Upper Derwent resident Peter Cooper diagnosed with MND

Peter Cooper’s life spent farming and raising a family on the Plenty River has taken a shocking turn after a devastating health diagnosis.

Peter Cooper of Plenty who was recently diagnosed with MND. Picture: Chris Kidd

Peter Cooper has spent his life living and working on acreage along the Plenty and Derwent rivers.

A month ago, the 65-year-old farmer received the shattering diagnosis he has motor neurone disease. He calls it a “death sentence.”

“The question is how long and, from my perspective, how far I want to take it,” he said.

For the past 42 years, Mr Cooper and his wife Gill have lived at Plenty raising a family and farming, including growing potatoes for McCain.

During those years they have seen the land and water in the region deteriorate.

The Coopers have concerns about the degradation of the environment around them and they do wonder if it could be a factor in Mr Cooper’s ill health.

“How would you know? It could possibly be, but it will never be proven,” Mr Cooper said.

Once every summer Mrs Cooper would sweep the algae off the rocks that had been growing when the river got low.

“Now you’d have to sweep them off every week,” she said.

“To potentially get a disease from the pristine environment you lived in, how insulting is that? “You live your life trying to look after the land, be custodians of the land and then you possibly get a disease that could be caused by [factors out of your control] … it’s just a total piss off.”

Over the years, Mrs Cooper said she has noticed the water has an odour and tastes differently.

“You used to be guaranteed to see a platypus along the river,” she said.

“The really frustrating thing is no one seems to be caring.”

TasWater tests and regulates drinking water to the Australian Drinking Guideline.

The Environmental Protection Authority regulates industries operating along the Derwent and Plenty rivers.

The Coopers’ daughter and Plenty veterinarian Dr Libby Cooper said she was frustrated given the potential for ecotourism, especially around the Upper Derwent Valley.

“We market Tasmania as clean and green and yet you have this degradation of the environment in the water quality that should be a founding principle,” she said.

“It is the main water supply for Hobart.”

Originally published as Upper Derwent resident Peter Cooper diagnosed with MND