Senator Bob Brown stated that his Greatest Achievement was blocking the Gordon-below-Franklin Hydro-Electric Scheme

In June 1982, Tasmania’s Parliament passed legislation approving the development of the Gordon-below-Franklin (GBF) scheme for a dam and 300 MW power station which would have generated annually well over 10 million MW hours of electricity, costing then only about 2 cents per KW hour.

The scheme was supported by Tasmanians and passed by both Houses of their Parliament. Construction commenced.

Tasmania’s Dr Bob Brown opposed the scheme based on the false assumption that the scenic Rock Island Bend would be flooded and therefore unseen by canoeists down the river. But this site would have been above the dam water level.

Then Dr Brown circulated a picture of Rock Island Bend, taken by Peter Dombrovski, and a false statement by the Tasmanian Wilderness Society which deluded the public into believing that the scheme should be abandoned. This caused the Federal Government Labor Party to refer the matter to the High Court, where three judges supported and three judges opposed the scheme. However, the seventh judge, Senator Lionel Murphy, opposed it. This enabled the Federal Government to use its External Powers to stop the scheme with the result that all this valuable water flows out to the sea.

The scheme would have obtained most of its water discharged from the Gordon Power Station, powered by water from the Lake Pedder and Gordon Dams which have a capacity of 16 million cubic meters (over three times the capacity of Snowy Hydro’s Lake Eucumbene). There is usually little flow from the Franklin River.

The GBF scheme is very economical and environmentally sound and is well worth supporting. It should be built regardless of the High Court decision and the possibility that it might lie within a World Heritage listed area.

I am deeply concerned by the damage, deliberately inflicted by Dr Bob Brown. To me, Dr Brown should be made to pay for the damage he has caused.

E.C. “George” Fox

PS This ‘blockage’ resulted in the Federal Government having to provide about $500 million for other more costly hydro-electric schemes.

3 August 2010

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