The static laser performance of a-growth Nd:GdVO4 crystal (a-cut, 4*4*25 (mm)) at 1.34 micron pumped by flash-lamp is investigated with different transmissions of output couplers. With the output coupler transmission of T=30%, the static output energy of 148 mJ is obtained when the pump energy is 35.2 J, and the corresponding electric-optical conversion efficiency is 0.42%. The Q-switched output of lasers with the output wavelength ranging from 1.3 to 1.6 micron can be realized by using Co^(2+):LaMgAl11O19 (Co:LMA) as saturable absorber. A flash-lamp-pumped, passively Q-switched Nd:GdVO4 laser with Co:LMA as saturable absorber is demonstrated in plano-concave laser cavity. With the cavity length of 16.3 cm and pump energy of 19.8 J, the single-pulse output energy, pulse width, and peak power are obtained to be 4 mJ, 80 ns, and 5*10^(4) W, respectively.