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Lake Gordon

Lake Gordon
The 140 m (459 ft) high Gordon Dam, built in 1974, creates Lake Gordon.
Lake Gordon
Map showing Lake Gordon in Tasmania
Location	South-west Tasmania
Coordinates	42°44′S 146°10′E / 42.733°S 146.167°E / -42.733; 146.167
Type	Reservoir
Primary inflows	Gordon River Lake Pedder McPartlan Canal
Primary outflows	Gordon River
Catchment area	1,280 km2 (494 sq mi)
Basin countries	Australia
Managing agency	Hydro Tasmania
Built	1974 (1974)
Construction engineer	Hydro-Electric Commission TAS
First flooded	1974 (1974)
Surface area	278 km2 (107 sq mi)
Water volume	12,359,040 ML (436,455.4×10^6 cu ft)
References	[1]

Lake Gordon is a man-made reservoir created by the Gordon Dam, located on the upper reaches of the Gordon River in the south-west region of Tasmania, Australia.

Features[edit]

The reservoir was formed in the early 1970s as a result of the dam construction by the Hydro-Electricity Commission of Tasmania in order to create an upper storage for the Gordon Power Station, the largest and most controversial hydro-electric power scheme in Tasmania.^[2]

Drawing from a catchment area of 1,280 square kilometres (490 sq mi), Lake Gordon is Tasmania's largest lake, with a surface area of 278 square kilometres (107 sq mi), with storage capacity of 12,359,040 megalitres (436,455.4×10^⁶ cu ft)^[1] or 12.5 km³ (3.0 cu mi) of water, the equivalent of twenty-five times the amount of water in Port Jackson. Lake Pedder is connected to Lake Gordon through the McPartlans Pass Canal at 42°50′51″S 146°11′45″E / 42.84750°S 146.19583°E / -42.84750; 146.19583 (McPartlans Pass Canal).

Controversy[edit]

Additional dams were proposed for the lower Gordon River, however they were subject to political protest led by The Wilderness Society, most notably the Franklin Dam controversy during the early 1980s. In 1983 the Hawke-led Australian Government intervened and overturned a decision by the Tasmanian Government to dam the lower Gordon. When the Tasmanian Government refused to halt work in the UNESCO-listed World Heritage Area, the Australian Government successfully sought a ruling in the High Court of AustraliainCommonwealth v Tasmania. The lower Gordon was not dammed.^[3]

Tasmanian Energy Crisis[edit]

In early 2016, the lowest ever water supply levels in the lake were recorded during the 2016 Tasmanian energy crisis.^[4][5] However, by July of next year the drought had ended, and the lake had swelled by twenty metres over ten months.^[6]

See also[edit]

Water portal

Renewable energy portal

• List of reservoirs and dams in Tasmania
• List of lakes in Tasmania

References[edit]

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