1. THE FRANKLIN RIVER BY ASHLEIGH BARTLETT

2. ABOUT THE RIVER The Franklin River lies in the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park. This park is found in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. The Franklin River was named after an earlier governor of the state, Sir John Franklin, who later died searching for the Northwest passage. The Lyell Highway passes through the park, but has never had any type of European settlement.

3. The Franklin Campaign was the largest conservation battle of the 1980’s. The main reason for the creation of the Franklin Campaign was to save Lake Pedder from becoming a dam to supply Tasmania with Hydro Electricity. The main proponent of the dam was the HEC, Tasmania's electricity company, which had a massive amount of political power and a budget larger than the State Governments. THE FRANKLIN CAMPAIGN

4. ACTION; 1976 The HEC was opposed by a number of conservation groups around Tasmania and this lead to the creation of the Tasmanian Wilderness Society in 1976 at the home of Bob Brown. In Early 1976 Bob and a friend chose to raft down the Franklin River in such a way that had never been done before, rubber rafts. This alerted Bob to the beauty and importance of this area. After experiencing this, Bob Brown the dropped his job as a GP and devoted all of his time to the Wilderness Society as the plans for the Franklin River dam were finalised by the HEC. The Wilderness Society invested a lot of time to publicising the Franklin river and showing the Country it’s beauty through celebrities, slide shows, colour publications, public meetings and guide-books.

5. In June 1980, the Labour Government was put under a lot of pressure from the public to save the river, the then decided to place the Franklin River in the Wild Rivers National Park. Due to this, a compromise was made to build another dam on the Gordon river. This new scheme was still massively destructive on the environment and therefore was still opposed by conversationalists, unions, businesses and the HEC, who still wanted the Franklin river flooded. The government then named this scheme Gordon above Olga. ACTION; 1980

6. ACTION; 1981 In early 1981, Aboriginal Caves were found on the lower Franklin, which contained the remains of campfires, stone tools and animals bones. This added to the values, including rare endangered species, ancient rainforests and Huon Pine which were all threatened by the HEC’s plan of flooding the Franklin. In late 1981, the State government attempted to resolve the constitutional deadlock by holding a referendum. The Wilderness Society ran a very strong NO DAMS campaign but the government chose to ignore this and not include it on the ballot paper.

7. ACTION; 1982 By 1982, legislation to dam the Franklin river had passed and the destruction began, however this did not stop the NO DAMS campaign which was beginning to attract a lot of support on Australia’s mainland. During August and September of 1982, Bob Brown went on a National tour to gain more support from the country by showing videos and raising awareness of the beauty of the Franklin River. Major rallies took place in Sydney and Melbourne throughout this year in order to stop the dam. Many scientists, constitutional experts and newspaper editors all joined the battle in trying to stop the State Government from destroying the Franklin river. In July and August, the Federal ALP adopted a policy of saving the Franklin. This was strongly supported by MHR Bob Hawke.

8. ACTION; 1982 cont. In November 1982, Bob Brown announced to over 14,000 people that a Franklin blockade would commence on December 14, 1982. On December 14, the day of commencement of the blockade, 53 people were arrested and a further 1,400 people were arrested until the blockade stopped in March 1983. Among the people jailed, many were celebrities including Professor David Bellamy, members of the State and Federal Parliament, Claudio Alcorso, a millionaire entrepreneur from Tasmania and Bob Brown. Bob Brown spent nearly 3 weeks in Jail. In this time, Dr. Norm Sanders, the democrat MHA, resigned his seat in protest at the dam and the treatment of the protesters. Bob Brown was then given his seat and went from Prison to Parliament in less then 24 hours.

9. ACTION; 1983 In early February, Bob Hawke replaced Bill Hayden as leader of the ALP in the Federal Election. Labors Bob Hawke won the election after the Tasmanian Wilderness Society ran a very strong vote and encouraged the public to do the same by mailing out thousands of fliers and advertising in many newspapers. PM Bob Hawke announced that the damming of the Franklin River would not go ahead. This did not stop Premier Gray, who continued to proceed with the damming. In March and April of that year, Bob Hawke used both regulations and legislation to stop Gray from continuing to dam the Franklin. The Com. Gov had the power to stop Gray from damming the Franklin with 4 votes to 3. Gray was forced to accept the decision and stop all works on the Franklin. The Franklin Had been Saved !