The ORIGINAL Lake Pedder

[Nuts]

The scrub would grow back in short measure. Buttongrass might need some help. The Scotts Peak airstrip was ripped and seeded in 1998, I can't find it on google earth (it's likely I haven't found it rather than it can't be seen, I can't recall the exact location..) but iv'e heard others are well recovered. The soil down in the catchment would be more fertile. A green army with seedbags would help.

[Hallu]

Draining massive areas under water has been done for a long time now. Go to the Mississippi delta, or in the Everglades, you'll see what man is capable of draining... it's usually done for settlement and industry of course, not for conservation or rehabilitation...

[icefest]

The Scotts Peak airstrip was ripped and seeded in 1998, I can't find it on google earth (it's likely I haven't found it rather than it can't be seen, I can't recall the exact location..)

Just next to Edgar Pondage:

[Nuts]

Ha, I'd assumed there was an older bush 'airstrip' as well as that 'landing ground'. I don't recall seeing water at the first site. Looking at the western end, however, maybe we did come back to the same site and park and work on different ends of the same strip. That does look re-planted, perhaps also the road in to it rehabilitated?

Hmm, still a way to go there . I'd imagine little more than solid rock or gravel though, maybe some peat brought up with the tynes in places.

[north-north-west]

If/when Pedder is drained it will take generations to regenerate right? Unless the world's people stop pumping CO2 etc into the atmosphere, global warming will cause sea levels to rise................. reflood Pedder yeah I know it's 300m asl, yatta yatta yatta

What would happen Tibboh, if the plug was pulled, would be entirely natural. The same existing (albeit drowned) contours of the ground would give us a body of water of the same shape as the original Lake Pedder .

That is where the similarity would end. The trouble is , we would'nt be happy with what happens naturally, even though, by all accounts, what happens to re-grow is what is best suited to the conditions.

The arrow of time has ticked on. There is no reversing the arrow of time. The best we could do is manufacture a cardboard cutout of the visual appearance. There is no regaining the experience of being lucky enough to visit the original.

Edit - An analogy - The favourite Aunt dies, and instead of grieving ,reflecting, learning, gaining wisdom - it is proposed to dig her up, dress her, put a bit of lippy on her , prop her in the corner and pretend she didn't die.

You are, in effect, saying that remediation and rehabilitation work at disused minesites is pointless. That once something is damaged we should not make any attempt at fixing it. That we should not try to limit the numbers of feral animals and plants or their affect on the environment. That we should not try to re-seed areas with species that once lived there but were driven out by the results of our actions.
And there are people who call me a pessimist . . .

[geoskid]

If/when Pedder is drained it will take generations to regenerate right? Unless the world's people stop pumping CO2 etc into the atmosphere, global warming will cause sea levels to rise................. reflood Pedder yeah I know it's 300m asl, yatta yatta yatta

What would happen Tibboh, if the plug was pulled, would be entirely natural. The same existing (albeit drowned) contours of the ground would give us a body of water of the same shape as the original Lake Pedder .

That is where the similarity would end. The trouble is , we would'nt be happy with what happens naturally, even though, by all accounts, what happens to re-grow is what is best suited to the conditions.

The arrow of time has ticked on. There is no reversing the arrow of time. The best we could do is manufacture a cardboard cutout of the visual appearance. There is no regaining the experience of being lucky enough to visit the original.

Edit - An analogy - The favourite Aunt dies, and instead of grieving ,reflecting, learning, gaining wisdom - it is proposed to dig her up, dress her, put a bit of lippy on her , prop her in the corner and pretend she didn't die.

You are, in effect, saying that remediation and rehabilitation work at disused minesites is pointless. That once something is damaged we should not make any attempt at fixing it. That we should not try to limit the numbers of feral animals and plants or their affect on the environment. That we should not try to re-seed areas with species that once lived there but were driven out by the results of our actions.
And there are people who call me a pessimist . . .

Well, I don't really think any of that.
I also don't think in terms of damage in this case, because that implies there is a way things should be.I think there is only the way things were, the way things are, the way individuals or groups of people wish things to be, and how people feel about it all.
I'm increasingly questioning of should/should not statements. (And hard to answer satisfactorily, I find).

I prefer to think of myself as a realist, or just plain weird.

[tas-man]

Here's some early photos of Lake Pedder that I found on Flickr in this album "Tasmania in the 1950's" created by Janette Asche's of her Fathers slides.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/7272097@N ... 111020813/
Just in case the link breaks in future, I have added some to this thread.

[tas-man]

[tas-man]

Serpentine River Valley 1953

[tibboh]

Wow, thanks again.

[tas-man]

Found another collection of Lake Pedder area Kodachrome slides from 1969-1971 that are a wonderful record of not only the lake but views from the Franklands and various approaches to the lake. https://www.flickr.com/photos/garratt3/ ... 08848640/#
To quote from the notes to this collection -
"There are two trips to Lake Pedder featured in this Set.
Firstly, in December, 1969, a party from the Kamerukan Bushwalking Club stayed overnight at the Lake, en route to a traverse of the Western and Eastern Arthurs. Other Sets featuring these slides and those of the Arthur Ranges are now complete.
Secondly, in December, 1970, small party of bushwalking friends made a flying visit to Lake Pedder in December, 1970, and the images from that trip make up the majority of those in this Set.
By the summer of 1972, it would be inundated by the Huon Serpentine impoundment. Consequenty, many of the locations from where these photos were taken are now completely submerged.
All shots were taken on Kodachome II (25 ISO) with a Pentax Spotmatic and scanned with a Nikon Coolscan 500ED 35mm film scanner.. Some of these transparencies were difficult to scan, because, fashionably, they were (under)exposed at 32 ISO, which in the 60s and 70s made for rich colours suitable for the slide projector."

Here are some samples from the collection.

[pazzar]

Amazing! Thanks Tas-man!

[beardless]

In case people have not seen them there are some black and white photos of Lake Pedder from the 1950s and 1960s on Dirk Veltkamp's website which records some of the bushwalking exploits of his neighbour, Keith Lancaster here: http://dveltkamp.customer.netspace.net.au/LakePedder/index.htm

Also, the site contains a large number of reports some of which discuss Lake Pedder: http://dveltkamp.customer.netspace.net.au/KeithLancaster/Admin/Updates.htm

[tas-man]

Those of you old enough to remember the creation of the original Lake Pedder National Park in 1955 might be interested in attending this event.

[didielicious]

Hi there,

My name is Diana Reynolds and I am producing a small illustrated book about growing up in Tassie in the 1960s. As lake Pedder and all the issues thereof were just around the corner in the early 70's I would like to include a page about it. Could I use the photo by Tasman as reference? Also further down, there is a photo of a bust of Truganini by Pedro. Does anyone know anything about it? Is it still there or was it flooded? Did it get put back there???

[icefest]

Hi there,

My name is Diana Reynolds and I am producing a small illustrated book about growing up in Tassie in the 1960s. As lake Pedder and all the issues thereof were just around the corner in the early 70's I would like to include a page about it. Could I use the photo by Tasman as reference? Also further down, there is a photo of a bust of Truganini by Pedro. Does anyone know anything about it? Is it still there or was it flooded? Did it get put back there???

Welcome to the forums.
Come say Hi and introduce yourself here: viewforum.php?f=20

Tas-man has posted many photos in this thread, unless you say which one how would he know which one you meant? Try sending a PM and asking about it.

On others, he's gone to the effort of posting his sources. In many situations these will have the copyright owner for you to contact.

[tas-man]

Here are some more old photos of Lake Pedder from a photo gallery hosted by the Hobart Mercury -
http://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasma ... 878867e97f

[stepbystep]

A friend gave me this the other day. A Pedder Penny. Maybe one day I can return it from whence it came...

[tas-man]

Quote from wilderness society Facebook Page dated 19th September 2017

RENOWNED WILDERNESS MAN, LES SOUTHWELL, DIES AGED 88.
Les Southwell, a towering figure of last century wilderness travel and photography in Tasmania and Victoria, has been found dead in the Victorian alps. He had been separated from companions and was sitting outside his tent near snowy Mt Bogong when he died, aged 88.
"Les Southwell, a Melbourne engineer, was one of the most remarkable wilderness walkers in Tasmania in the high age of wild country adventure last century. He first came to Tasmania in the early 1960s and, via the original Lake Pedder, walked to Federation Peak, the most remote mountain in Australia. Consequently, in scores more trips, he bushbashed into other remote places including Pokana Cirque, Lake Curley, the Denison Range and Gordon Splits," former Greens leader Bob Brown said in Hobart today. "Les was a vigorous advocate for saving the Franklin and Gordon rivers from damming."
"Les Southwell's 1983 book 'The Mountains of Paradise: the Wilderness of South-west Tasmania' is a classic of Australian wilderness photography. His depictions of Lake Pedder National Park are now national treasures. Until the end, Les was a crusty advocate for restoring Lake Pedder," Bob Brown said.
Victorian environmentalist Karen Alexander OA said that "Les had a very long dedication to conservation, from the Lake Pedder campaign to Fraser Island, the subject of his first book, and the Franklin. He saw the value of photography to convey the good message about wild places, like Peter Dombrovskis and Olegas Truchanas who also died in the wild. Les kept the campaign for Tasmania's South-west wilderness alive in Melbourne after the loss of Lake Pedder, paving the way for saving the Franklin. As a civil engineer, Les had argued strongly for alternative solutions to the flooding of Lake Pedder."
"Half a century ago Les observed that for Tasmanian politicians 'the idea of the wilderness experience seemed incomprehensible and they often seemed hostile to the very notion'. Nowadays wilderness is arguably Tasmania's greatest tourism drawcard, thanks to advocates like Les Southwell," Bob Brown said.
The Wilderness Society paid tribute to Les, describing him one of the vanguard in Australian wilderness photography. "Images of Lake Pedder and other spectacular wild places still stand as technical masterpieces and continue to serve as inspiration to both photographers and wilderness campaigners alike," said Society spokesperson Vica Bayley.

Lake Pedder from Frankland Peak, Les Southwell

[taswegian]

One can only wonder, but what would The Jewel of The Southwest look like today IF it was still intact?
Currently it lies submerged in another world, dormant and untroubled by squabbles and arguments, opinions and others opinions.

In the current developers eyes what would be on the table, drawing board, constructed?

I only ever walked in and looking at that photo with the beach saturated with a mix of planes and people glad my experience wasn't one of those.
Some are upset about the intrusion of modern contrivances into our special and precious wilderness areas and yet that photo above couldn't be a more stark reminder of contemporary views and aspirations for, towards our remote and rugged wilderness, where the sheer beauty and tranquility are at the very heart of what draws us to such locations.

Reflecting back, for me there's some comfort knowing it's still there and what has it been spared of in light of modern development rights that seem to dominate the landscape and deep pockets that speak for a few today.

[tas-man]

I watched this 1971 Tasmanian Government documentary for the first time last night and found it's attitude so heartbreaking . . . but still a precious record of a special place.

[north-north-west]

The truly heartbreaking thing is that the same attitude prevails amongst our current state government.

[tas-man]

Wow! it's ten years since I started this thread, and I have enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, the contributions of fellow forum members who have shared their memories and photos of the original Lake Pedder. To celebrate (now I know how) here's a direct link to Arnold Rowland's Super 8 footage I linked in that first message -

My comments about the film on the Youtube page were -

This super 8 silent movie from March 1971 was filmed by bushwalker and conservationist Arnold Rowlands on his last flight into Lake Pedder before it was flooded by the damming of the Gordon, Serpentine, and Huon Rivers. I have digitised a video copy and added a soundtrack and titles, and wish to share my tribute to Lake Pedder with you. I walked into Lake Pedder in 1971 and this very special place lives on in my memory. May it inspire you too as it did many Tasmanians, who fought hard for its preservation, and although unsuccessful, laid the foundation for the world's first Green Political Party. May it live again one day!

[taswegian]

Tas-man is this what your post (2) above refers to.
It says I don't have a plugin for that. Won't go into that, but doubt I'm on my own there.

https://youtu.be/Rtj_PrQcCLs

I posted this elsewhere but probably more fitting here.

[tas-man]

Tas-man is this what your post (2) above refers to.
It says I don't have a plugin for that. Won't go into that, but doubt I'm on my own there.

https://youtu.be/Rtj_PrQcCLs

I posted this elsewhere but probably more fitting here.

No, that link is to a different documentary about the flooding of Lake Pedder. I think that this forum may use Flash Player to play embedded YouTube video content which can be a problem on some Mac OS's as I have also experienced. The direct link it you want to try it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... 0qoYQ_AzPU

[taswegian]

Thanks Tas-man. Hadn't seen that.

Reminds me of a plane trip I had along the proposed 'Road to No-Where, as it was dubbed then. (Western Explorer)
Then a land of (majority) unspoilt beauty.
Progress!

[cafepeng]

What a great thread. I am trying to find out who took this image. I found it on the Wild magazine website. Does the Launcestion Bushwalking Club jog any memories? Thanks.

[beardless]

https://lakepedder.org/restoration/

This site has some photos and stories of the real Lake Pedder and a video from 2013 about what restoration could look like.

[beardless]

For those in Tasmania:

Restore Pedder Campaign Launch & Damnation Film Night
Wednesday 27 February at The State Cinema, Hobart
Doors open at 5:45 for 6:15pm screening of Damnation
More info: http://www.statecinema.com.au/Movie/Res ... -Damnation
Hosted by: Lake Pedder Restoration Committee with the State Cinema Hobart and Patagonia

[tas-man]

What a great thread. I am trying to find out who took this image. I found it on the Wild magazine website. Does the Launcestion Bushwalking Club jog any memories? Thanks.

I believe that that photo on the WILD website was taken by Launceston Walking Club member Dave Pinkard on a trip to Lake Pedder in 1951, Here is another taken on that trip with L-R Chris Binks and Norm Hoyle on Lake Pedder's beach with the aircraft that flew them in/out from Cambridge airport.

Chris Binks and Norman Hoyle at Pedder 1951, photo by Dave Pinkard.jpg (62.33 KiB) Viewed 57317 times