Every time I drive out to lutruwita’s/Tasmania’s South-West, I am reminded of the great folly that was the result of the compulsive industrialization driven by Tasmania’s Hydro-Electric Commission in the 1960s and 70s. The drowning of Lake Pedder and the Gordon River were tragedies that were seen as a reasonable sacrifice for the benefit they would bring: electricity. And to this day, the people of Tasmania, including myself, use this electricity, to boil the kettle, to have a hot shower, and to live the life of safety, security and comfort that civilization allows us.
Mist toward the South-West, Pentax MX, Cinstill 50D, June 2025.
The road that was bull dozed to build four dams in the South-West; The Scots Peak Dam, the Edgar Dam, the Serpentine Dam and the Gordon Dam; this is a road that I wish had never been built. The Gordon River Road. And yet I drive this road every time I go for a bush walk into the South-West. And so do the trucks that are currently hard at work reinforcing the Edgar Dam at the head of the Huon River. This is the dam that was built on a geological fault line; one of three dams that drowned Lake Pedder. It is currently getting major upgrades. There are also plans to reinforce the Scotts Peak Dam.
Lone Road, Pentax MX, Cinstill 50D, June 2025.
The federal inquiry into the flooding of Lake Pedder in 1995 concluded that it “is unlikely that such a project as the flooding Lake Pedder would now be approved.” As far as I know, this is as close as the government has ever come to making an apology about flooding Lake Pedder; the quiet admittance that the value of a wild lake of extraordinary beauty existing forever may outweigh the benefit of electricity generation. In the same paragraph, the enquiry also stated: “This does not mean that the Australian community would now support draining the new lake”. And so the tragedy of Lake Pedder continues, year after year.
The Thumbs, Pentax MX, Cinstill 50D, June 2025.
I often think of the meandering Serpentine River, trying to flow, but currently trapped by the Serpentine Dam, held back. Lake Pedder’s outlet, like Lake Pedder’s beach, drowned in fifteen meters of dark, buttongrass water. I wonder whether our society will ever be mature enough to value the health of a wild river above the convenience of electricity.
Will there ever come a time when we allow the Serpentine River to run free?
The road into the South-West, Pentax MX, Cinestill 50D, June 2025.
-A.S. Brushy Creek, 6/9/2025