Save Manapouri Campaign
Encyclopedia
Lake Manapouri
Lake Manapouri is a lake in the South Island of New Zealand. Its name is Maori for "sorrowful heart", though this name is misapplied due to an early cartographical error...
and Te Anau
Lake Te Anau
Lake Te Anau is in the southwestern corner of the South Island of New Zealand. Its name was originally Te Ana-au, Maori for 'The cave of swirling water'. The lake covers an area of 344 km², making it the second-largest lake by surface area in New Zealand and the largest in the South Island...
as part of the construction of the Manapouri Power Project.
The original plans for Manapouri Power Station
Manapouri Power Station
Manapouri 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...
development in the 1950s involved raising Lake Manapouri
Lake Manapouri
Lake Manapouri is a lake in the South Island of New Zealand. Its name is Maori for "sorrowful heart", though this name is misapplied due to an early cartographical error...
by up to 30 metres, and merging Lakes Manapouri and Te Anau
Lake Te Anau
Lake Te Anau is in the southwestern corner of the South Island of New Zealand. Its name was originally Te Ana-au, Maori for 'The cave of swirling water'. The lake covers an area of 344 km², making it the second-largest lake by surface area in New Zealand and the largest in the South Island...
. The Save Manapouri Campaign, which commenced in 1959, 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 PeatNeville PeatNeville Peat is a Dunedin-born 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 sub-antarctic 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 of electricity for the aluminium smelter based at Tiwai Point. In the 1972 general election
New Zealand general election, 1972
The New Zealand general election of 1972 was held to elect MPs to the 37th session of the New Zealand Parliament. The Labour Party, led by Norman Kirk, defeated the governing National Party.-Background:...
Manapouri was a significant issue, and the Labour Government of Norman Kirk
Norman Kirk
Norman Eric Kirk was the 29th Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1972 until his sudden death in 1974. He led the Parliamentary wing of the New Zealand Labour Party from 1965 to 1974. He was the fourth Labour Prime Minister of New Zealand, but the first to be born in New Zealand...
was elected on a platform that included a strong endorsement of the Save Manapouri ideals.
In 1973 Kirk
Norman Kirk
Norman Eric Kirk was the 29th Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1972 until his sudden death in 1974. He led the Parliamentary wing of the New Zealand Labour Party from 1965 to 1974. He was the fourth Labour Prime Minister of New Zealand, but the first to be born in New Zealand...
honoured his party’s election pledge. He created an independent body, the Guardians of Lake Manapouri, Monowai, and Te Anau to oversee management of the lake levels, which they do to this day. The original six Guardians were all prominent leaders of the Save Manapouri Campaign.
The single "Damn the Dam" recorded and released in 1973 by John Hanlon
John Hanlon
----John Hanlon is a New Zealand singer and songwriter and is not to be confused with John Hanlon the record producer, recording engineer and mix engineer residing in California USA who works primarily with Neil Young....
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 for 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.
The original six Guardians
- Alan Mark, Ronald McLean, Wilson Campbell, Les Hutchins, John Moore, and Jim McFarlane
Further reading
- Peat, NevilleNeville PeatNeville Peat is a Dunedin-born 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 sub-antarctic islands...
, Manapouri saved!, (1994) ISBN 0-9583405-0-1