Day 31 - Salmon Ponds, Lakes Pedder and Gordon, Gordon Dam

You guessed it.  It rained last night and was pouring when we left the caravan park for the 160km drive to Lake Pedder, Lake Gordon, Strathgordon and Gordon Dam.....etc.  It was 6 degrees as we left and reached 10 degrees during the day.  It rose magnificently to 14 degrees as we left the mountains on the return trip and we saw the sun - twice.

The road today took us up the Derwent River to New Norfolk and then we turned west passing by several little villages such as National Park, yes that is the village name, Glenora, Tyenna, Westaway, Maydena and finally to Strathgordon.  Strathgordon is the settlement that serviced the construction of the Gordon Dam in 1974.  It now has a chalet and is tourist oriented.  It had a 2200 year old Huon Pine lone on display.

270315 Derwent River

270315 A Huon Pine log at Strathgordon

270315 Age ring - Reads "AD68, Death of Nero, Emperor of Rome"

270315 Some statistics for the pine log 

Not only did we pass villages, we passed creeks and any number of mountains mostly shrouded in clouds.  We also passed through McPartlan Pass which provided some excellent views of button grass plains.  There is a similarly named canal which interconnects Lake Gordon and Lake Pedder .

270315 The needles - 0ver 1000m high

270315 Mountains behind button grass plains at the McPartlan Pass

270315 The Saw Back Range

270315 Mount Wedge - we think

270315 Representation of the Pedder and Gordon Lakes and the position of the
McPartlan Canal, the orange coloured line in the centre of the picture

270315 The McPartlan Canal

The water from both these lakes is held back by the Gordon Dam.  The photographs and the captions tell the story of this unique hyro-electricity development.

270315 Our first view of Lake Pedder 

270315 Lake Pedder

270315 Ted's Beach on Lake Pedder

The rain stopped as we arrived at the Gordon Dam, which enabled us to descend the 230 steps to the dam wall, for a casual walk across its top.  Alas we had to ascend them too. The Gordon Dam, is a double curvature arch dam on the Gordon River. The dam has a length of 192 metres, and a height of 140 metres, making it the tallest dam in Tasmania and the fifth-tallest in Australia. The view of the 140 metres drop and the narrow gorge below were spectacular.  We felt like yelling out "I bought a Jeep".

270315 The 230 steps down and up, to access the top of Gordon Dam

270315 Gordon Dam

270315 Gordon Dam

270315 Plaque at the Gordon Dam

270315 The Gordon River Gorge below the Gordon Dam wall

270315 The Gordon Dam, taken from the dam wall

270315 The Gordon Power Station

270315 Lake Gordon

270315 More of Lake Gordon

270315 A cutting in the road from Strathgordon to Gordon Dam

We also visited the Salmon Ponds on the way.  This is well presented tourist attraction which also acts as a fish hatchery.  It was bitterly cold and the rain was pouring down but we soldiered on.  Not many fish responded to our feeding them, except for the Albino Trout. They got a bit excited and frightened away the platypus that was in the pond with them.  The fish bred there are predominantly trout and there is one pond of salmon.  The salmon continually vacate their pond.

270315 Salmon Ponds at Plenty

270315 Albino Trout at the Salmon Ponds

270315 Avenue of poplars at the entrance to the Salmon Ponds

On the way back we called in at the Cadbury's factory at Claremont. Cadbury's Chocolate Factory is a working chocolate factory belonging to the Australian division of international confectionery company Cadbury Schweppes.  It is the largest chocolate factory in Australia, and the Southern Hemisphere. The factory was closed.

270315 Cadbury Chocolate Factory

We also passed the Norske Skog Boyer paper factory on the Derwent River.  It of course using timber grown nearby as its raw material. The mill produced Australia’s first newsprint in 1941 and remains one of the state’s major employers.  Annual production is around 290, 000 tonnes of newsprint, improved newsprint, book grades and light weight coated grades since the completion of an $85m conversion project in 2014.

270315 Norske Skog Boyer paper plant

There was other commerce evident during the day, hops and raspberries.

270315 Hops at Glenora

270315 Hops up close

270315 Rasperry orchard

This was a very interesting day even though the cold and the rain sought to dampen our spirits.  Seeing the Gordon Dam alone was worth the effort but we saw so much more.

To conclude, and just to give some feeling for today's drive.....

270315 And some of the surrounding mountains are over 1200m high