction book on Pedder. released by co-incidence a few months after the disappearance.
Brenda Hean was born in Hobart in 1910. Apart from being a frequent visitor to Lake Pedder. both on walking and flying excursions. Brenda was a keen musician, often playing the organ at her church in Hobart. Brenda stood as a United Tasmania Group candidate when conservationists attempted to win Parliamentary representation; and camped at the Pedder lakeside Vigil even as the floodwaters rose. She was one of the most active members of the campaign for some years and had a greatly admired capacity to recharge others determination and enthusiasm.
After a six year controversy the Lake Pedder debate is nearly settled. There can be a stop to the lake's destruction.
That is the unanimous recommendation of this Report. All we await now is the necessary political action to implement the recommendations, of this, the Australian Government's Lake Pedder Enquiry.
Pedder is widely accepted as the conservation test case for Australia; the issue of classic proportions which has generated more interest and concern than any other environment issue in our nation. As the Committee of Enquiry note, "Of all the natural assets yet threatened by development in Australia, Lake Pedder is seen as the most precious."
The Enquiry team also point to the argument that. "if Pedder is destroyed, then no natural feature of Australia is safe from economic predation no matter how valuable aesthetically, scientifically, historically, or spiritually".
Australia is fortunate to have a largely unspoiled National Park resource like the South West Tasmanian wilderness; an area which stands now as one of this Earth's few temperate wilderness areas; a spectacular and beautiful landscape.
But the South West is being rapidly eroded -quarrying of Precipitous Bluff, on the south coast, being the most recent suggestion.
Still the immediate and crucial issue which has, not surprisingly, dominated and aroused interest, is Lake Pedder the core, and the focal point, of the South West. the centre of this primitive area.
The destruction of Lake Pedder has rightly been criticised by well respected international scientific authorities, because 20 species of plants and animals, unique to Pedder, would be lost to science and humanity if the flooding went ahead.
The Park's flooding has also been attacked by prominent community leaders, such as His Royal Highness, Prince Philip, as both a person with a close interest in wildlife and as President of the Australian Conservation Foundation. Australia's Chief Justice. Sir Garfield Barwick, explorer. Sir Edmund Hillary; and His Excellency the Governor of South Australia, Sir Mark Oliphant, himself an internationally eminent scientist -all these people have voiced their protest for Pedder.
Even in the cynical world of politics conservation has recently gained an acceptance... and that's where it matters!
Within months of assuming office Mr Whitlam's Government joined Australia up as a member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources an organisation which has solidly condemned the flooding of Pedder as "the greatest ecological tragedy since European settlement of Tasmania":
This new Government also established an Inquiry into the National Estate which in its recommendations to the Minister for the Environment and Conservation stated that "no finer addition could be made to the Australian National Estate, than Lake Pedder; with the possible exception of the entire Great Barrier Reef".
The Enquiry has been keenly supported by a number of the Members of Parliament elected for their first time last December. For example, Mr John Coates MHR has energetically sought to reflect the views of his constituents, the people of Denison (the Hobart city electorate), by his active support for Pedder.
And the need to save Lake Pedder has been recognised by senior ministers in the Labor Cabinet, including the Ministers for Energy, Health, Secondary Industry and Regional Development, as well as the Minister for Environment and Conservation.
We were very pleased to note that the Tasmanian Premier, Mr E.E. Reece MHA, at the Surfers Paradise ALP Conference pointed to the fact that -"The Report of the Lake Pedder Committee now depends on the attitude that is taken by the Australian Government".
But arguments can ebb and flow forever. without results. It's time now for positive action.
And so with no more appropriate assertion could I introduce this book, than that challenge thrown down by the present Prime Minister, the Hon E.G. Whitlam OC, when he concluded a statement of support for saving Lake Pedder with these words "Let's see some of these issues through!"
Clive Sansom
Hobart September, 1373