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Category: Non-Fiction,Critic's Choice

Release Date: 29/08/2011

Pages: 256

ISBN: 978 0 7022 3672 3

Pedder Dreaming: Olegas Truchanas and a lost Tasmanian Wilderness

Author: Natasha Cica

AUD $ 59.95

In 1972 Lake Pedder in Tasmania’s untamed south-west was flooded to build a dam.

Wilderness photographer Olegas Truchanas, who had spent years campaigning passionately to save the magnificent fresh water lake, had finally lost. The campaign, the first of its kind in Australia, paved the way for later conservation successes, and turned Truchanas into a Tasmanian legend.

Pedder Dreaming quietly evokes the man, the time and the place. Truchanas, a Lithuanian émigré, is a stalwart adventurer, loving family man, activist, thinker, survivor and artist. Australia on the cusp of environmental awareness is the time, and Lake Pedder and the south-west of Tasmania, the place – wild, pristine, wondrous.

Through those who were closest to him, Truchanas emerges, as does his influence on early conservation in Tasmania, and the small group of landscape artists, the Sunday Group, who admired his passion for the lake and were inspired by it. Stunningly illustrated with original Truchanas photographs from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, and artwork from the Sunday Group, Pedder Dreaming captures the brutality, raw beauty and vulnerability of the Tasmanian wilderness and the legacy of one man who had the vision to fight for it.

AwardsReviews

‘Stunningly illustrated with original Truchanas photographs from the 1950s through to the1970s and with artwork from the Sunday Group, Pedder Dreaming captures the brutality, raw beauty and vulnerability of the Tasmanian wilderness and the legacy of one man who had the vision to fight for it.’ Launceston Examiner

‘With this book, Cica has done Truchanas justice. Style sweetly matches substance.’ Canberra Times

‘This is a beautiful book. It begs the reader to enter its pages, and get lost in its breathtaking beauty. It is a scholarly and insightful exploration of a man, and his passion for the environment. In this case, the world of his adopted Tasmania.’ Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce AC, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia

‘A stunning tribute to the beauty of Lake Pedder.’ Readings Monthly

‘A gorgeous book.’ Sunday Age

‘Cica's text is in fine balance with the photographs and paintings, and all speak as poignantly as each other of what was lost.’ Saturday Age

‘Elegant design complements gorgeous Tasmanian images. Combined with text that is respectful and considered, the result is a book which is both a celebration and a cautionary tale.’ Courier-Mail

‘Olegas Truchanas' tireless work as a photographer determined to protect Tasmania's wilderness is recognised in this beautiful book.’ Australian Geographic

‘[Pedder Dreaming] is a work of art. It is a book you might buy once or twice in a lifetime and though the topic is poignant, the text is revealing, the photographs are stunning, and never again is the message.’ Paul W. Newbury, www.bonzer.org.au

‘Truchanas, a wilderness photographer and post-war Lithuanian immigrant to Tasmania, has reached an almost mythical status in the minds of conservationists, photographers and artists alike. Cica's book offers a beautifully illustrated exploration of the reasons why.’ Sunday Tasmanian

'It is a superb publication ... What a record of beauty lost and found.' Carrillo Gantner, Chairman of Trustees of the Sidney Myer Fund