Olegas Truchanas (22 September 1923 – 6 January 1972) was a Lithuanian- Australian conservationist and nature photographer. He was a key figure in the attempt to stop the damming of the ecologically sensitive

Lake Pedder Lake Pedder, once a glacial outwash lake, is a man-made impoundment and diversion lake located in the southwest of Tasmania, Australia. In addition to its natural catchment from the Frankland Range, the lake is formed by the 1972 damming of the ...

South West Tasmania South West Tasmania is a region in Tasmania that has evoked curiosity as to its resources over the duration of European presence on the island. The more recent is the consideration as a potential area of resources for development and its consid ...

by the Hydro Electricity Commission. His photographs, along with those of his protégé,

Peter Dombrovskis Peter Dombrovskis ( lv, Pēteris Dombrovskis; 2 March 194528 March 1996) was an Australian photographer, known for his Tasmanian scenes. In 2003, he was posthumously inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame, the first Australia ...

, helped raise public awareness of the importance of the south-west Tasmania.

Early life

Truchanas was born in Lithuania. In 1941, he graduated from the Šiauliai Gymnasium. After the 1945 fall of Lithuania to the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, he fled to

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Though he enrolled in a law degree at

UNRRA United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was an international relief agency, largely dominated by the United States but representing 44 nations. Founded in November 1943, it was dissolved in September 1948. it became part o ...

University, he was sent to a

displaced persons camp A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced peop ...

, and subsequently migrated to

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

in 1948. Upon arriving in Tasmania, Truchanas worked for a zinc company in Hobart for two years, as was necessary under Australian migration law of the time. At that time, he began to take an interest in the Tasmanian wilderness.

South West Tasmania

In 1958, Truchanas became the first person in recorded history to kayak the length of the dangerous Serpentine and

Gordon Splits The Gordon Splits is a notable section of gorges of the Gordon River, located in South West Tasmania, Australia. The once impassable gorges are situated on the lower Gordon River in the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, part of the Tas ...

. Most of Truchanas' early photographs were lost when his house was destroyed in the Hobart bushfire in 1967. However, over the next five years, he substantially rebuilt his collection of photos of the Lake Pedder area. Though, as a clerk temporarily employed by the Hydro Electricity Commission, Truchanas was forbidden to speak about the increasing controversy surrounding the impending damming, his photographs began to play an important role in publicity for the campaign. He was once quoted as stating "This vanishing world is beautiful beyond our dreams and contains in itself rewards and gratifications never found in an artificial landscape or man-made objects." After taking what are now among the only remaining records of the pre-dam Lake Pedder, Truchanas realised that the campaign was lost, and turned his attention to the Pieman, Gordon and Franklin Rivers. In 1972, Truchanas drowned in the Gordon River after slipping and falling into the current. His body was found, trapped beneath a log, by Dombrovskis.

Legacy

He had lived to see the failure of the Lake Pedder and Pieman River campaigns, although the actual damming did not occur until after his death. However, the campaign to stop the Franklin Dam, and thus save the Gordon and Franklin rivers, was to be ultimately successful. Trigger, David S. and Gareth Griffiths. Disputed Territories: Land, Culture and Identity in Settler Societies. Hong Kong University Press, HKU, 2003. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/book/5591. After his death, a book of his work was published, with an initial print run of 5,000 copies. Eight further editions sold out. Truchanas' and Dombrovskis' stories were depicted in a 2003 documentary, ''Wildness''. In the same year, a tribute, ''The Forest of Stumps'', by artist Geoff Parr, was exhibited at Hobart's ''Ten Days on the Island'' arts festival, including a number of Truchanas' photographs. Some of his photographs have been turned into postage stamps by Australia Post, and a canoe used by Truchanas, and several other possessions, are part of the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

's National Historical Collection. Singer-songwriter Bruce Watson stated, in his song ''Olegas'', "the Franklin runs today because of what ruchanasbegan." In 2007 IHOS Music Theatre and Opera staged excerpts from a major opera, '' Olegas'', based on the life of Olegas Truchanas. His work appears in the 2013 photographic exhibition 'Into the Wild: Wilderness Photography in Tasmania' at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston, Tasmania, and the catalogue of this exhibition.

References

General references

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External links