What was the Snowy Mountains Scheme?

The Snowy Mountains Scheme was a massive hydroelectric and irrigation project in the Australian Alps of southern New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, built between 17 October 1949 and its official opening on 21 October 1972. It is one of the largest civil engineering projects ever undertaken in Australia and a powerful symbol of post-war national ambition and multicultural migration.

The scheme captures water from the Snowy River and its tributaries on the wet eastern side of the Great Dividing Range, sends it through 145 kilometres of tunnels and 80 kilometres of aqueducts to the dry western side, and passes it through nine power stations and 16 major dams before releasing it into the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers for irrigation. The scheme operates across more than 7,000 square kilometres of the Snowy Mountains and adjacent country. Total generating capacity is about 4,100 megawatts, enough to power Sydney and Canberra together.

Construction took 23 years and employed about 100,000 workers from more than 30 countries. About 70 per cent of the workforce was migrant, drawn from post-war refugees and displaced persons from Italy, Germany, the former Yugoslavia, Greece, Poland, Hungary, the Baltic states, and other European countries. They worked together in tunnels deep under the mountains and in remote camps with limited common language, often using engineering drawings, hand signals, and shared mathematical notation to coordinate. The scheme is widely credited with helping to integrate post-war migrants into Australian society and with breaking down some of the country's earlier suspicion of non-British settlers.

The construction cost 121 lives, commemorated at Snowy Hydro's headquarters in Cooma and at memorials at the major dam sites. The scheme is now operated by Snowy Hydro Limited, jointly owned by the Australian, New South Wales, and Victorian governments. Lake Eucumbene, Tantangara Reservoir, and the Tumut, Murray, and Talbingo power stations are open to visitors. Cooma, Khancoban, Adaminaby, and Jindabyne all grew or were rebuilt around the project. The Snowy 2.0 pumped-hydro expansion, approved in 2017 and under construction, will add another 2,000 megawatts of capacity by 2027, supporting the country's transition to renewable energy. The Snowy Scheme is now one of the most-cited examples of post-war Australian achievement, alongside the Sydney Opera House and the Australian research achievements of Howard Florey, Howard Walter, and others.