A campaign to restore Tasmania's Lake Pedder has been presented to Parliament using pedal power this week, thanks to the advocacy of mates Andy Szollosi and Patrick Kirkby.
The pair cycled from Hobart through Tasmania's Central Plateau, ferried over the Bass Strait and crossed the Great Dividing Range eight times before completing the four week, 2000 kilometre journey.
They are part of a growing push to have Lake Pedder restored, 50 years on from a decision to dam the Gordon River and flood the valleys of the Serpentine and upper-Huon rivers, creating a back up reservoir for the Gordon Dam and power station.
The Tasmanian government's ambitious hydro-electric project flooded the nine-square kilometre lake, creating today's 242 square-kilometre freshwater storage in the state's south-west.
Restore Lake Pedder advocates say underwater footage of the lake's pink-quartzite beach confirms it remains buried below the sediment.
Campaigners, led by former Greens leader Christine Milne, want the dams decommissioned and the environment returned to its natural state.
Mr Szollosi said the movement was calling on all politicians to commit to the full restoration of Lake Pedder in the lead up to the federal election.
"Globally, there's a shifting attitude in the way that we view landscapes from being something that we can utilise to something that we need to respect and be custodians of," Mr Szollosi said.
"The movement often gets criticised as for nostalgia sake, but we're not restoring Lake Pedder for the people of the past, we're restoring it for the people of the future."
The fight for Lake Pedder in 1972 has been credited as creating Australia's first green party, with the United Tasmania Group born from opposition to Labor and Liberal's support for the Hydro Electric Commission's project push.
Evan Franklin, a University of Tasmania associate professor in energy and power systems, said the lake continues to divide people on political lines, regardless of their view on its environmental importance or tourism value.
Associate Professor Franklin said draining the lake and re-vegetating the land would be an ambitious and expensive project, but not an impossible one.
He said the power station plays a key role in the state's energy generation, supporting integration of wind, which can be relied on when power-system conditions change.
"You need some power stations that can react really quickly and Gordon Power Station is one of those that can do that," he said.
Associate Professor Franklin said draining Lake Pedder would mean the loss of about 40 per cent of the water that currently goes through the station.
He said the energy loss could be replaced by building a wind farm the same size as one of the four already in operation in Tasmania.
"That sort of quick responsiveness the power station and the water that runs from Lake Pedder provides could be relatively easily replaced with a battery system, or some other upgraded hydro-power station somewhere else in the state," he said.
Associate Professor Franklin said draining the lake would mean an annual revenue loss of about $50 million per year for Hydro Tasmania.
It was unclear how much tourism revenue a restored Lake Pedder might provide, he said.
A spokesperson for Environment Minister Sussan Ley said Ms Ley met with advocate head Ms Milne in 2021.
The restoration proposal rests with the Tasmanian government and Tas Hydro, the spokesperson said.
Guy Barnett, Tasmanian Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction, said Lake Pedder will play an important role in Australia's transition to a net-zero future.
"Tasmania is poised to be the renewable powerhouse of the country, and Lake Pedder is a vital part of that overall package," he said in a statement.
Asked whether Federal Shadow Environment Minister Terri Butler would support the restoration of Lake Pedder if Labor was elected, a spokeswoman said Ms Butler doesn't comment on specific projects.
"It may jeopardise decisions she may be called upon to make in the future should she become the minister," they said.
Before jumping back on the bike to Canberra Airport on Monday, Mr Szollosi questioned whether taxpayers' money was being well invested.
"The dams are actually in need of repair," he said. "About $50-$60 million is going to be spent on them in the next next few years.
"Do we spend money on dams that have become redundant and that were a mistake in the first place?
"Or do we spend that money on restoring the landscape, removing the dams and restoring that area to how it used to be?"
