Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows old Jindabyne, New South Wales, before it was flooded to form Jindabyne Lake (dam), now part of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme. The clip opens with a shot of the town bridge, which spans the Snowy River, and focuses on the settlement, including stone and brick churches, houses and a hotel. A long-time Jindabyne resident, Tom Weston, recalls Jindabyne at the turn of the 20th century, and describes crossing the river by punt, and how he worked on the construction of the bridge. The clip includes black-and-white photographs and ends with a long shot of the new township of Jindabyne, which is built on high ground overlooking the site of the old town, now submerged. The clip includes narration and a folk ballad played on harmonica.

Educational value points

• The film promotes the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme, a major post-Second World War construction project and a huge engineering feat. Built between 1949 and 1974, it consists of 16 large dams, 7 power stations, a pumping station, 145 km of tunnels and 80 km of aqueducts that diverted water from the Snowy Mountains for use in power generation and irrigation. The Scheme cost a total of $820 million.

• The clip shows old Jindabyne just before it was flooded to create Jindabyne Lake, a Snowy Mountains dam. After 1959, new construction in old Jindabyne was banned by the Australian Government, which announced in 1960 that the town would be relocated. The dam was completed in 1967, and thousands of hectares of land, which included farms and homesteads, were submerged. Today, remnants of the old town can sometimes be glimpsed when the water level of the lake drops.

• Jindabyne was relocated between 1962 and 1964, and residents were compensated for the move. The new town was portrayed to residents as modern and as a symbol of progress. Its position on high ground overlooking Jindabyne Lake, which today is used for trout fishing and water-skiing, and the town’s proximity to the snowfields, has underpinned Jindabyne’s development as a tourist destination.

• As indicated here, communities were relocated by the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme. In addition to Jindabyne, two other NSW towns, Adaminaby and Talbingo, were moved to make way for dams that were part of the Scheme. In all cases residents were compensated, however many experienced a profound sense of loss. Those who lived downstream from Lake Jindabyne, and who had relied on water from the Snowy River, struggled to get enough water for domestic and commercial use and were forced to find alternative sources.

• The clip indicates that old Jindabyne was settled around a crossing on the Snowy River, on the cattle route from the Snowy Mountains to Gippsland in Victoria. In the 1820s graziers from Victoria and NSW began pasturing sheep and cattle in the Snowy Mountains during summer or in times of drought. Jindabyne was first settled in that period and the area rapidly expanded after Jindabyne’s first hotel and store opened in the 1860s. A punt was used to cross the river until the bridge was built in 1883.

• Oral history, such as is contained in Tom Weston’s account, records people’s memories and life experiences. While oral history is a particularly subjective view, it can fill gaps in historical records and present a personal perspective on the era or subject under discussion. Weston is able to identify landmarks and individuals in an old photograph that may otherwise have remained unknown.

• This excerpt is from a film made to promote the Scheme as part of a concerted public relations campaign by the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Authority (SMA). The film was made in response to concern among some sectors of the media and public about the vast cost of a scheme they didn’t understand. The campaign, which presented the Scheme as a symbol of prosperity and progress, aimed to explain the complexities of the Scheme and promote its benefits. In this film the displacement of people and the relocation of a town is presented as progress.