Hydro Tasmania’s Highlands Power Trail was officially launched last week to show off the state’s power history.
The self-guided driving tour takes visitors to four key sites along Waddamana Road in the rugged Central Highlands.
It starts overlooking the location of the Red Gate Tramway north of Bothwell, incorporates Waddamana Village and Penstock Lagoon, and finishes at Waddamana Canal.
Interpretive signage at each site tells the stories of human struggle, resilience and ingenuity that made Tasmania an icon of hydropower pioneering.
Hydro Tasmania chief operating officer Evangelista Albertini said the tour celebrates the workers and Central Highlands Community who built the Great Lake Power Scheme and brought Tasmania into the full industrial era.
“Hydro Tasmania was effectively born at Waddamana in 1916 and went on to become a world leader in renewable energy,” Mr Albertini said.
“Our story is very much Tasmania’s early story – one of communities coming together and finding a way to survive, innovate and thrive.”
The Highlands Power Trail has been developed with the support of Hydro Tasmania, the Central Highlands Council, and the Australian Government.
