South West Tasmania Action Committee

South West Tasmania Action Committee was a group started after the flooding of the lake in South West Tasmania known as Lake Pedder to create the Gordon Dam catchment.

It developed into an Australia wide organisation.[1][2][3]

In 1976 it evolved into the Tasmanian Wilderness Society.

In Tasmania, the small, informal South-West Action Committee that formed in Hobart in 1974 (after the flooding of Lake Pedder and out of the Lake Pedder Action Committee) was the forerunner of The Wilderness Society (1976) ... In June 1976 members of the South-West Action Committee met at Liffey and decided to rev up this radical grassroots organisation. A follow-up meeting in Hobart in August saw the formalisation of a new organisation, the Tasmanian Wilderness Society (TWS),with Kevin Kiernan as Director

[4][5][6][7]

Despite its short life, the committee and organisation was capable of increasing interest in resource and environmental management in Tasmania before the rise of the stages of the Tasmanian Wilderness Society. Also parallel memberships in the United Tasmania Group and other environmental groups provided networking and linkages into the Tasmanian political system that had been hindered in the past by the traditional party alignments.

An earlier committee by the name South-West Committee had been formed in 1962 regarding the south west of Tasmania, however it was not specifically an activist committee.[8][9][10]

  1. ^ Southwell, Les; South West Tasmania Action Committee. Victorian Branch,, (issuing body.) (1978), Report on south-west Tasmania wilderness photography study, South-West Tasmania Action Committee, retrieved 17 November 2018{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ England, Jim, (photographer.); South-West Tasmania Action Committee (issuing body.) (1974), South-West Tasmania must be preserved as wilderness park, retrieved 17 November 2018{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Noting that in New South Wales the committee was called the South West Tasmania Committee (N.S.W.) - McDonald, Malcolm. (Photographer); McGarrity, Ian. (Commentator); Smith, Damon. (Director); De Heer, Rolf. (Producer); Australian Film and Television School; South West Tasmania Committee (N.S.W.) (1979), Tasmania's south west : a wilderness in question, Produced for the South West Tasmania Committee (N.S.W.) [by] Australian Film and Television School, retrieved 18 November 2018
  4. ^ "Trove".
  5. ^ See - Helen Gee (environmentalist) - Gee, Helen; Robb, Marie; The Wilderness Society (Hobart, Tas.) (2001), For the forests : a history of the Tasmanian forest campaigns, The Wilderness Society, ISBN 978-1-875768-09-7
  6. ^ http://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/W/Wilderness%20socy.htm Helen Gee article in the Companion to Tasmanian History
  7. ^ The South West Book - Gee, Helen; Gee, Helen, (joint ed.); Fenton, Janet, 1951-, (joint ed.); Australian Conservation Foundation (1978), The south west book : a Tasmanian wilderness, Australian Conservation Foundation, ISBN 978-0-85802-056-6{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ see - https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/191630838?q=south+west+action+committee&c=collection&versionId=209275962 for a textual overview of the history of the committee - The South-West Committee NG3050 [Records], LINC Tasmania, 1962, retrieved 18 November 2018
  9. ^ South-West Committee (Tas.) (1900), Progress bulletin, The Committee, retrieved 18 November 2018
  10. ^ South-West Committee (Tas.) (1965), Progress report, The Committee, retrieved 18 November 2018