Lake Pedder

About

Lake Pedder, once a glacial outwash lake, is an artificial reservoir and diversion lake located in South West Tasmania, Australia. In addition to its natural catchment from the Frankland Range, the lake was formed by the 1972 damming of the Serpentine and Huon Rivers by the Hydro-Electric Commission (TAS) (HEC) for the purpose of generating hydroelectricity at the Gordon Power Station. The original Lake Pedder was renowned for its wild beauty, and community opposition to its flooding led to the formation of the first environmentalism based political party in the world, the United Tasmania Group, with one of its candidates going on to found the Tasmanian Greens. It also marked the end of unopposed damming of wild rivers in Tasmania by the HEC, with the next attempted dam drawing national and international condemnation until the project was abandoned. With a size of approximately 242 km2, the new Lake Pedder reservoir is Tasmania's second-largest lake and its waters are used to generate about 500GWh of electricity for Tasmania per year, or a bit under 6% of the state's requirements. It is a popular trout fishing location.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.