Lake Pedder is a lake located in the southwest of Tasmania, Australia and consists of a large water catchment contained by three dams. The dams were built as part of the Gordon River power scheme to provide hydro-electricity for Tasmania. These and other dams were constructed as part of a push for cheap renewable energy in the 1970s. Lake Pedder is joined with Lake Gordon by McPartlan Canal, and together both lakes are the biggest water-storage catchment in Australia.
Scotts Peak is a 43 m high rockfill dam with a bitumen upstream face on the upper reaches of the Huon River near Scotts Peak.
Edgar is a 17 m high rockfill dam at Lake Edgar near Scotts Peak.
There were many protests concerning the construction of the dam as it flooded. These were headed by a group called the United Tasmania Group whom were the precursor to the Tasmanian Greens and are now recognised as the world's first green party. The main concerns over the construction of the dam revolved around the loss of the distinctive pink quartzite beach of the original lake.
External links
Panaorama of new Lake Pedder (http://home.mira.net/~steegsha/pedder.html)
Gordon River Power Scheme (http://www.hydro.com.au/education/schemes/gordon.html)
Lake Pedder Restoration Committee (http://www.lakepedder.org/)
Essay concerning the issues surrounding the Dam's contruction (http://www.geocities.com/milesago2001/lake-pedder.htm)
LakePedder is the name of a former natural lake, located in the southwest of Tasmania, Australia, and the name used to refer to the larger man-made reservoir formed when the original lake was flooded by damming.
The LakePedder Earthworm is since 2003 listed as extinct on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Another extinction that occurred after the changes to the lake is that of the LakePedder Planarian (Romankenkius pedderensis), an endemic flatworm.
LakePedder was a unique glacial lake nine square kilometres in area with a beach of pink quartz sand three kilometres long and nearly one kilometre wide.
Pedder was widely accepted as the cradle of conservation, a test case for Australia and issue of classic proportions which generated more interest and concern than any other environmental issue before it.
LakePedder became the focus for the worlds first Green political party and the catalyst for a wilderness movement that successes in saving the Franklin River.
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