There were protests at the decision to flood the original lake that were held in Tasmania and mainland Australia, before, during, and after construction of the dams. Protests began in 1967 when the
Tasmanian government revoked the protection status of the Lake Pedder National Park, in place since 1955. The HEC was perceived as a surrogate wing of the Tasmanian government when political or social dissent against the HEC's power over the Tasmanian environment seemed impregnable. Tasmania's
Premier Eric Reece, and Allan Knight, the HEC commissioner, were seen as the leading proponents of the damming of Tasmania against any opinion to the contrary, and were not averse to taking their opinions to statewide and national advertising campaigns asserting their right to dam the lake. Reece was well known for his staunch support of the HEC and its renewable energy development schemes on the Gordon River, which earned him the
epithet "Electric Eric". In 1972, Reece approved the flooding of Lake Pedder, which proceeded despite a determined protest movement and a blank cheque offer from his
Labor colleague,
Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, to preserve the Lake Pedder area. Reece refused Whitlam's offer, stating that he would "not have the federal government interfering with the sovereign rights of Tasmania". Reece retrospectively commented: A series of photographs in the 1976 Tasmanian Year book illustrated the process of flooding of the Lake Pedder area.
Community response Opposition to the flooding of Lake Pedder extended well beyond Tasmania and spread throughout Australia and internationally. The focus on the South West Tasmania Wilderness area as an environmental battleground increased interest in the area, and many travelled to Lake Pedder before it was flooded to see what the issues were about. In 1971, a large number of people travelled to Pedder to see the lake before it was to be inundated, and a particular weekend in March of that year became known as the
Pedder Pilgrimage. The protests included the
United Tasmania Group, which were the precursor to the
Tasmanian Greens, recognised as the world's first
green party. The group that preceded the
Tasmanian Wilderness Society – the South West Tasmania Action Committee - continued after the flooding, with the knowledge that surveying and appraising other catchments in the south west and west of Tasmania was well underway by the HEC. Although increasingly sophisticated economic, environmental, and engineering arguments were raised by the opponents of the dam, but until the Franklin scheme, neither the HEC nor its defenders even considered the critiques. In 1972, Christian activist
Brenda Hean perished with pilot Max Price in a
Tiger Moth aircraft they were flying from Tasmania to
Canberra to protest the damming of Lake Pedder; allegedly, pro-dam campaigners had entered the plane's hangar and placed sugar in one of its fuel tanks. They proposed, unsuccessfully, the draining and restoration of the lake to its original state. A low-key campaign is going on with the same goal by the group known as the
Lake Pedder Action Committee, which remains active.
Restoration campaign To coincide with the
United Nations Decade of Ecological Restoration, covering 2021–2030, the Lake Pedder Restoration Committee called, in 2019, to have the lake restored to its original state. The committee, convened by
Christine Milne with support from Todd Dudley,
Bob Brown, Paul Thomas, and
Tabatha Badger, planned to have an ecological management plan to restore the original Lake Pedder and surrounding iconic ecosystems.
Environmental impact The
Lake Pedder earthworm (
Hypolimnus pedderensis) is only known by the
type specimen collected from a beach on Lake Pedder, Tasmania, in 1971. After the flooding of the lake, the invertebrate has not been seen. A 1996 survey that sought to determine whether the species still existed in the area failed to find any examples. Since 2003, the Lake Pedder earthworm has been listed as extinct on the
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. An extinction claimed to have occurred after the flooding is that of the
Lake Pedder planarian (
Romankenkius pedderensis), an endemic
flatworm. Since 1996, this invertebrate was listed as extinct on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In 2012, the continued existence of the species was reported. The
Pedder galaxias, an Australian freshwater fish, is considered extinct in its natural habitat of Lake Pedder and its tributaries, although it still exists in captivity and in two translocated populations, one at Lake Oberon in the
Western Arthurs mountain range and the other at a modified water-supply dam near
Strathgordon. == Name controversy ==