Lake Gordon

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Lake Gordon
The 140 metre high concrete arch Gordon Dam, built in 1974
Location	Tasmania
Coordinates	42°57′S 146°10′ECoordinates: 42°57′S 146°10′E
Lake type	reservoir
Basin countries	Australia
Water volume	12,500,000 ML

Lake Gordon is the name of a lake created by the Gordon River Dam on the upper reaches of the Gordon River in south west Tasmania.

The lake was created in the early 1970s for hydroelectric power by the Hydro Electricity Commission (HEC). It was the largest and most controversial hydro-electric power schemes in Tasmania.^[1]

Lake Gordon has a storage capacity of 12.5 cubic kilometres of water (12.5 billion tonnes), the equivalent of 25 Sydney Harbours.

Lake Gordon is connected with the (new) Lake Pedder which supplies additional water for the Gordon power station.

Additional dams were proposed for the lower Gordon River, but were not proceeded with due to a challenge by the Federal government - see the Franklin Dam for details.

[edit] See also

• Lake Pedder

[edit] References

1. ^ McKenry, Keith (1972) A History and critical analysis of the controversy concerning the Gordon River Power Scheme pp.9 - 39 in Australian Conservation Foundation (1972) Pedder Papers - Anatomy of a Decision Parkville, Vic. Australian Conservation Foundation