Franklin River

:"For the Franklin River in British Columbia, Canada, see Franklin River (Vancouver Island)."

The Franklin River lies in the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park at the mid northern area of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Its source is situated at the western edge of the Central Highlands and it continues west towards the West Coast of Tasmania. It was named after an earlier Governor of that state, Sir John Franklin, who later died searching for the Northwest Passage.

Although the Lyell Highway passes through - the catchment area of the river has never had any significant European settlement. There are some archaeological sites that have identified pre-European activity.

Early access

The upper reaches of the Franklin River was traversed by explorers in the nineteenth century in their attempts to access Frenchmans Cap.

The main twentieth century access was by piners in earlier decades of the century in the lower reachers. It was in the mid twentieth century that adventurous canoers sought to conquer the formidable challenges. Dean's book about attempts - identifies three tirps in the 1950s.

The Franklin Dam

The Franklin River become synonymous with Australia's largest conservation battle of the 1980s - the battle to save the Franklin from the Hydro Tasmania proposed hydro-electric power scheme, the Franklin Dam.

This saw Robin Gray's Liberal Government in conflict with a considerable percentage of the Tasmanian population, and the Tasmanian Wilderness Society, led by its director Bob Brown and a variety of other groups, in a battle that lasted four years. The Franklin Dam project was eventually stopped after a ruling of the High Court of Australia, preventing the flooding of the Franklin River.

The focus on the dam and the issues of wilderness experience led to the development of people utilising the river at levels never previously experienced. A fictional account by a writer with an academic and historical understanding of the area - was the book by Richard Flanagan -"Death of a River Guide". The result of a drowning in real life on the river led to stricter guidelines for users of the river.

Named Places on the Franklin

During his initial journeys, Bob Brown submitted names for some features - before and since, rafters and canoers have added names for many of the bends and rapids on the river:

ee also

* Gordon River
* King River, Tasmania

Further reading

*Binks, C.J. (1989) "Explorers of western Tasmania" Devonport, Tas. C.J. Binks ISBN 073167300X
*Dean, Johnson (2002) "Shooting the Franklin - Early Canoeing on Tasmania's Wild Rivers" ISBN 0-9581744-0-7
*Gee, H and Fenton, J. (Eds) (1978) "The South West Book - A Tasmanian Wilderness" Melbourne, Australian Conservation Foundation. ISBN 0-85802-054-8
*Griffiths, Peter, and Baxter, Bruce (1997) "The ever varying flood : a guide to the Franklin River" Richmond, Vic.Prowling Tiger Press ISBN 0958664714
* Lines, William J. (2006) "Patriots : defending Australia's natural heritage" St. Lucia, Qld. : University of Queensland Press, 2006. ISBN 0-70223-554-7

External links

* http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/wha/wherein/detail.html location within the World Heritage Area