The Save Manapouri campaign was an environmental campaign waged between 1969 and 1972 in New Zealand to prevent the raising of the levels of lakes
Manapouri
Manapouri is a small town in Southland / Fiordland, in the southwest corner of the South Island, in New Zealand. The township is the westernmost municipality in New Zealand. Located at the edge of the Fiordland National Park, on the eastern ...
and
Te Anau
Te Anau is a town in the Southland region of the South Island of New Zealand. In Maori, Te-Anau means the Place of the Swirling Waters. It is on the eastern shore of Lake Te Anau in Fiordland. Te Anau is 155 kilometres north of Invercargill an ...
as part of the construction of the Manapouri Power Project.
Origins
The original plans for
Manapouri Power Station
Manapōuri Power Station is an underground hydroelectric power station on the western arm of Lake Manapouri in Fiordland National Park, in the South Island of New Zealand. At 854 MW installed capacity (although limited to 800 MW due to ...
development involved raising
Lake Manapouri
Lake Manapouri is located in the South Island of New Zealand. The lake is situated within the Fiordland National Park and the wider region of Te Wahipounamu South West New Zealand World Heritage Area.
Māori History
According to Māori people, ...
by up to 30 metres, and merging Lakes Manapouri and
Te Anau
Te Anau is a town in the Southland region of the South Island of New Zealand. In Maori, Te-Anau means the Place of the Swirling Waters. It is on the eastern shore of Lake Te Anau in Fiordland. Te Anau is 155 kilometres north of Invercargill an ...
. The Save Manapouri Campaign was launched at a public meeting at Invercargill in October 1969. It later came to manifest the international awareness of the environment that came with the prosperity of the 1960s.
:''"At its simplest, the issue was about whether Lake Manapouri should be raised by as much as 30 metres. But there was much more at stake than that. There were strong economic and engineering arguments opposing lake raising, and there were also legal and democratic issues underlying the whole debate. What captured the public's imagination across the country was the prospect that a lake as beautiful as Manapouri could be interfered with, despoiled and debased"'', wrote
Neville Peat
Neville Douglas Peat (born 1947) is a New Zealand author and photographer, based at Broad Bay on the Otago Peninsula. He specialises in topics about natural history, notably that of southern New Zealand and New Zealand's subantarctic islands. ...
.
In 1970, 264,907 New Zealanders, almost 10% of the population, signed the Save Manapouri petition. Nevertheless, the Cabinet Committee on Manapouri and the Manapouri Commission of Inquiry both concluded that the New Zealand Government was obligated under the terms of the Manapouri-Te Anau Development Act 1963 to raise the levels of Lakes Manapouri and Te Anau in order to guarantee the supply to Comalco (now
Rio Tinto Aluminium
Rio Tinto Aluminium (previously known as Comalco) is now known as Rio Tinto Alcan after Rio's takeover of Alcan. It was the world's eighth largest aluminium company. It mines and manufactures bauxite, alumina and primary aluminium.
Rio Tinto Al ...
) of electricity for the
aluminium smelter
Aluminium smelting is the process of extracting aluminium from its oxide, alumina, generally by the Hall-Héroult process. Alumina is extracted from the ore bauxite by means of the Bayer process at an alumina refinery.
This is an electrolyti ...
based at
Tiwai Point
Tiwai Point lies at the entrance to Bluff Harbour on the southern coast of the South Island of New Zealand. A spit which extends from the western end of the Awarua Plain, it lies between Awarua Bay to the north and Foveaux Strait to the south. ...
.
Impacts
In the
1972 general election, Manapouri was a significant issue, and the
Labour Government of Norman Kirk was elected on a platform that included a strong endorsement of the Save Manapouri ideals.
In 1973,
Kirk
Kirk is a Scottish and former Northern English word meaning "church". It is often used specifically of the Church of Scotland. Many place names and personal names are also derived from it.
Basic meaning and etymology
As a common noun, ''kirk' ...
honoured his party's election pledge. He created an independent body, the
Guardians of Lake Manapouri
The Guardians of Lake Manapouri, Monowai and Te Anau is a statutory body appointed to make recommendations to the New Zealand Minister of Conservation on any matters arising from the environmental, ecological, and social effects of the operation o ...
, Monowai, and Te Anau to oversee management of the lake levels, which they do to this day. The original six ''Guardians'' were
Alan Mark
Sir Alan Francis Mark (born 19 June 1932) is a New Zealand botanist and environmentalist. He was an initial member of the Save Manapouri campaign and the inaugural chair of the Guardians of Lake Manapouri for 26 years.
Biography
Mark was born ...
, Ronald McLean, Wilson Campbell,
Les Hutchins
Leslie Hutchins (8 December 1924 – 19 December 2003) was a New Zealand tourism operator and conservationist. Together with his wife, he bought a tourism company in 1954 that is today RealNZ; it still remains mostly in family ownership. Hutchi ...
, John Moore, and Jim McFarlane, and they were all prominent leaders of the Save Manapouri Campaign.
The single ''Damn the Dam'' recorded and released in 1973 by
John Hanlon has retrospectively become associated with the Save Manapouri Campaign. Hanlon's song was originally an energy conservation jingle to advertise
home insulation, with the proceeds from its release going to charities. However, since the release of this song followed on from the successful conclusion of the Save Manapouri Campaign, 'Damn the Dam' is now popularly recognised as an anthem in tribute to one of New Zealand's longest and hardest-fought
environmental campaigns.
In 1991, the Save Manapouri Campaign was revived with many of the same leaders and renamed ''Power For Our Future''. The campaign opposed selling off the power station, to ensure that Comalco did not revive its plans to raise Lake Manapouri's waters. The campaign was successful: the government announced that Manapouri would not be sold to Comalco.
References
Further reading
* {{cite book, first=Neville , last=Peat , author-link=Neville Peat , title=Manapouri saved! , date=1994 , isbn=0-9583405-0-1
External links
Damn the Damperformed by John Hanlon
Environmental issues in New Zealand
Hydroelectricity in New Zealand
Environmental protests in New Zealand
History of Southland, New Zealand
Fiordland
1959 in the environment