Lake Pedder Airport

Primarily economic reasons. The airport was built to support the construction of the Gordon Dam and later served a tourism boom centered around the Lake Pedder Chalet. As this specific tourism model declined and the chalet's popularity waned, regular charter flights became economically unsustainable, leading to the airport falling into disuse.

The site is an abandoned, unmaintained airstrip. The paved runway is still clearly visible but is in a state of disrepair, with vegetation growing through cracks. It is located within the Southwest National Park, which is part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. It is not a certified or operational airport and is not used for any regular aviation. It may occasionally be used for emergency landings or by authorized aircraft with special permission, but for all practical purposes, it is defunct.

The airport, more commonly known as the Strathgordon Airstrip, was constructed in the late 1960s to support the massive and controversial Gordon River Hydro-Electric Scheme. It was instrumental in transporting personnel, equipment, and supplies to the remote construction site of the Gordon Dam and the purpose-built town of Strathgordon. This project resulted in the flooding of the original, much smaller Lake Pedder, an event that galvanized the Australian conservation movement. After the dam's completion in the mid-1970s, the airstrip's role shifted to tourism. Charter airlines, notably Par-Avion, operated scenic flights and fly-in/fly-out packages, making the new, vast Lake Pedder and the surrounding wilderness accessible to tourists staying at the Lake Pedder Chalet. Its history is therefore deeply intertwined with a pivotal moment in Australia's industrial and environmental history.

There are no known plans or serious prospects for reopening the Lake Pedder Airport. Significant barriers exist, including the high cost of refurbishing the runway and facilities to meet modern aviation standards, the lack of a sufficient economic driver to sustain operations, and its sensitive location within a protected World Heritage Area, which would subject any redevelopment proposal to stringent environmental assessments and likely face opposition.