Dr Kevin Kiernan (formerly of UTAS) has published a major academic paper concerning Lake Pedder in the journal Geoheritage.

The citation is:

The Original Lake Pedder, southwest Tasmania: Origin, Age and Evolution of an Australian Nature Conservation Icon. Published online in Geoheritage, 9 December 2017.

Online access to this paper has been shared by the author via Springer Nature SharedIt and it can be accessed at this link.

In the paper, Dr Kiernan provides:

• a physical description of Lake Pedder, supported by colour photographs
• a discussion of six theories regarding the potential mechanisms for the genesis of this unique landform, supported by diagrams and further photographs
• a discussion of the lake’s ongoing evolution
• an assessment of Lake Pedder’s natural heritage significance
• an extensive list of references.

Dr Kiernan observes that:

It is now evident that Lake Pedder is, uniquely, very old, its particular location in the landscape having permitted it to escape infilling by the successively smaller glacial advances that followed its original formation. The world geomorphological literature reveals no glacial lakes of similar character, genesis and antiquity to Lake Pedder in southern temperature latitudes.

and concludes his paper:

“Although the ongoing public campaign for restoration of the original Lake Pedder results mainly from ambitions to retrieve its scenic splendour, these new insights into its origin and age compound its global geoheritage importance and contribute further to the case for its restoration.”