He was a key figure in the attempt to stop the damming of the ecologically sensitive Lake Pedder in South West Tasmania by the Hydro Electricity Commission.
[3] Upon arriving in Tasmania, Truchanas worked for a zinc company in Hobart for two years, which was necessary [clarification needed] under Australian migration law of the time.
As a clerk temporarily employed by the Hydro Electricity Commission, Truchanas was forbidden to speak about the increasing controversy surrounding the impending damming.
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."
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.
Singer-songwriter Bruce Watson wrote in his song Olegas, "the Franklin runs today because of what [Truchanas] began."