Franklin Dam opposition
The opposition to the Franklin Dam in Tasmania emerged in response to plans announced in 1978 by the Hydro-Electric Commission to construct four dams along the Franklin and Gordon rivers. Proponents argued that the project would significantly boost energy output and create thousands of jobs, positioning Tasmania as a key player in industrial development. However, environmentalists, particularly from the Tasmanian Wilderness Society, rallied against the dam, citing the potential destruction of ancient wilderness areas and the impacts on local ecosystems.
By the early 1980s, the opposition had grown strong enough to organize large protests, including a massive rally in Hobart. The discovery of ancient Aboriginal artifacts and cave paintings in the proposed dam area further intensified the movement. Despite a national referendum that failed to resolve the issue decisively, conservationists mobilized an effective campaign that highlighted the Franklin River's designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, emphasizing its global significance.
The conflict culminated in a blockade of the dam site from late 1982 to mid-1983, which gained international attention. Following the election of Prime Minister Bob Hawke, the new government halted dam construction, leading to a constitutional debate over federal authority. Ultimately, in July 1983, Australia’s High Court ruled in favor of the federal government's intervention, marking a significant victory for the environmental movement and setting a precedent for future conservation efforts in Australia.
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Franklin Dam opposition
Identification: Resistance to the building of a hydroelectric dam proposed for the Franklin and Gordon river system in southwestern Tasmania, Australia
Dates: 1978-1983
In stopping the construction of a hydroelectric dam that promised an industrial boon but threatened to destroy thousands of square miles of Tasmania’s temperate rain forest, a grassroots coalition of environmental activists achieved through the Australian court system the first significant legal victory in international efforts to protect natural reserves against development.
In October, 1978, Tasmania’s powerful energy conglomerate, the Hydro-Electric Commission, announced ambitious plans to build four dams along the Franklin and Gordon rivers to boost Tasmania’s entire energy output by more than 20 percent, a bold move that supporters claimed would guarantee thousands of jobs and catapult the tiny Australian island state of Tasmania into a major industrial economy. The reaction from local environmentalists, however, was immediate. Just five years earlier, the same coalition, known as the Tasmanian Wilderness Society, had failed to stop the construction of a similar dam that had, in turn, destroyed Lake Pedder. The dam proposed for the Gordon River would flood the Franklin River, a wild and barely charted river, as well as thousands of hectares of ancient unspoiled wilderness.
By mid-1980, the antidam coalition was sufficiently organized to stage a massive rally that paralyzed Hobart, Tasmania’s capital. The sitting Labor government, which generally supported the project, attempted a compromise, proposing that the dam be moved downriver. The effect, the environmentalists argued, would be the same: the obliteration of the Franklin River basin. Their cause was made more urgent when, in early 1981, caves were discovered in the basin that dated back eight thousand years and contained artifacts and cave paintings made by ancient Aborigines.
A national referendum in late 1981 did little to quash the controversy—voters were asked only to choose between sites rather than to decide on the dam idea itself. When Tasmanians subsequently elected a pro-dam Liberal government, it appeared the dam would be constructed. Conservationists, however, took the fight to the Australian mainland, where they staged a savvy media campaign, citing the Franklin River wilderness area’s recent designation as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); World Heritage Sites are cultural and natural sites deemed invaluable to the global community. With bulldozers moving into position, the conservationists organized a blockade of the planned site of the dam that ran from November, 1982, to June, 1983. The blockade created an international outcry as more than one thousand protesters were arrested (to flood Tasmania’s limited prison system, the arrested protesters refused bail).
The turning point came when the charismatic Bob Hawke was elected Australia’s prime minister in March, 1983. The new Labor government, citing the World Heritage Site designation as an overriding mandate from the international community, ordered work on the dam to stop. This action raised thorny constitutional questions about the reach of the federal government, and the Tasmanian government challenged the federal government’s authority in Australia’s High Court.
On July 1, 1983, the High Court handed down a narrow (four-to-three) victory to the commonwealth government (and by extension to the environmentalists), finding that the federal government had the power to act to enforce any international treaty. The decision ended efforts to dam the Franklin and Gordon river system, and the campaign to stop the dam came to be regarded as the first successful campaign conducted by what over the next decade would become the Green movement.
Bibliography
Buckman, Gary. Tasmania’s Wilderness Battles: A History. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2008.
Harding, Dennis, and Michelle Dale. Wilderness in Tasmania: The Untouched Land. Talbot, Tasmania: Tasmanian Book, 2000.
Lines, William J. Patriots: Defending Australia’s Natural Heritage. St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 2006.
McCully, Patrick. Silenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams. Enlarged ed. London: Zed Books, 2001.