Australian History: Snowy Mountain Scheme

I am currently reading a novel, "The Sound of One Hand Clapping" written by Richard Flanagan. Although only 10 chapters in, I have inadvertently sojourned into a dark chapter of our history that is not openly acknowledged. Like all good Australian School Children before me, I took on board the version of events disseminated to us via our well meaning History teachers at the time, not for a moment considering the cost these families had paid. Fleeing from their war torn homes in hope for a better life only to be caught between their lost aspirations of starting afresh in a "free" country and the loss/letting go of history/meaning of who they are, all in the name of progress......personal cost to the laborers, was insignificant when weighed up against the burgeoning electricity grid, that was to be the Snowy Mountain Hydro Electricity Scheme. approximately 66,000 immigrants from countries including: Romania, Norway, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Greece, Egypt, Ethiopia, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, USA, Britain, Ireland, France, Austria, Italy and Germany.

As the Federal Immigration Census "Federation To Century's End" shows, Australia's Immigration laws were very lax at times due to inability to agree on new set laws governing who could enter and why, initially it was ex-pats of Britain and new exotic wives of the soldiers and then business associates, but they also recognised the need for increased intake due to significant losses at war and to emigration so also included families and those from war torn countries such as Poland, that could not return home safely. A popular immigration slogan was 'the child, the best immigrant'. Children constituted a particularly attractive category of migrant because they were seen to assimilate more easily, were more adaptable and had a long working life ahead of them.

The men and women of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, are "Hidden Heroes" and deserve more than just our recognition for what they built, they deserve our respect, admiration and friendship.

Australian History: Snowy Mountain Scheme

The Snowy Mountains Scheme consists of:

• sixteen major dams
• seven power stations
• a pumping station
• 225 kilometers of tunnels, pipelines and aqueducts. 

Initial proposals in 1918 were instigated by the needs of farmers who wanted to make use of the waters of the Snowy River which flowed down the Great Dividing Ranges into the sea, by diverting the water inland for irrigation. In the same year, a plan for a dam was suggested to the NSW government for the construction of a power plant but made no provision for inland irrigation. However the plans were put on hold, revived once in 1937 and 1944 and it wasn’t until 1946 where the Federal, Victorian and NSW governments joined together to investigate the possibilities of a Snowy Scheme. In 1949 the Government accepted a proposal and the Snowy Mountain Hydro-Electric Power Act was passed in Federal Parliament in July 1949. The Snowy Mountains Authority came into being on August 1 of the same year led by Sir William Hudson, a prominent New Zealand engineer.

The chosen location is significant whereby altitudes exceed 2100m (Mt.Kosciusko, the highest point in Australia) and where a large proportion of the area is over 1800m [2]. This is important as precipitation in the form of snow and rain falls in catchment areas of the Scheme. Water from melting snow and rain is collected and stored in large dams which are then diverted through tunnels and pipelines down to power stations, hundreds of metres below. Mountainous regions are ideally suited to the generation of hydro-electricity, because there is plenty of rain and snow, low temperatures meaning less evaporation and high mountains to provide the steep fall that is needed for the water to spin the turbines

Snowy Hydro currently provides over 70% of all renewable energy that is available to the eastern mainland grid of Australia, as well as providing fast response power to light up the morning and evening rush hours of Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide.

The Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme began in 1949, was 25 years in construction, and remains one of the world's great engineering and social achievements. The purpose of the scheme is to collect water from melting snow and rain in the Snowy Mountains. Where once most of this water used to flow into the Snowy River, it is now diverted through tunnels in the mountains and stored in dams. The water is then used by the power stations to create electricity. The water then flows mainly into the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers. These rivers are important for irrigation of farms and for household water for communities in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. A small proportion of the water also flows into the Snowy River.

Between 1949, when the first blasting shot was fired, and by 1974, when the physical works of the Scheme were completed, over 100,000 men and women from more than 30 countries had worked on the Scheme. Australians formed the largest nationality group on the Scheme, making up one-third of the workforce, which reached a peak of 7300 in 1959. Many migrants were escaping the horror of war-torn Europe to begin a new life in Australia. Working together on the Scheme, they became part of the Snowy family – with former enemies and allies working side by side.

During construction, seven regional townships and over 100 temporary camps were established throughout the Snowy Mountains. These towns and camps serviced the men, women and families who came to build the Scheme. A sense of companionship and camaraderie grew out of hard work and isolation. Life in the camps was extremely hard, especially during the early years, when hundreds of men spent harsh winters in canvas tents with only basic amenities and provisions.

References:

[1] Designated Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks. Heritage Knowledgebase Database. American Society of Civil Engineers

[2] Year Book Australia, 1986

Census-Federation to Century's End, 1901-2001

Hidden Heroes of Australia

The History Place-World War II in Europe