McPartlan – who or what?

Over the years my blog post for McPartlan Pass Canal has attracted more attention than most posts and continues to do so. Every week there is at least one new searcher who finds that post. I am puzzled. What is the attraction?

The blog post was written after a few days walking and exploring the area around Lake Pedder, Mt Anne, Serpentine Dam, Strathgordon and the Gordon Dam in Tasmania’s wild south west. In my mind the McPartlan Pass Canal was simply one of the extraordinary engineering feats associated with connecting the waters of the Lake Gordon with those of the flooded Lake Pedder. Interesting. Impressive. But no more so than many other natural and man-made features of the region.

There could be a number of circumstances when researchers might seek out this blog post.

For example, an interest in Tasmania’s politicians, the story of the flooding of Lake Pedder, or an interest in Tasmania’s power generating organisation Hydro Tasmania might have prompted the search. Hydro Tasmania reported ‘During the 1950s, insatiable demand stretched electricity supplies to the limit.’ This was the catalyst for the development of the new Gordon Dam and Lake Pedder complex. I suspect Tasmanian born Leo Vincent McPartlan (August 1903 – June 1982) who became an independent politician in Tasmania’s parliament between 1953 and 1955, was in the centre of the action pushing for change and championing the connections between the two lakes and, for his efforts, the Pass Canal was named after him.

Further details about the Canal can be read here.

My blog readers are scattered around the world and they may have been interested in Mary McPartlan, a well-known traditional Irish singer and musician: they may have found their way to my blog site by the surname, but clicked out immediately when it had no connection to Mary.

Most likely the searches leading to my blog site result from genealogical work for members of the McPartlan family. Genealogical investigations are undertaken by millions of people daily and this might account for the frequency and numbers of readers of this blog post.

Finding my blog post in the latter two instances mostly likely causes disappointment. But perhaps, just perhaps, searchers are like me and actually interested in the McPartlan Pass Canal and the changes made to the natural environment in Tasmania’s south west. I wish I knew more.